Another catch up post

I can't believe we are almost to the end of March already. I need to share some pictures and events before they become too dated.

This is a pair of swans I saw swimming along the Deule canal last week. They were apparently a pair. The one in the picture above was looking left and right, scanning constantly but looking very relaxed and casual. The one in the picture below was looking straight ahead and plowing forward, looking very determined.

The arrival of the pallet

When we were back in Virginia in January we arranged a shipment of a small pallet containing the last of our personal possessions, things we had left there in storage when we moved. That pallet arrived and suddenly we had a lot more things. It was sort of a mixed blessing. Some of the things I was very glad to have, particularly some of my tools and the pictures and artwork we had saved so we now had something to hang on our walls. But some of the stuff had come along simply because I couldn't bear to part with it or because we couldn't figure out what to do with it, so tossing it in a box for the pallet was the easiest thing to do. When I unboxed those few things and put them on a shelf it was kind of depressing to see that that was all I had to show for 60+ years of living. I know that "things" aren't what a life is made of, but still . . .  

I perked up when we started hanging pictures. That had the effect of making the whole place feel more like home. 

These will all be mounted on this big wall.

The final day of filming

The pallet arrived on a Friday and the following Monday we had the final day of filming for the television documentary. (For anyone who doesn't know or forgot, they are creating a documentary about new immigrants to France, featuring four different couples/families. In addition to us, there are people being featured coming from Australia, Japan, and Cuba. Likely air date will be sometime this fall.) They have been here on four prior occasions and for this one they wanted to see how we were settling in. We hosted an apero (French happy hour) and invited a group of Clay's beer friends. They filmed us preparing for the event and filmed the event itself. It was a nice gathering. We are glad that the filming is over.

I didn't take pictures during the event, but here are a couple pictures of the cheese board and other food we served. Ten large bottles of beer were also consumed.

Another night at the opera

We went to a Philip Glass opera, "Les Enfants Terribles." It was weird, but the staging was very creative and we enjoyed going. 

Series Mania

Lille hosts an international event every year where new television shows are premiered. We got tickets and attended three of the English language shows. I liked one very much, another not so much, and I walked out of the third after the first fifteen minutes (too depressing). One of the shows (the second) includes one of the stars from Big Bang Theory (Simon Helberg - a/k/a Howard) and we also went to an interview with him. It's a good event for the city, bringing a good form of attention and I suspect a good amount of cash, and it was interesting to attend. All the events are free. 

Bailey's walks

Bailey and I continue our twice daily walks around the Citadel, but the focus has changed somewhat. We still go by the big field at least once on every walk and we frequently encounter a good number of dogs and people there. However, except for a good run with a whippet a couple weeks ago, Bailey hasn't played with anyone there in several weeks. Instead, she's really enjoying her off-leash time on the wooded trails and that's where we spend most of our time. If we encounter dogs while walking, she will frequently try to engage in play if it's a dog she deems worthy. Some dogs approach her to play and she isn't interested, but if it's the right dog at the right place in the woods, she loves to give it a run. I stopped trying to figure it out, especially since it may all change again next week. 

We have had some cooler weather and a couple of very foggy mornings this week.

Spring in Lille

These pics cover a span of a couple of weeks, showing early spring flowers in Lille and Bailey's adventures in the woods on our walks. Clay and I both developed a cold as soon as we returned from London and have been fighting it off for the past week or so. He seems to be over it. Mine seems to have morphed from cold symptoms to what I think is just spring time allergies which always hit me this time of year. There's probably some new forms of pollen around here that I've not encountered. 

The past few days have been just perfect, clear blue sky and temps in the 50s and 60s. 

Bailey standing atop a root ball of a downed tree.

This circus tent. We went the night before our trip to London. Really enjoyed it.

Bailey resting on a bench where we sit and watch a barge go through the lock. 

We make a point of passing by the big field at least twice on each walk, but except for a good run chasing a very fast whippet about a week back, Bailey is more interested in our walks through the woods these days. We do encounter dogs there too, of course, and sometimes she will engage in play with the right dog. 

The dark coloring on that white dog is mud. I am very glad that Bailey stays out of the water and out of the mud as much as possible.

