East London

All pictures in this blog were taken by Jim!

Today we went to Spitafield's, Brick Lane, and attempted to find some art galleries that were open, but failed at that mission. Despite that, it was a fun day out and about and it wasn't raining (hooray!).

Another fabulously behaved dog in London. They are all so good.


Shoes on Brick Lane. My shoes were killing me and I wanted to throw them up there, too.


We got one of these cute springy things on sale at the market for our future baby. We'll hang it above his/her bed. If he/she is a boy, we'll take the skirt off of the springy alligator that we bought.


I find the alligator very entertaining:


On the corner of Brick Lane. At the Brick Lane market, the artists have all their things out on blankets and they sit on the ground behind their wares.




About a mile later, we wandered into the Columbia Street Flower Market. There were some pretty spectacular flowers and plants down the street.


Then we stumbled onto a farm in the middle of Hackney! There were sheep, goats and chickens! It was refreshing to smell some manure in the middle of the city!

People feeding chickens. The chickens sounded a little hoarse...like they had been exposed to too much air pollution or something. But they were digging the feed:


After this we finally made it to the area where the renowned art galleries supposedly were, but none of them were open because it's Sunday and I was walking at a snail's pace by this time, so we headed towards the nearest tube. I exercised my right as a pregnant woman to sit in the disabled seating and wore my special pregnant woman badge which states: Baby on Board! (distributed by the TFL people). There is great debate in the free newspapers about whether or not people should have to get up for pregnant women, but people were really nice about letting me sit down today and I was very grateful. Here I am looking a little haggard:

And my badge:


Another fun weekend. Stay tuned for a couple of pictures from dinner at Meg and Dan's, where we met Meg's parents and had a fun time!

Belly Wars

Jim and I have an new contest going on: Belly Wars! A few years ago, Jim would have beat me at this contest easily, but not that he's all Slim Jimmed and I'm ever-expanding, it's a close match. We'll update our belly comparisons about once a month and see who wins.

Current Score
Jim: 1 Claire:0

Ode to Summer

I can't wait until the 23rd of July.
When work will be finished and holidays will start.And I can go someplace really hot for a few weeks, so that I'll again appreciate the fact that it's cold and rainy. Because I've lost perspective, sitting here wrapped in a sweater and wearing woolly socks and flannel sweatpants...in July. Gone are the days of being cooked alive in my car at 8am. Gone are the days of the car, actually. Outdoor swimming pools and shorts are a distant memory. As are poisonous snakes, which hang out in said swimming pools. Last year we thought this summer weather was a fluke. Now we know that England is cold in the summer. So a good dose of hot weather in the South will do me good and I'll come running back to the rain and cold and gray of England. Yay! Summer.

Rufus in Hampstead Heath

On Saturday night we FINALLY got to see Rufus Wainwright...something we have been trying to accomplish since 2002. He played in an outdoor theatre and, because this is England, it was about 50 degrees in July. But at least it didn't rain!

We spent the afternoon making a delicious picnic and then we headed to Hampstead Heath. As we walked in, we almost stepped on Roni and Orley and all their friends. So we set up camp with them. It was fun!


Yes, that's a wool sweater I'm wearing....IN JULY!!!!


As usual, I was the ultimate party animal:


Rufus was pretty far away:


But when we stood on our tip toes, we could just see his head poking up from his piano.


Despite that, he sounded good and was really funny. PIcnic concerts are fun!

4th of July in London

We Americans stick together and even though we had to go to work on the 4th of July, Jim and I still managed to celebrate with some of his work friends. It was as close as you can get to an authentic 4th of July bbq in London...which means the hamburgers tasted British, there weren't 'real' hot dogs, and no fireworks. But it was still a fun time! And there was some incredible, all American chocolate cake! Here are couple of pictures of us chillin on the fourth:

I think you may have already seen this, but....

I just thought something funny was in order after the whole depressing death and cemetery email. And so I give you Jim in a loin cloth because I couldn't find Special Kate body surfing.

HIghgate Cemetery

Today, after much deliberation, we decided to go to Hampstead Heath and then to Highgate Cemetery. It was a beautiful day and originally we were going to go to Epping Forest, which is a forest in London, but then our efforts were thwarted by problems with public transportation and we remembered that we have some nice bikes that we haven't been using enough, so we headed to the park.

It wasn't exactly warm today, but there were a few brave souls swimming in the Hampstead ponds. There is a co-ed pond, where we swam last summer (we saw WAY too much of people there. It seems that when it warms up, everyone in England loses modesty.) but the nice, calm ponds seem to be the all male and all female ponds. Although today the co-ed one was pretty quiet, too. Anyway, here is Jim outside of the "Men Only" pond. We parked our bikes there and then walked up the giant hill to get to Highgate.


But, of course, we got sidetracked by the cute adolescent coots and their parents. So we fed them some pretzels. We are suckers for coots.


This part of the blog is especially for Dad. We liked this car and thought you would like it, too. and could tell us what kind it is.


The cemetery is very large and peaceful, with lots of dirt paths winding through the graves. We had a picnic next to the particularly sad grave of a boy who would have been my age, had he not plunged to his death from a cliff in Portugal at the age of 16. His family had put up information about him and his grave is covered in a garden, which was the situation with many of the graves there.







We thought this was a good philosophy...and true:


Just as we were starting to feel a little morose, this grave cheered us up. We think it's occupant probably had a good sense of humor. (It says DEAD in case you can't tell from the picture.)


We also saw some graves of famous poets and writers...none of whom I can remember now, of course. This is a sculptor's grave:


Spending the afternoon in a cemetery gives you perspective. I hope I'll live to be 94 and will die in my sleep at the same time as Jim (that's our plan), so that when people pass my grave they'll say "That's a good age to die." But if I have the misfortune to die before then, at least they'll be able to say that I had a full and happy life, that I knew true love and friendship, that I had incredible experiences and a loving family...which is a really lucky thing. I have also requested that my grave not say R.I.P. on it and that any quotations referring to "dragons" or "demons" be left off, too (yes we really saw a grave that said something like "Your dragon has been subdued and now you can rest." What a horrible thing to put on some one's grave!)

This picture is for Mom, who complained that my last blog only had one picture of me in front of an empty tennis stadium. There were more, but they were horrible and showed all my wrinkles. This one is nice and blurry and ethereal (or as much as it can be when the subject is wearing a baseball cap). Happy to be alive in Highgate Cemetery.