Alley Cat, winter clad dogs and V&A treasures!

Hello! There was a lot of rain last night, then the sun turned up at dawn and now back to more rain. I'll have to brave it! Googled 'Lanzarote beaches' to feast the eyes before facing all the grey hues (not referring to Mr Grey!!!!) and wetness. Tonight's dreams took me on a several-day trip with my college students. Lots of travelling, by coach, plane and boat! Hiking, sightseeing, long campfire evenings....

The evening has turned into the night and I'm relaxing after a busy day with a surprise lunch invitation from a friend to while working in South Ken, lots of picture taking at The V&A, when the free evening concert didn't please my ears and a chat about funky rock and old vinyls with a young man who let me photograph this album cover:

Now I'm listening to You tube 'Alley Cat', would it be the one????

To keep the balance right, let me add  a snap of 'exceptionally elegant, winter clad dogs'!

There was some shy sunshine around lunchtime and I had to 'immortalise' the rare moment:

I didn't have the time to inspect the contents of the black box, it could have been a candle or soap, but looked pretty to me when put next to a flower-shape purse

 After 6 pm I wandered into the darkness and made my way to The V&A!
Natural History Museum was in its usual Christmas galore, with the lights on, ice rink and merry-go-round.

I was going to remember something about this cute bird. Regretfully, I don't. Well, maybe you'd like to know that I had a pet hen when I was little.

A contemporary artist used most distinguishing chair designs from the V&A collection to create this bench. What can you notice about the chairs' 'tops' and 'bottoms'? :-)

 Frank Lloyd Wright's office chair had to be included in my collection. There was no other option after I visited his house and studio in Oak Park, Chicago. I went to Oak Park a few times, actually. Once, my sister-in law was giving me a lift and as she started the car, the take away tea landed on my lap. Another time, I was biking with a friend and braked at the traffic lights so abruptly, that I nearly jumped ahead of the bike...

You can rotate in this chair, if you like:

 THat's an ornament on a wardrobe from Austria.

 And that's the ice rink across the street. It only got much busier a good hour later:

The ice rink was photographed through the window in the china gallery:

Chairs from Orkney:

The S-chair impressed me:

 The blue 'chair' is called  'tutti frutti', fancy that!:-)

Surrealism inspired wardrobe:

There was no throne to much this stool on display:

However, I snapped two thrones in the Chinese section:

And, when on the throne topic, if you are in Richmond and go to look at what little is left of the royal residence, Richmond Palace, there, by the Green, you may like to remember the fact that Queen Elisabeth I had the first water closet installed there. It was designed by Sir John Harington (1561–1612). He ' published A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, describing a forerunner to the modern flush toilet installed at his house at Kelston.^[7] The design had a flush valve to let water out of the tank, and a wash-down design to empty the bowl. He installed one for his godmother Queen Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace, although she refused to use it because it made too much noise.^{[citation needed]} The Ajax was not taken up on a wide scale in England, but was adopted in France under the name Angrez.', according to Wikipedia.:-)

Sleepy I am!

Good night!:-)