Georgie Girl

London in signs... and Jane's London blog

Here is my London in Signs photo album. 

I love taking photos of things above like chimneys, roof lines, odd things at street level and signs.   Enjoy. I will be adding more sign photos to this London album - it takes me a while to download and organize the 3000+ photos.

All the little things. It takes me a long time to categorize all these photos. I have these ideas that I gather from other photographers and from my blog rolls (only 1/10th of which I list on this blog because it's so hard to maintain).  I take pictures of dogs, food, roofs and buildings, numbers and signs.  Over the course of my travels, I now have quite a collection. 

Before my trip I was looking at Jane's London blog. She takes LOVELY photos of very interesting perspectives of London. I found out about boot scrapers from Jane's blog... and thus I have a small collection of boot scraper photos I found on my journey.  

When you look at your subject - whether a house, a road, a person or whatever, you start to see the little parts of the picture.  This has inspired me to start looking at my hometown as my first project. 

I want to take a look at my hometown in small pictures in ways only I would notice - based on my memories and the memories of my family.  Houses, house numbers, old bookstores, the skyline, the flags on top of certain buildings... the street signs.

Of course, now it's just trying to still get in the saddle - between work and some family sickness I am exhausted. But this is a project that I can't wait to pick up this summer. 

I hope you enjoy my London in Signs.

Unexpected layover in NYC

Well I sort of knew when auxillary power went out after systems check and the crew freaked out that something was up. If you watch the plane track you will see we did several loop de loops. Of course when we emergency landed at JFK and were met by four fire trucks and the police, it sort of clues us in that something was up. So now we wait for a 10:30 departure on a new plane and I am glad.

Almost on board

Happy girl

London bound!

At the airport! waiting to check bags for London

Countdown to London: Preparations

Well, in 48 hours I will be on an American Airlines flight to London - my often blogged about vacation. I am sitting in my chair and a half with the dogs, drinking coffee and trying to rest, chill....

Have to pack tomorrow and finish up work. I will be blogging about my trip but will probably post on a new Typepad account so I can share that one with some other friends and family. More later!!!!

Right now, pre-preparation!  AKA sleep.

Peaceful sleep.

Countdown to London: The Queen's Gallery

Since the Royal Family is in residence during my trip, I can't see the state rooms at Buckingham Palace. I am looking forward to visiting the Queen's Gallery where the treasures of family are on display. 

Tying together my trip to Amsterdam last year, one of the exhibitions right now is the Masters of Flemish Painting. I saw many Flemish artists during my time at The Rjksmuseum (Van Dyck, Rubens, etc.) I just love the coincidence of it all.

Also, there is a exhibition of treasures from royal residences that include "world-famous paintings by Rembrandt, Canaletto and Winterhalter, spectacular jewels, dazzling works by Fabergé, as well as furniture, sculpture, arms and armour, and historic pieces of porcelain that are still used for ceremonial occasions today."  Super dilly-licious.

I am also looking forward to seeing The Eve of St Agnes (1863) by Sir John Everett Millais.   Imagine, this picture was painted at the same time as the U.S. Civil War... so lovely.

Countdown to London: power baby!

Countdown to London: Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, St. Martin In the Fields.

Named after the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, I am looking forward to seeing the Nelson Monument at the center of Trafalgar Square. It's so very 'London'. 

The Royal Mews even used to be at the northern end of Trafalgar Square (since Edward I 1239-1307) before the royal stables were moved to Buckingham Palace in the 1820's.  They tore down the Royal Mews and John Nash was the architect who worked on the project which finished in 1845.

To the north of the square is the National Gallery founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.  Look at this AMAZING LIST of art at the National  Gallery! OH MY WORD. Plus I hear the cafes and the shopping at the National Gallery are great. I can't WAIT. Here are the artists I really want to make sure I see:

Rembrandt (to compare works I saw in Amsterdam)

Vermeer (ditto)

Van Gogh (ditto)

Cezanne

Gauguin

Manet

Monet 

Pissarro

Durer

van Eyck

Goya

St. Martin in the Fields is also at the northern end of Trafalgar Square and while the earliest mention of this church was in 1222, the current church was rebuilt by Henry VIII in 1542 so he could avoid having plague victims go by his palace of Whitehall (destroyed by fire in 1622). 

And near to all this is the "measurement central" of London - Charing Cross! I can't wait to actually go to Charing Cross station at some point.  Just because!

Happy Friday peace

In one month...

I'll be able to see in person!

I am watching Terry Jones' docu-comedy Medieval Lives - fantastic. The scene in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle sealed the deal. I have to go to Windsor Castle while I'm there. I want to see the Order of the Garter coats of arms - Margaret Thatcher. Sir Edmund Hillary. I want to see the Henry VIII 5005h anniversary exhibit. Talk about living history.

 I am so happy about my trip with good reason. Being a history major, this is a dream come true!

Happy peace tonight to you all!