These big old beech trees are common in the woods around here.

Bailey walking nicely just behind me. She sticks close and always comes when I call.

She's never been a stick dog, but today she picked on up and let me throw it a couple of times.

She was probably just trying to amuse me.

I don't know what this is, but it sure was pretty. 

Here's a picture of people and dogs gathered on the big field on a beautiful evening.

There were more than a dozen dogs. We walked through the crowd and Bailey greeted a few but just kept walking. The crowd included the whippet she had had such a good run with a week ago, but this wasn't the day for a repeat.

London trip, March 2026

Last Friday we took Bailey out to her boarding camp in the morning and then we hopped on the Eurostar late afternoon and went to London. We were sitting in a London theatre that evening. Over the next six days we saw seven plays, took four guided walks, and took in two museums. And we hit a lot of pubs, several repeats and several new ones (to us). Clay's brother Hugh was in London at the same time so we shared some meals with him and a couple of plays as well. 

We've been to London many times but never run out of things to do. It's an easy place to navigate and just walking around is its own form of entertainment. Here are a very few very random pictures of some of the sights.

This is one of our favorite pubs in the city, the Nell Gwyn.

It's a tiny place down an alley. Nell was an actress and mistress of King Charles II. 

This was weird. It was in Trafalger Square, where many (most?) protests and demonstrations take place. This one was in favor of the US/Israel War on Iran. As you can see, they love Trump. The protestors were promoting the son of the former Shah of Iran (who was ousted back in 1979) to be new regime that they hoped that Trump and Israel would install. It was surprising to see, although absolutely everything exists in London so maybe not so surprising. It was, however, a very small crowd. It was gross and disgusting and I gave them the finger. 

This is the gate house to some church. It is one of very few structures that survived the Great Fire.

The other side of the gate house. The house above it is actually of later construction I believe.

This (above and below) is Smithfield Market. It's still a meat market but will soon to closing.

This is another great old pub, Black Friars. 

The Templar's temple church.

A quartet of buskers performing at Covent Garden on Sunday morning.

Also at Covent Garden

The National Theater at night. We saw a couple of shows here.

One of the four massive bronze Landseer lions at Trafalgar Square. 

Not Christmas decorations, these were for Ramadan. 

This sculpture in Haymarket is one of my favorites in London. 

It's actually a fountain in warmer weather. 

The V&A Warehouse is the storage facility for the Victoria & Albert museum. They have recently opened it to the public and it's very interesting. This is where they store the many thousands of items in their collection that aren't on display in the main museum or the soon to open annex, the V& A East. You can actually request a certain item to be brought up for you to see (if done in advance). I assume there must be a complete catalog listing on the contents. They have a permanent David Bowie exhibit because they hold everything that he collected over the many years of his career. This place is out in Olympic Park, the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. 

This picture doesn't give a sense of the size, but this is giant canvas used as the backdrop for a ballet. So it's theater size. The figures are taken from a Picasso painting.

This is the formal meeting room in the County of London building. It's being used as the set for an Agatha Christie courtroom drama called "Witness for the Prosecution." Twelve members of the audience served as the jury. It was very good and had an ending that no one saw coming. (I was quite certain that I knew who the killer was, and I was quite wrong.)

We just happened to see this statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel while we were walking around. He was a civil engineer in England during the industrial revolution. He was responsible for the first tunnel under the river Thames as well as many significant and monumental structures (the dockyards, the Great Western Railway, trans-Atlantic steamships, bridges, tunnels, etc.)

This statue of Elizabeth I is on a church on Fleet street but it was originally part of the Temple Bar (last picture below).

The home of Dr. Samuel Johnson (who wrote the first English dictionary).

A monument to Hodge, Dr. Johnson's cat.

The Temple bar, originally one of the gates to the walled City of London. It's been moved and is now in Paternoster Square near St. Pauls. I'm assuming that the empty niche in the center of the top is where that statue of QE 1 came from. 

As always, FUCK TRUMP, FUCK HIS ENABLERS (the ENTIRE GOP), FUCK HIS WAR(s), FUCK ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS HIM.