Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

We went into central London this afternoon, intending to visit the British Museum, but we made a very late start, and after our late lunch discovered they were sold out of (free) tickets for today.

So we went to the National Gallery, a few bus stops away, and looked at paintings. I wasn't up for a huge amount of walking, but bny the time I was ready to leave, so were Adrian and Cattitude. We spent a few minutes just enjoyong being in Trafalgar Square on a sunny afternoon, then walked to Charing Cross to get the Underground. Annoyingly, while it was (as whichever app Cattitude was using said) only a few minutes walk to Charing Cross, there was a lot more walking underground, and we had to go down several flights of stairs.

ETA: I was emotionally worn out to the point that I was glad it was just the three of us yesterday, not socializing with anyone else. I hadn't realized that beforehand, only that I was tired enough that committing to anything involving other people seemed imprudent. Being around my brother for most of several consecutive days was a lot of 'there are people here,' even though, or because, much of it wasn't socializing so much as being near each other and sometimes asking whether we needed, or wanted, various items.

I was pleasantly surprised by how little my joints hurt by the time we got back to Mom's flat. I took both naproxen and acetominophen before we left, and wore my better walking shoes and a pair of smartwool socks, and the combination sdeems to have done me a lot of good.

We're flying home tomorrow. I booked a cab, which will pick us up at 2:15, and logged onto the British Airways website and changed the (acceptable) seats it had assigned us to ones we like better (I got us all aisle seats, instead of all next to each other so one person was in a middle seat).

We got a lot done yesterday and today, Mark and I sorted through a bunch of stuff on Tuesday, and talked to Ralph (Mom's stepson) and figuring out which things are his/his sister's, and then which withim that what people actually want. Legally, he and Liz own the flat and some of the contents (specified). In practice, there are things none of us want, partly because of geography: Ralph doesn't need furniture, and he's the only one of us who lives anywhere nearby. So it's mostly what has sentimental value, like Simon's family china.

To our London friends: If we get enough done today, we might still be able to see people tomorrow or Saturday, but I don't know yet.

I also got into a stupid argument Tuesday afternoon with Ralph's wife Jenny, who was trying to convince me that my brother and I had some kind of obligation to arrange for clearing out everything that nobody wants, so Liz (Ralph's s sister) can sell the flat. This started with me telling her that we hadn't traveled from the US to be unpaid labor clearing out a flat for someone else to sell, and then on the third time she cirled back to telling her that by insulting my recently deceased mother she wasn't helping. |She said she wasn't trying to help, I told her to at least stop hurting then, and walked away from the conversation. My brother is one of the executor's of the will, so maybe has some obligations here, but Ralph and Liz own the flat now--my mother had a life tenancy and then it went too her stepchildren. I emerged a while later to find that Mark, Ralph, and Jenny had made a bit more progress in figuring things out.

They left here at about five, and Cattitude and Adrian went shopping to buy a few groceries.

liv, who is staying part-time in a flat half a mile from here, came over for the evening, and we had a very good, long visit. Adrian cooked dinner in an unfamiliar kitchen; I'd checked with Live a fw hours earlier about dietary restrictions. The original plan was just for her to come over here, where we can sit in the back garden, but one advantage of that is being able to comfortably share meals with people.

Wednesday was productive, sorting through papers and Mom's jewelry and a few oddments. The will leaves a few specific pieces of jewelry to Simon's daughter and two of my cousins, so we need(ed) to locate those. Beyond that we can do whatever seems good, and had agreed to offer things we didn't want to our cousins. We've found one piece Adrian is taking, and there's a bracelet of Grandma's that my cousin Janet asked us to sell her. If we find it, it's Janet's, as a gift.

After Mark and Linza left, the three of us decompressed a bit. After supper, I sorted through a bunch of [photos, pulling out a few that I want and/or thought Mark would want to least see. My mother's youth hostel card, signed by her and Grandpa, was in an envelope, along with a 1949 student discount subway pass, which got her free or discounted trips home from school. Thirty-odd years later, they were giving us passes good for free trips both ways, but only after the first few weeks of the semester.

In going through papers, and figuring out what we need, including things the executors and Mom's account might need, we have so far found four social security cards. What seems to be the original has a number stamped on it rather than neatly printed. One of the others makes sense in that it has her second married name on it--Eve Rosenzweig Kugler--but four still seems like a lot.

I'm going to post this and have some breakfast.

Mom and I went to Kew today, to look at plants and the Chihuly sculptures.

Having sought lots of advice about the Chihuly exhibit, we took most of it by starting at the Temperate House. There's some fine glass art in this exhibit, as well as scattered around outdoors, including an impressive blue-and-white sculpture if you enter via the Victoria Gate. I have seen two other exhibits of Chihuly's work, both much smaller and one of them entirely indoors; this one makes very good use of the large spaces, both indoor and out.

Then we just wandered, and enjoyed looking mostly at plants but also at birds and sculptures. I took some photos of plants and sculptures because I liked them, and of birds in the hope of using them to identify the species of duck (other than mallard) and goose (in addition to the Canada geese) we saw.

After admiring a large old chestnut tree and taking several pictures, I said 'I'm being a tourist'. I used two twigs to pry open a chestnut casing and remove the nut, which I looked at, photographed, and then put down near where it had fallen. (As you know, we no longer have sweet chestnut trees in North America [1]). I was reminded of when Maureen visited the Bronx Zoo with me and Ben Yalow: I was showing off the okapis, but what most interested her in that enclosure was the chipmunks.

[1] There has been a long-term project to try breeding a chestnut blight–resistant chestnut by crossing a Chinese chestnut species with the very few (I think less than a dozen) surviving North American chestnut trees. The last I knew, as of a year or two ago, the project had produced trees that are 15/16 American chestnut and seem to be resistant--and have run into objections from people who think that this is not preserving but attacking a species that is important to them. (This is vague because I don't have time right now to track the information down.)

I had lunch today with liv, oursin, and green_knight. We met outside St. Pancras railway station (which is convenient to, among other things, the Northern Line, which is near where my mother lives.

We had a good lunch at a pub near the station, then spent some time in the British Library looking at interesting old books and manuscripts in the Treasury. When I had looked at about as much as I could enjoy--my eyes didn't hurt, but my brain wanted to take a break and maybe look at trees or sky--we went to Ruby Violet for ice cream and more conversation. The cucumber-mint sorbet wasn't quite as good as JP Licks' cucumber ice cream, but had the great advantage of being available today, instead of only in July, and the Belgian ice cream was superior to any other I can remember having.

The conversation ranged widely, and included a bit of politics--probably inevitable, since we weren't actively trying to avoid it--as well as life in general, books and libraries, food, and travel. Eventually liv had to head back to Cambridge, so we all went our separate ways, and I had a quiet dinner at home with my mother.

Yesterday Mom and I went to the London Eye, which is very touristy (of course) but also offers very good views of that part of London, and we had just about perfect weather for it, and for a boat ride on the Thames (we bought a combination ticket). Today's weather was equally delightful (highs in the low 20s [low 70s if you prefer Fahrenheit]). The other main thing I want to do this trip, other than just spend time talking to Mom, is to visit Kew Gardens, but my legs and hips need a day's rest first.

On the train home, I noticed a tote bag with 'Do what you love' printed in large script, and my immediate thought was that that was easier before it turned out that what I need to do is write to strangers and yell at fascists. I very much enjoyed what I did today, but I don't think that's the shape of doing that slogan is about.