This was a day of nostalgia. Gord and I went to Kensington in west London, where we lived nine years ago. First we walked from Notting Hill Station to the Churchill Arms, a pub on Kensington Church Street that used to have great, inexpensive Thai food.

We arrived just before noon, about ten minutes before the restaurant section opened. While we waited we sat in the bar proper and chatted with a man sitting with his two dogs, Molly and Jock. (Funny, we never learned his name, just those of the dogs.) I didn't get a good photo of them.

He was 72, an engineer from Scotland who lived in Manitoba for three years when he was in his twenties, and then moved to Alaska to work on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. After that he worked in the Middle East on projects. Friendly guy. We said good-bye to him and his dogs and went to the restaurant area. It was how we remembered it, full of flowers and other plants, and the food was still pretty good.

We walked down to our old flat, above the Patisserie Valerie.

The large building across the street that housed Warner Music had been demolished, recently it appeared. It wasn't even a very old building. I wonder what they will put up in its place. I tried to research it back at the flat but couldn't find anything online about it. 

From there we went, in the rain, to St. Mary Abbotts Church to attend one of their Friday afternoon concerts (1:05 PM) with students from the Royal College of Music. We used to enjoy doing this in 2007. We had just sat down when a large cat walked up the aisle and sat down next to the front pew.

He stayed until the first performers came out; then he walked back down the aisle and sat next to the front of the back section. He stayed there until the end of the concert and then got up and walked away. Apparently he is the church cat, and I bet they don't have a mouse problem. It was pretty cute.

The concert began with Brahms' Violin Sonata no. 2 in A major with Phoebe Goddard on violin and Jennifer Hughes on piano. Next was the Rocamora String Quartet performing Schumann's String Quartet no. 3 in A major. The all-female quartet formed last year while they were working on their Master's degrees. The one-hour concert was most enjoyable, and the students were very talented. I'm glad Gord suggested it.

We walked behind the church down Kensington Church Walk to the High Street, noticing new businesses, reminiscing about old ones. Gord then left for the tube station and home, while I walked to the Leighton House Museum, the former home and studio of Victorian artist Sir Frederic Lord Leighton. The most impressive part of the house, aside from his beautiful studio, is the Arab Hall with its tiles, mosaics, and filigreed screens. Unfortunately the overcast, rainy day made the usually bright room dark, and my photos reflect that. 

The museum has a special exhibition (special being the operative word here) that opened today, Flaming June: The Making of an Icon. Flaming June is Leighton's most famous painting. I love it. He painted it along with five other paintings for the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1895. He took a photo of the paintings before they left the studio in April 1895. For the first time since they were displayed at the Academy the paintings have been reunited, except for one that they have been unable to locate. This was no easy feat. Three of them were in private collections, Flaming June was in Puerto Rico, and Lachrymae came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Leighton died in January 1896, and these are his last works. I'm not exactly sure why, but it was an emotional experience being in that room. Apparently Jimmy Page felt it too. And Andrew Lloyd Webber almost purchased Flaming June in 1962--for £50!

Leighton's studio, April 1895

Candida

Lachrymae

The Maid with Golden Hair

Twixt Hope and Fear

Flaming June

I walked through Holland Park in the rain, saw the dog toilet and one of the peacocks, passed my old library, and the Elephant & Castle pub we used to frequent, and stopped at our old Marks & Spencer food hall for a few groceries.

The dog toilet of Holland Park!

Gord was out for dinner with some of the students. I made myself a salad (Skidmore doesn't allow spouses at dinners or other events). So I watched the news instead and got myself all worked up over the election. I can't wait until it's over.

It's after 2 AM and there are fireworks outside (there were some earlier, too). I guess it's officially November 5 and Guy Fawkes Day. And the upstairs trumpet player was practicing at midnight.