An Eye on Dali's clock

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Along the Southbank of the Thames in London, across the bridge from Westminster, is the London Eye, a giant Ferris Wheel that has quickly become a London landmark. Next to the Eye is County Hall, which is currently exhibiting The Dali Universe featuring the works of the famous artist Dali and other surrealists.

Giant Dali statues line the Thames in front of County Hall. I was drawn to this one of the melting clock. I like the way the Eye looms over the statue. I just wish I'd turned on my fill flash to brighten up the face of the statue more.

Skies over Westminster

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I overlooked this photo on my first pass through my vacation photos, thinking it looked like just another snapshot of Westminster. When someone "favorited" it on Flickr, I took a second look. And then I noticed the sky behind Westminster. It almost has a painted-in look to it. Like it was done in watercolors or something. Very cool looking, I think.

I took this about two weeks ago from the London Eye, which is the giant Ferris wheel along the Thames. It's probably the only photo I took through the glass that doesn't show any random reflections.

I'm participating in Skywatch Friday today.
Click here for more about Skywatch Friday and to view other participants.

St. Paul's in Spring

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Yet another shot from our recent trip to London. This one is of St. Paul's Cathedral. I think the flowers are wisteria, I'm not sure, I just know I like the color and contrast they bring to the shot.

I had a really hard time deciding which view of the cathedral I like best. The vertical shown or the horizontal. I ultimately decided on the vertical, because it shows the trailing ends of the flowers. Do you have any thoughts?

The pitchfork tree

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In the courtyard outside the Southwark Register Offices and Nationality Services in London where our friends were married, was this intriguing tree that reminded me of a pitchfork reaching skyward. Naturally, I had to snap off a few pictures. I like the framing and mood on this one, even though it makes it difficult to see the cool-looking mottled texture of the bark.

Tower Bridge at night

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A touristy shot from our recent trip to London. This is the Tower Bridge all nicely lit up at night. I took this from outside the restaurant where we ate dinner one night. A place called The Butler's Wharf Chop House. Excellent meal with an excellent view.

Put the fire department on standby, I'm 40!

Sometimes life gets so busy, it's hard to keep up. There have been so many things I want to blog about, but haven't had the time -- Loki's double ACL surgeries and recovery, Dave breaking his hand while snowboarding, pregnancy updates, getting the house ready for little "Oliver" (that's his public code name right now), and a quick trip to London to see some good friends married.

Well, I might yet go back and update about those things, but right now I wanted to pause and wish myself a belated happy 40th birthday. Yes, I crossed that threshold on Wednesday and turned 40.

The trip to London last weekend was the beginning of my celebration. That was how I'd dreamed of celebrating turning 40 long before I became pregnant. I'd thought that option was out of the cards, though, until Marc and Lesley choose that weekend to get married. Suddenly, a 40th birthday in London was back on the table! (Although, I was technically back home in Chicago by the time my official birthday rolled around.)

Marc and Lesley were so sweet and even arranged for a birthday cake in the middle of their wedding day. It was perfect -- on their rooftop with views of Southwark (up until 6 years ago we could see Tower Bridge from their rooftop, now we had to be content looking at the surrounding hotels that towered over us.) Marc's Mum even baked and decorated a cake for me -- gorgeously done, too.

When we got home from London on Monday evening, I was treated to my second birthday cake. Jaye had been staying at the house to watch Loki and Thor while we were gone, so she'd left a small little cake on the table, complete with 40 candles ready to go. It was difficult, but I manged to leave the cake unmolested until Wednesday night.

Then on Wednesday, Dave lit all 40 candles for me, which I quickly managed to blow out, but not before setting off the smoke alarm. No joke.

My birthday celebration continues this weekend when we go out with friends for dinner. Nothing like having a whole week of celebrations!

So, do I have any profound thoughts on turning 40? Not really. Except to say that 40 seems to be one of those landmarks intended to make you realize that you really are getting older. But, the good news is that being almost 6 months pregnant while turning 40 is a great antidote to that "I'm getting old" feeling. See, it's all part of my scheme to stay eternally young, especially since in 20-some years we'll get to go right from paying for college to retirement, with nary a pause in between.

Super mammoth olives

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Another photo from Borough Market in London. This one of bulk bins of olives. I don't know why, but there's something about bulk bins at produce markets that seem so picturesque. I don't even like olives, yet these bins call to me.

I had a hard time deciding which of these two photos I like better, the still-life one shown above, or this one with the merchant packaging up some of the olives, which has some action. Usually I go for the action shots, but I think I like the colors and framing better on the photo shown.

Borough Market

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A long overdue update! Yes, I'm still here. I've been busy doing everything but photography lately. Thanks for sticking with me and checking back.

Over the weekend we made a whirlwind trip to London to see some good friends married. We arrived Friday morning and left Monday morning. Not enough time to even adjust our body clocks.

Friday we were a couple of jet-lagged zombies as we strolled around our friends' neighborhood in Southwark, which is on the south-east side of the Thames across from the old city of London.

It was a familiar area, as we have visited previously. One of our stops included the Borough Market, which is a famous fresh produce market with a long history.

This photo is the roof above an older part of the market. I think what I like about this photo is the way it juxtaposes the elegant Victorian scrolls against the more modern looking sign and the decay being held back by the netting.