Tag Archives: London
Feeling Breathless
I’d say no musical instruments were harmed in creating this sculpture, but they were. At least they weren’t currently being used.. “Breathless” is the creation of British artist Cornelia Parker. When I saw it in 2024, it was hanging in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. These surplus horns, acquired from the British Legion and the […]
Getting Older With The Lions
On this Flashback Friday we revisit September 27, 2014, with thoughts that started more than 30 years before that. In some ways our visit to London this summer was a write-off. It was the last day before our flight home, and I had planned to take in a few sights, it having been a long […]
The Duke
I remember learning in school how he beat Napoleon at Waterloo. Somehow I missed that he also served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, twice. Nor had I realized that technically he was Irish. Of course, back in 1769, when the Duke of Wellington was born, Dublin, and all of Ireland was firmly British, […]
London Flashback
On Fridays this year I am reposting things from the same date a few years previously. I don’t remember this one from June 21, 2017, though I remember the trip. I was in London again last month and have a few things yet to share about what I saw there. I had a piece of […]
More from the Cast Courts
We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves today. Nothing is “real” – all are reproductions. But well done reproductions. Good enough to be in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I’ve got a few more – but there are stories that go with those. I’ll be sharing some of them in the weeks to come.
Such Beautiful Fakes
Actually, they aren’t fakes – there is no intent to deceive. These are exact reproductions of famous (and some not so famous) works of art that you can find in the Cast Courts at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. At some point, almost two centuries ago, someone thought it might be a good idea for […]
Memories of Empire
I almost forgot that today is Flashback Friday. Today’s post comes from this date in 2017, a monument I had noticed on a visit to London the previous month. It’s a huge monument, popular with tourists and pigeons alike, right in front of Buckingham Palace. Looking at it had me thinking about just how much […]
Keeping Time
It’s an iconic timepiece, possibly the best known in the world. Looked to me like the paint job had been touched up for the coronation. Everyone calls it Big Ben, but that’s not it’s formal name. It’s actually the Great Clock of Westminster. And the Great Bell is what makes the memorable sound. The tower, […]
Nelson’s Column
Standing on guard in London’s Trafalgar Square.
In The Family
My father-in-law was a storyteller. He’d lived in India, the Middle East and Europe. He could tell tales of politicians and royalty from the early twentieth century whose paths he had crossed in various circumstances. He also mentioned occasionally that he had been a choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London when I was young. […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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