London – Day 4 (Harrods, Hyde Park)

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day four was another busy day with lots of walking

Today my Andrea, Josie and I headed to Harrods and Hyde Park. We left Kevin at home to rest and agreed to meet up later in the afternoon.

Harrods is probably one of the most famous stores in London. It is not centrally located and is about a mile from Kensington in the area known as Knightsbridge. Knightsbridge is a very exclusive area, one of the wealthiest parts of London where some of London’s most expensive hotels are situated. Needless to say that we didn’t go there to shop but merely to look around. The food hall was most interesting and beautifully set up with gorgeous display cases of chocolates and pastries and the seafood was displayed on mounds of ice in the most attractive way.

While we were there we were told about the Egyptian escalators that were built in 1998 to reflect the Edwardian style of the building. Harrods built the first ever escalator in the UK in 1898. Nervous customers using the contraption were offered brandy when they reached the top to help them recover from their “ordeal”.

From Harrods we walked over to Hyde Park and walked along the Serpentine Lake. People actually swim in this lake along with the local ducks, geese and swans.

The installation art that you see in the lake is from the world famous artist, Christo, who unveiled his work The London Mastaba (2018) earlier in June. It is a 20-metre-high floating sculpture on London’s Serpentine Lake, constructed from 7,506 oil drums.

Stay tuned for part 2…….

London Birds

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…the parks in London are a sanctuary for birds, especially waterfowl

Birds by the Lake

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….most stay all year

Even though many birds migrate south in the fall, here in Toronto many of these migrating birds stay here all winter long. Now that the weather is starting to warm up and the sun has reappeared (although today is grey and raining) the swans, Canada geese and gulls happily go about their day and don’t seem to mind the close proximity of people, in fact some love the extra attention.

365 Days of Art – More One-liners Transformed

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…day 82

I keep adding more colour, collage, line detail and background marks to my one-liner birds. I also added two new characters that I borrowed from Eva Ucgatwork. I love expressions and how they appear to be in awe of these strange looking birds.

365 Days of Art – Adding Colour to One-liners

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..Judith over at Curious to the Max suggested I try adding colour to my one-liners

So for day 76 I took another page of birds created with one continuous line and added colour with markers and then added more line detail.

Share Your World – March 12, 2018

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World

If a distant uncle dies and you were always his favorite and leaves you $50,000 (any currency) in his will, what would you do?

I think I would use some of the money to do some repairs around the cottage and then take a chunk to travel to London, England. With any money left over I would divide it amongst my children.

What sound or sounds do you love?

I love the sound of birds in the morning, cicadas on a hot summer day and the laughter of children.

What’s your middle name? Why?

My middle name is Hildegard. I was named after my maternal grandmother. I always hated the name and wouldn’t tell any of my friends for fear of being teased. I actually never realized until much later that I was named after my grandmother. I knew her name was Hilde but I never realized that it was shortened from Hildegard. I wouldn’t have had a problem telling people that my middle name was Hilde.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

This past week I attended two wonderful concerts with friends. The first was an afternoon concert featuring the Elias String Quartet and the second one was Tan Dun’s Water Passion After St. Matthew.

On Saturday my husband and I drove to Hamilton to spend the day with our daughter and granddaughter. Of course that brought huge smiles to our faces. As she gets older we find that we can actually carry on conversations with her and she happily instructs us on how to play with her.