Loving London - again

Hello readers! Here is a sculpture of me, just so you can see that all this holiday "dieting" has been working beautifully well!  Ha, ha, ha .... if only.  This was one of the many beautiful, beautiful things that I saw at The (sensational) Victoria & Albert Museum yesterday.  It was absolutely the most sensational, fabulous museum!  They feature what I guess would be called "decorative arts" and the sculptues, ceramics, jewellery, silverware, paintings, fashion, furniture, fabrics etc on display were truly breathtaking.  This sculpture was made of squashed wind instruments suspended on fine strings, so they all moved very slightly with the air movement.

Above are two tiny miniatures of Gerogiana, the Duchess of Devonshire.  Aren't they exquisite? The detail and workmanship are superb.  Below those are two little snuff boxes.  The one on the right is micomosaic.  Yes, I did say MOSAIC.  The tiny pieces have been placed to create this image of the carriage and horseman.  Look closely and you can just see the individual microscopic tiles.  There were lots and lots of these miniatures and snuff boxes, all more divine than the previous one. 

Just above these words is a portion of a huge emboidered walll panel that hung in a stately  home.  Isn't it gorgeous?  The detail and workmanship was astonishing.   

Do Londoners realise how LUCKY they are to be surrounded by these magnificent museums?  It's just been heaven to see all these treasures.  Mum and I spent several hours at the VandA and ended up forcing ourselves to leave because our eyes were about to pop out of our heads!  We tubed it to Sloane Square and were happily  wandering up King's Road, looking at the shops and trying to avoid the cold, wet rain, when we spotted The Saatchi Gallery and of course, had to go in there!  It's a modern art gallery and there was quite an incredible display of art from the other end of the spectrum.