Joseph's School Violin Recital

Joseph and Jocelyn, both, have started taking violin lessons through their schools this year.  Both kids have done really well.  Joci has been learning more of the basics on music and violin while Joe has taken off with his playing.

Today Joe had a competition between schools at the Cornerstone Church in Central Milton Keynes.  The schools with the top 3 prizes were to go on and do a concert tomorrow night again at the church.  His school played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  They had a group of lower, medium, and higher graded players each group playing a different version.  Joe was in the middle group.  Then all three groups played together.  I thought it was really well done.

Unfortunately, Joe's school didn't win a cup, but they did get a bronze certificate, which helped with his disappointment a bit.

I'm so proud of him that he worked so hard to come so far in such a short amount of time on playing his violin.  All in all, even though he didn't win, he did have a lot of fun.  Good job Joe!!!!

March 12, 2013

The British Museum...

The British Museum is in London and is dedicated to human history and culture.  It was established in 1753.  Some of the items that it houses are of intense controversy, such as the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon.

I could easily spend two days in this almost religious temple of a place.  By the time we left to catch our train we were all exhausted and overwhelmed with all that we'd seen.  I  had taken hundreds of photos and my mind was swimming with just how many artifacts and collections they have there.  It's inspiring to know that this was all created so long ago by what must have been supreme artists working year upon year. 

If you ever get the chance, go.  It is worth it.  It is life changing.  You will be amazed.

Exterior of the British Museum

Love the interior of the Museum which was obviously outside at one point but now has this curved triad ceiling of glass that lends a beautiful glow to all beneath it.

 

A copy of the Rosetta Stone that you can touch.

Totem poles from British Columbia made of red cedar wood from about 1850.

 

Exquisite detail on this enormous pedestal that looked like an enormous bird bath.

Easter Island statue
Cult image, made between 11th and 17th centuries. Eighteenth century visitors including Captain Cook recorded the giant statues still standing, many destroyed. Surviving examples now re-erected on the island, a World Heritage site. This statue was collected by British survey ship HMS Topaze in 1868, presented to Queen Victoria by the lords of the admiralty, and by her to the museum.

quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, dating from c.1350 BC, was found in the massive mortuary temple of the pharaoh Amenhotep III on the West Bank of the River Nile at Thebes (the present-day settlement of Kom el-Hitan) in Egypt.

Part of the Egyptian exhibit.  It was enormous!

Head of Rameses
Egyptian, 1270BC. Presented by JL Burckhardt but taken from its site at Thebes by Giovanni Belzoni, a circus strongman turned professional antiquities hunter.

The actual Rosetta Stone.

The Crouching Venus is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath. Venus crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns her head to the right and, in most versions, reaches her right arm over to her left shoulder to cover her breasts.^[1] To judge by the number of copies that have been excavated on Roman sites in Italy and France, this variant on Venus seems to have been popular.

Parthenon marbles
Greek, 5th century BC. Bought from the Ottoman rulers of Greece, dismantled by Lord Elgin in 1799, and then recovered from a shipwreck in a hugely expensive operation which left him deeply in debt. Bought by the government for £35,000 and deposited 'in perpetuity' in the museum in 1816

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The Portland Vase

Perhaps from Rome, Italy, about AD 5-25

The most famous cameo-glass vessel from antiquity

September 2012

More Pictures from London

The Thames at Sunset.

We ate an awesome Thai Dinner in the only strand building to survive the great fire of London.

Ministry of Justice.

Buckingham Palace is even more beautiful at night.

Loved the large portrait of HRH The Queen on the side of the building that says "Life is Beautiful".

The (now called) Elizabeth Tower with Big Ben (the bell inside).

The London Eye.

The Marble Arch...right down the street from our hotel.

Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus.

Statue of Queen Anne outside St. Paul's Cathedral.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

The enormous doors of St. Paul's Cathedral.

 

St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Tower of London.

Joci and Jon goofing around in a London souvenir shop.

Trafalgar Square.

The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square.

Hooge Family in Trafalgar Square.

September 2012