Descendants

I have no idea why some of these photos have come out big. I exported them all in Picasa so they all ought to be small. Hmm. There was an unexpected big one in my last post too. Ah well.




We've just come back from a visit to Daughter 2 in London. There were daffodils blooming at the sides of the road, which seems wrong for January; but it's been very mild, especially down south where she is.

I always think that views through doorways are intriguing. You'll notice the quilt that I made for her; it's nice to see it in situ (and indeed being used).

There's something very soothing about being served food by one of one's children. It makes me feel that we've succeeded in raising a competent and caring person (which indeed we have. Three of them).




We visited the Geffrye Museum (very interesting), the Liotard exhibition (very impressive) and the Foundling Museum (very touching).

We went to Dr Johnson's house - very exciting to stand where the great man stood. It was only rented to him, but he wrote quite a lot of the dictionary there and it looks just as you might imagine: panelled, wooden-floored, slightly crooked as befits a 300-year-old house.

Here's a statue of his cat, Hodge. It doesn't look all that catlike to me, but maybe cats have mutated slightly in the last few centuries.




And we visited one of Dickens's houses, too. He lived there for only three years but again, it was a bit goose-bumpy to see his desk and so on. There were more of Dickens's possessions in that house than of Johnson's in his - people didn't think to keep Johnson's things on the whole - but the emptier Johnson house seemed more redolent of the man, somehow. The Dickens house was a bit more tricked out for tourists.

And we walked by the local pond...

And admired the sunrise from Daughter 2's windows.

So we had a nice time. But we didn't like leaving her behind. And yes, I realise that she could be in Australia or somewhere equally (lovely, no doubt, but) distant.

Thanks to all commenters - it's lovely to feel a connection with the world and I do try to respond, though some of you don't have blogs, eg Virginia (hello!)

Son has just sent us, via What's App, a sound file of his five-centimetre-long baby's heartbeat.  And of course we've already been sent his/her scan picture. Isn't technology amazing?