Minnie’s Musings

Had even more productive morning doing little jobs like shifting and sorting random things that are either not in their rightful place, are not on the correct floor of the house and therefore nowhere near rightful place or need to go to charity/in the bin/into the recycling cupboard.

Met friend at station and caught the train into London. Ostensibly this trip was all about visiting the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. However friend had never visited before so, after a spot of lunch, we had a wander round the free but (not extensive, and found the Young Artist Summer Exhibition which is quite delightful. Lots of bits and pieces created by children and young people of all ages. Some of it was quite extraordinary.

The catalogue gave the name and age of contributing artist and a quote about their thinking, some of which was way too well constructed for the average six-year-old (a shame, as a child’s voice is so distinctive) . My friend listed all the pictures she liked as she did several circuits of the room. What was originally a ten minute pop in turned into almost an hour of looking and re looking as more and more pictures captured our interest. We never made it to the main exhibition.

Having knocked some packs of cards off the shelf in the gift shop (the man at the counter says this happens the whole time), I refrained from buying yet more art supplies that will sit on the desk then migrate into the cupboard. Instead we pottered down – past luxury store front after luxury store front housing expensive jewelry and some oddly dodgy high fashion choices – to Green Park and had a picnic.

People watching in the shade of a tree in one of London’s many beautiful parks is an absolute delight. ‘How incredibly lucky we are to have this combination of vibrant capital, varied architecture and idyllic green spaces on our doorstep’ we agreed.

Wandered up to Hyde Park corner – a route I rarely take – and perused the NZ and Australian war memorials. The NZ memorial uses Māori art to reflect the sacrifice of their two peoples. The Aussies lists all the towns the soldiers came from, including Hemel Hempstead. This was particularly poignant as the BBC is showing The Long Road North with its vivid portrayal of Japanese brutality towards prisoners of war.

I was somewhat relieved when my friend suggested hiring deck chairs as my knees cannot cope with kneeling down to sit down and then kneeling up to get up. As friend is somewhat my senior, this was her motivation as well. As it was she still had to haul me to my feet when our hour was up as park deck chairs are low lying slings at heart.

Bus back to station and onto a packed train where we dove for some empty seats. A lovely day with