Days two and three in London involved more walking (only one Tube round trip so far), an art exhibit and a long browse in one of my favorite bookshops.
ART
It was Sunday, the last day of the exhibit, and very foggy. Like us, many like-minded folks streamed toward the Tate Modern for the Georgia O’Keefe retrospective. For most people, O’Keefe evokes the thought of flower images and New Mexico. But she was so much more than a flower painter. 
This exhibit traces her work from early abstracts through a brief New York phase (who knew she painted skyscrapers?) to summers in Lake George, NY (loved the simple straight lines of a green door and her presentation of foliage), to the landscapes and adobes of the Southwest and her fascination with skulls and bones (which she insisted did not mean death to her). Even later, she painted several series of patios and flowery trees. And, yes, the flowers are here; I’m partial to the poppies and, of course, the stunningly beautiful and beautifully composed white jimson weed!
We rented the multi-media guide (audio with photos of the works being discussed) which was excellent. Commentary by various curators plus the voice of O’Keefe explaining her approach to her art. I find that having an audio guide, particularly in a crowded exhibit, helps me focus even if it means I don’t stop and peruse every work. [I saw no one taking photos of the art and so was hesitant to do so, only taking the above two photos.]
We had lunch in the museum restaurant on the 6th floor and were just ahead of the crowd. Veal milanese with sauerkraut on the side and a very nice panfried hake with sautéed greens were our selections. 
In keeping with the coloring craze, the table was covered with a mat to color and a glass of crayons. A diversion for the adults as much as the kids.
BOOKS–HATCHARD’S
After lunch, we walked across the Millennium Bridge and along Sermon Lane to St. Paul’s Cathedral. From there we took the Tube to Tottenham Court Road and then walked through Leicester Square, past Eros on Piccadilly, and onward. Hatchard’s has been around since 1797 and is a very proper bookshop. It not only has three floors of books, but is carpeted, not blazingly lit, and offers some quiet nooks where one might sit. Several years ago it was taken over by Waterstone’s and there are now some signs of that with more gifty items and notecards on the main floor which are nice, but, to me, detract from the seriousness of the place.
The extensive fiction section has been re-located to the second floor along with the largest array of crime novels I’ve seen anywhere. And there’s an inviting sofa under the window on which one may alight. Small tables with piles of books on them are staged throughout the entire store, each with a titled sign and then a quotation from some author’s work. Strong suits are certainly British history and biography as well as the aforementioned fiction and the latest new titles. We easily spent an hour and I left with a short novel by Tessa Hadley and a few more notecards for my collection.
All photos by JWFarrington; header photo is London Millennium Bridge
