Neighborhood Cygnets...

The first time I photographed our local swan nest at the end of Spirit Quay was on March 17.

On our walk to a London H3 trail starting in Aldgate on April 20, we spotted a newborn cygnet.

Then on the 24th, I saw the whole brood. 

From this angle you can see the fencing put up to protect the nest.

Not sure when they first swam, but they didn’t hesitate to leave the nest at just four days old.

One of the eggs never hatched.

Both parents took the seven cygnets off for a swim... 

…but while one sat with them in their new house down the canal a bit, the other sat on the remaining egg.

 

Guys + Dolls...

That evening Veronica and I headed to Bridge Theatre to watch the musical Guys and Dolls.

While I opted to book seats, this play had an option to stand on the stage. 

This was taken before the show, so doesn’t show how bits of the stage moved, so the standing audience had to move around as well. 

While we were very impressed with the staging and enjoyed the songs, we weren’t crazy about the story. 

The moon put on a nice show for our walk home. 

 

Walking in Winchester...

It was a bittersweet visit to Winchester to spend two nights with Carlin and Kent as I knew that it would be final visit there as they would be moving back to the Netherlands in July. Carlin and I went on a nice long walk where we came across a hash trail. 

The next morning we celebrated Kent’s birthday...

…and then walked to the nearby horse farm where we saw foals. 

It was a very relaxing visit. I would have loved to have stayed a bit longer, but needed to get back to meet Veronica, who was coming into town to speak at a postgraduate conference. I spotted this field of rapeseed from the train. 

 

London Marathon...

On April 21, we went to watch some of the London Marathon as the route came near Shadwell. We couldn’t join the hashers at their beer stop since Jimmy had a flight to catch that afternoon and I was heading to Winchester to visit Carlin. 

Here are the elite men flying by...

…and the elite women. We stuck around long enough to see some of the first non-elite runners came past. 

What we hadn’t taken into consideration was that roads in our neighborhood was completely cut off, so anyone wanting to get anywhere would need to take the Overground. I was shocked when I saw the huge line outside of the station as staff had to control how many people could stand on the thin platforms. I had built in only an extra 15 minutes to get to Waterloo and quickly realized that wouldn’t be enough time and I would likely miss my train. So I decided to walk to London Bridge Station in hopes of having better luck. While it wasn’t much fun walking with my duffel bag, it was cool walking past the runners on Tower Bridge. 

London Bridge was also crazy busy, so I went ahead and walked to Waterloo. Despite being an hour late, the conductor luckily agreed to honor my ticket. Jimmy’s journey to City Airport was a bit rerouted, but he had the good fortune that he was brought through a back door down to the platform at Wapping. Since then we have learned about a pedestrian tunnel that would have allowed us to get to Shadwell Station and I have already marked my calendar to avoid travelling on next year’s marathon.   
 

The Glass Heart...

Before heading to a West London Hash in the evening, I visited Two Temple Place to see an exhibit called The Glass Heart. The gothic mansion was built in 1895 as offices and a flat for William Waldorf Astor, founder of the famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. It is now a public art gallery, 

The exhibit explored glass throughout the ages...

…in the perfect setting as the building had a lot of stained glass.

Matters of the Heart

This piece expresses the idea that: “Between birth and death there are only precious present moments encompassing love, joy, passion, strength, courage, wisdom, humor, generosity, creativity, freedom and, of course, their opposites.”

The Soil

This piece highlights the climate crisis: “The urinating female gardener is replenishing the topsoil that is fast being dangerously depleted.”

 

Meanwhile on the Farm....

While we were in Holland, Veronica was busy helping during lambing season at her friend Dreda’s farm. 

You can read all about her experience on her blog.

Veronica obviously had hoped to have a chance to take some self-portraits as she had brought her signature white dress along to the farm. Love this shot!
 

Boating in Leiden...

The final 40th birthday event was an informal breakfast at Reinhart and Inga’s house. We then picked up the keys to take Bootjuh out for a spin, which was conveniently located on a dock much closer to their house. 

It was awesome that the timing worked out for Terri...

…Johanna and Frank, who had recently moved back to The Hague from Houston, to join us. We had a great time catching up!

Although I appreciated the name of this ship as Leiden still felt like home, I was nervous when it came towards us. Luckily Captain Jimmy stayed calm and avoided a collision.  

I enjoyed the view of these lovely cherry blossoms both from the river...

…and as we walked back to the train station. 

The tree in front of the first house we rented when we moved to Holland was also in full bloom.  

When we took the ferry that night, we were happy to have a room at the end of the ship with an extra large window. 

Jimmy went straight to work the next morning, while I made my way back to our flat. Instead of taking the escalator, I took the inclined elevator at Liverpool Street Station for the first time.