Priceless

 

With Hamish on the boat we are a bit restricted to both going out around London for any length of time, so it’s a quick hop on the 23 bus as we head down to Trafalgar square and have a look around The National Gallery for a couple of hours.We got our Oyster cards a few years ago and they certainly make travelling easy on London transport. You just can’t believe how busy it is in London. Even on a weekday it’s buzzing with people like here at Oxford Circus as we look down from our front seat on the upper deck..

There are loads of these what ever you call them around London. Guess what ? We know how he does it.

Inside the National Gallery and I was drawn towards this picture for some strange reason, maybe the word Wine had something to do with it. The picture by Titian called Bacchus and Ariadne and it depicts Bacchus, god of wine,as he emerges with his followers from the landscape to the right. Falling in love with Ariadne on sight, he leaps from his chariot, drawn by two cheetahs, towards her. Ariadne had been abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by Theseus, whose ship is shown in the distance. The picture shows her initial fear of Bacchus, but he raised her to heaven and turned her into a constellation, represented by the stars above her head. How sweet !

The flowers on the left are worth over £100 million pounds and the flower on the right is priceless…(That should earn me a few Brownie points).Of course the painting is by some bloke called Vincent Van Gogh.This is one of four paintings of sunflowers dating from August and September 1888. Van Gogh intended to decorate Gauguin’s room with these paintings in the so-called Yellow House that he rented in Arles in the South of France. He and Gauguin worked there together between October and December 1888. Carolyn thought that the picture was a bit fuzzy, so if it ever comes up for sale I don’t think we will bother to buy it.

This is thought to have been painted soon after Van Gogh's release from hospital in Arles in January 1889. On 7 January he wrote to his brother Theo: 'I am going to set to work again tomorrow. I shall start by doing one or two still life’s to get used to painting again'.

In Trafalgar square this massive stage is being built, I’m not sure what it’s for but it maybe worth finding out. As usual London is an eye opener and it’s one of those places that’s good to visit ,but I’m just not sure if I could live here.

                                                                                                  Happy Days