Winsomesblog: The Dunn girl's Mother's Day trip to London

Winsomesblog: The Dunn girl's Mother's Day trip to London

The Dunn girl's Mother's Day trip to London

Bonny, Mother and I ventured to London for 10 days to enjoy the British "ways".  Mother (Winnie Dunn) was born in Australia of an English (Manchester) mother and Australian father.  Raised there through World War II, Mother met Hunter Dunn in Sydney, married him and bravely left her homeland for an unknown life in America.

Mother is now 91 and counting and unable to travel the distances to Australia.  Soooo, for the past 10 years or so, my sister and I have accompanied her to London for that British fix!  This is perhaps our last trip and somewhat bittersweet as our Mother becomes increasingly frail.  In spite of that, Winnie is game and we "go for it"!!!

 Our trip will include a lovely apartment stay in Covent Gardens, an evening at the Victoria Theater enjoying Billy Elliott, a Mother's Day dinner at the Savoy Hotel, a visit from cousins from Manchester, a bus tour on a rainy day, shopping on Oxford Street, a visit to Harrod's, and a beer and fish and chips at a local pub!

An evening at the Victoria Theater to enjoy Billy Elliott...

Bonny and I enjoyed listening to a 4 string quartet rehearsing at St Martin's in the Field church on Trafalgar Square.  What a beautiful church.

Oxford Street, heading to Selfridges, Mom's favorite department store.  The walker we took was well used and helpful.  The traditional black cabs accommodated the "extra baggage" just fine.

The weekend found us amidst a celebration for the anniversary of Punch & Judy.  Parades, costumes, puppet shows abounded.

Mom "talking" to an actor scrunched up under the table with his face in dog makeup.  Very clever indeed.

Happily, the city still maintains a few of the "old" buses for us tourists to ooooh and aaaah at! 

Mother's Day in London.  Off to the Savoy for dinner celebration.

Bus tour to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee celebration in June!

A welcome visit from cousins Joan and George Croston of Manchester.

Fish and Chips.....along with the beer, ofcourse!

the view from a cab ride.   Only in London!

Baroness Ros Scott treated us to a wonderful tour of the Parliament building and the House of Lords.

4am came early for our flight home, but we made it with flying colors.  Thanks, Mum, for being the wonderful, game Mother that you are.  We love you.  Happy Mother's Day!  Bonny and Winsome

Having just returned from 10 days working with ClientEarth and conducting a Board meeting, I thought I'd share the few photos I was able to take with my phone as I passed between constant meetings the streets of London...always so interesting.  We would never find an elegant Men's shop filled with wonderful products of grooming!  This shop was in the same building as our apartment in Mayfair.

I always tried to walk through Green Park to get from point A to point B with James Thornton (CEO of ClientEarth) as we met and nurtured relationships with old and new supporters committed to the environmental work we are conducting throughout Europe.  For example, cautioning the Polish government on the need for strong regulations to ensure safe development of the 11 coal fire plants on the books to meet the need of new energy consumption.  Or, holding the European Union to the rule of law it has passed with all 27 member countries with an openness and transparency that all its citizens are entitled to (their freedom of information statutes).  Or, educating and demanding that the city of London clean up its horrible air to improve the health of its residents, especially with the Olympics coming to town......all of these actions are but a FEW that ClientEarth has initiated to show the European region how valuable the legal rights are to the ongoing efforts of NGOs, governments, and individuals to protect our environment.  The photo above was taken on a glorious day in Green Park when the very old trees were bursting with spring awakening.

How much fun it was to walk down a street on Berkeley Square and see a line of electric cars "juicing up" with public stations!  Haven't seen that yet in our country, but let's hope it comes to us soon.

 Had a lovely meeting with friend Zac Goldsmith, MP from Richmond, at the Parliament building, also referred to by locals as the Palace....since it was originally built as that!  Tea on the House of Commons side with a view of the Thames capped off the busy week.  Great work accomplished for ClientEarth.

 A personal accomplishment was getting Michael out of the apartment to find a new raincoat at Selfridges on Oxford Street.  And...it was rightly used!

