Gardens, paintings and books

On Tuesday while the sun was out (and it hasn't stayed out for long in the south east of England lately) I took a bus and then walked to a little park I went past last year during a walk with a friend. It's on a hill and surrounded by some busy roads but even so I found it lovely place to sit and read for an hour. I wandered down the pathways and through the flower beds enjoying the sunshine. I certainly had the best of the day as by the time I got home the clouds have come over. Here are a few photos from that visit.

Thursday was a trip to the Royal Academy with a friend to see America After The Fall - Paintings in the 1930's. The exhibition was smaller than I thought it would be but I enjoyed the selection of paintings. My favourite was New York Movie by Edward Hopper. His paintings have that lonely and isolated quality about them and in this one the viewer's eye is drawn to the usherette standing in the light. What is she thinking about? What worries her? The other painting of his on display is Gas. The artist Gran Wood was featured a lot here too - the most famous painting must be American Gothic, though since I saw on Facebook a version with the characters substituted for Kermit and Miss Piggy I have never been able to look at that painting in quite the same way!

Later paintings included surrealist art which I actually quite like but I do struggle with Abstract Expressionism. I suppose I can't like everything.

After the exhibition my friend wanted to visit Foyles bookshop. I've never been known to turn down an opportunity of visiting a bookstore! While I've been to the shop at the Southbank Centre and on Waterloo Station (which is where I thought she meant) I had never been to the one in Charing Cross Road. Oh! where to start? It was almost too much. However, while my friend headed off to the sections she wanted I had a look a poetry and then fiction A-Z. I ended up buying three books - two fiction and a poetry book. Before leaving we had a hot drink and cafe in their cafe. Bliss! Certainly a shop to return to again and again.

Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London

My purchases