Weird week and in the national news a very sad and confusing end to the week.
The Good Man and I planned a weekend away and I think the timing couldn’t be better.
And so to all, hug the ones you love and have a fantastic weekend!
I’ll do the same.
Until next week….
Just a few snaps from this past weekend. On Sunday I got up all my courage and and went into London all by my little lonesome to have a look around. I just did the touristy thing but it was TOTALLY worth it.
Here’s a few shots from the day. All taken with my iPhone4s and the Camera+ app.
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From Paddington Station comes a statue of Paddington Bear. It’s an adorable little statue, so very endearing.
I had to do a bit of a close crop on this shot because The Most Oblivious Woman In The World was sitting on the base of the statue shoving sushi in her maw. There were plenty of empty seats around and a group of us wanting to take photos of the little bear, but she refused to move.
Ah well.
He is a rather handsome little bear, isn’t he?
Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth
After riding the train into Paddington station and befriending the bear, I caught the tube from Paddington to Westminster. As I came up from the underground, I saw a really pretty sunny London day. Then I saw a whole lot of people facing me snapping away at cameras. I vogued a little bit until I realized the lenses were all pointing skyward.
So I turned around.
And saw this.
Whoa! It’s the Elizabeth Tower which contains the bell called Big Ben. Let me say this, ol’ Ben sure has a pretty sound. At the top of the hour and at every quarter hour the bell rings out.
So delightful.
Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth
From there I wandered around and walked among the buildings, admiring history.
Behind Parliament there is a little park that borders the Thames. While strolling there, a local (a security guard, actually) pointed out this little feature to me.
It’s a carving into the stone at the perimeter of Parliament.
It’s a high water mark showing the highest the Thames has ever been. The date is January 1881. Let me tell you this…the mark is pretty damn high. Scary to think what the flooding must have been like back then.
I was pretty intrigued by the carving both from a historical perspective and with a morbid point of view.
Yes, the photo is crooked. That’s because to get the shot I had to put the phone on the ground and the ground is quite uneven.
I think the tilt gives it character.
Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth
And finally….here is a naughty little gargoyle hanging off of Westminster Abbey. There are thousands of these little guys, all different. I liked the rude faces most of all. I understand that the imps with tongues out are actually downspouts for water. I think they are hilarious.
Obviously, this one has been run through an Instagram filter. This was shared on Twitter and Facebook too, earlier today.
Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth
All photos Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the right column of this page. Taken with an iPhone4s and the Camera+ app.
Being a Nina (godmother) is an interesting thing. It’s become an unexpected but fantastically fulfilling part of my life.
I’m up to five godkids now…and sometimes that makes me want to pour a cool beverage, sit a spell, and think.
Mostly about the sanity of these friends who have invited me to have something of an impact on the lives of their children.
I mean really? Me?
But they said, “yeah, you” and so I stepped up. I take godparenting very seriously. This isn’t just some “in name only” kind of deal.
These five kids are my kids. I laugh with them and cry with them and by god my heart breaks for them.
Whew. It’s a lot.
On Sunday, The Good Man and I found ourselves in our Sunday go-to-meetin’ clothes inside the insanely gorgeous Grace Cathedral at the tippy top of Nob Hill in San Francisco.
It was baptism day for the two girls that belong to one of The Good Man’s oldest and dearest friends and his lovely wife.
We’re the head godfolks over their oldest child who is nearly three and is beautiful and smarter than a whip. We’re the backup godfolks for the younger girl who is creeping up on six months and is adorable as the day is long.
I always did enjoy a good baby dunking. This church is just so beyond spectacular that it made the day that much more special.
I’m not going to lie, I misted up a little bit when they splashed that holy water up on the noggins of my pretty girls. I don’t know, it just got to my little Nina soul to see them up there being brave and taking on this sacred ceremony in their lives.
It’s a good thing I had the hand of The Good Man to hang onto for strength.
Later that evening, I got a call from my oldest godchild, the twelve year old daughter of my best friend back in New Mexico. I’d sent both her and her sister a little box of fun stuff from my recent international travels, and she wanted to talk about it.
She had just gotten home from a 4H shooting competition up Raton where she had taken eleventh place and her little sister (the ten year old) had done good too. The younger girl had done a respectable sixth place shooting a .25 rifle with scope. It was her first time in competition and she wiped up the floor with the other sixty kids in the race.
My girls!
And then came the part where I had to lay down because I was weak in the knees with pride.
My goddaughter told me how when they were up in Raton, she learned a new song on her violin.
Now, let me back up here and fill in some story so we’re on the same page. There is a gentleman named Mr. Joe Delk who is a New Mexico legend. He leads the Delk band with his three sons and is one hell of a musician.
He plays a fiddle like it oughta be played. He learned it from his daddy.
Mr. Delk and his band played many of the dances I went to back at NMSU. I’ve met Mr. Delk several times and found him to be a kind man with a quick wit.
Before my godkids went up to Raton, they heard that Mr. Delk was going to be there too since his grandson was in the shooting competition. My baby girl’s dad told her this fact and said she might take her violin along and see if she could talk to Mr. Delk about playing.
So, she did. She took her instrument and she got up all her courage and walked over to a living legend of New Mexico (by herself, her mom wasn’t there at the time) and asked Mr. Delk about playing the violin.
Mr. Delk told my girl to go get her instrument and then he taught her how to play “Faded Love“.
Oh lordy, I’m tearing up again.
I’m the proudest Nina in the whole wide world. My girl! Such a brave one. I’m in awe of her!
I talked about her and her sister taking their seat at the table with a long line of proud agricultural New Mexicans when they raised and sold their pigs at last year’s fair.
And now, my oldest girl steps into some really hallowed territory. She can play a song that is a bedrock of both our American and our Southern New Mexico culture all thanks to a man who is himself part of that bedrock.
Whew. I didn’t know it was possible to feel this proud.
What an awesome day to be a Nina.
And god kid #5? Well, I finally got a boy in my clan. What in the heck am I going to do about a boy? He’s just a few weeks old, so I have time to sort it out. He’s already one of the calmest babies I’ve ever known in my life. I know both he and his big brother are destined to be amazing men.
Just. Whew.
I need to go dab my eyes a little and hug the infinitely huggable Good Man and thank whichever entity seems to fit into my dogma and catma today for the chance to be a part of it all.
I gotta heart full of proud.
Heart Full of Stars
Image found on Silverbeam’s Deviant Art page and used under Fair Use.
I never get tired of photographing one of the most photographed places in the world.
Photo taken Saturday on our way to wine tasting gulping sipping in Napa.
What a glorious sunny day!
Photo Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the far right corner of this page. Taken with an iPhone4s and the Camera+ app.