Heading back to London with my mother and sister in another two weeks, so will catch everyone up with that trip soon.

Christmas in DC 2011

I hope everyone who reads this has been as blessed with family and friends as we have.  We had a full house for a gathering at the Mansion on O Street on Christmas Eve, followed by a gathering on Christmas Day of EVERYONE!  As this will increasingly be harder to accomplish as the years and families grow, I was especially enjoying this one.  Three active grandchildren ages 18 months, 4 and 3 years keep the day active, exciting, and special.  With gifts exchanged after an eggs benedict breakfast, we managed 14 around the dining room table for a Christmas feast of Filet and Salmon.  I took the time this year to focus my camera on scenes and sights, not people.  Enjoy as I certainly did.....

My last day in Paris

As I begin to pack for the return trip home, I've discovered a sure fire way to control the weather where I'm going.....take rain boots.  Yes, they are heavy and yes, they take up loads of room.  I figured this time of the year in both London and Paris it would be cold, damp, and rainy.  Well.....3 weeks of dry, sunny, cool with sometimes grey days thrown in became our pleasant working/touring weather!  I really wanted to wear the boots, too, because they make a great statement and are comfortable as well.  Take a look:

Mind you, I'm not complaining because I've been able to do 10s of miles of walking very confortably enabling me to see Paris through an "everyday life"lense.  Whether walking over sidewalk art of a student, not doubt, catching a delivery man on the street with bread on wheels, observing the city's "wildlife" (pigeons), finding a most beautiful round window of old, stumbling into an ancient church that sponsors musical concerts for the neighborhood, to name a few:

Strolling along the Seine on a beautiful fall day just can't get any better.  Michael was fascinated, ofcourse, with the barges moving along as well as permanently tied up at dock.  The leaves of the trees shimmer a golden yellow now and fall drifing into the water.  This was our afternoon walk to the Musee d' Orsay.  Once at the museum, we were still excersizing our legs as we drank in the incredible age of the impressionists.  What a collection here.  No photos, ofcourse, but the building itself is a monument to architectural art.  Image Grand Central Station, or Union Station, 10 times larger and far more grand....and built well before ours, at that.  We were able to reach the top of the building and peer out its glass clock (it works) and see all of Paris laid out before us.  To me, this is a more personal look at art than the Louvre.

I will close by sharing our celebration of Michael's birthday yesterday....by the way, he LOVED the sculpture I gave him of Lady Justice (french) discovered in an antiques shop in London earlier in the trip.  I'm glad to say...."I scored big" on this one!  Yea.

Time to say goodbye to the city of Lights.  It's been a lovely sojourn, now back to reality.....phone calls, puppy needs, family catch-up, home repairs waiting, holiday preparation, and ofcourse, the office!  Actually, I'm eager to come home.  Blogging out now..thanks for following me!   Winsome

Long walks and a museum visit

The weather turned cold yesterday, very brisk, but sunny.  I continued my quest to walk the streets and try to feel less like a tourist and more like a long time visitor.  I must say, however, that as hard as I try, I just don't look like the elegant Parisian woman...always turned out so simply and beautifully.  That sense of style must be in their genes.  I particularly notice the beautifully dressed shop windows, and here on the Left Bank, sooooo many wonderful men's shops.

And the department store Bon Marche is eye candy for sure.  Reminds me of Saks in NYC, but with much more beautiful architecture.

And one never knows what is around the next corner.  For me it was street musicians, flower and vegetable markets, cafes, narrow streets, and extraordinary architecture side by side....

Oh, and did I forget to mention the amazing number of chocolate shops?  The parisians love their chocolate...especially the dark chocolate.  One shop I came across was promoting cocoa from Africa with this GIANT chocolate gorilla in its window!  Now that was impressive....

Tomorrow is Michael's birthday..and we will celebrate while packing to return starting our journey back early Saturday morning.  Tomorrow I'll try and write about our celebration and museum day, if I can just get the rest of my photos downloaded.  Seems to be a glitch right now....could be the "rube goldberg" electrical support system Michael wired up to "service" all our tech equipment.  I guess this tells the story of our lives...always wired.