English Spring: As of yet, there has been little sign of anything I’d call spring. It is basically days struggling to get over 50 and night dropping below 40, with mostly cloudy days mixed with equal amounts of sun and rain. It’s not exactly depressing, but I am ready to put my L.L.Beans coat away. It is hard to imagine how bleak it must have been back when the air was incredibly polluted. There was actually a brief snow flurry today–first snow I’d seen all year here.

More Racist Comments from Boris: Not content to muck up the London mayoral election with a racist and anti-Muslim attack on Labour candidate Sadiq Khan, Boris and the “Leave” campaign did it again in responding to Obama’s support of the remain people. Incredibly, Johnson actually said that it was all because of Obama’s Kenyan heritage and resulting anti-British Empire upbringing (or something) that causes him to take the position, citing as proof that Obama had taken the bust of Churchill out of the Oval Office. (Obama coolly responded that he would think that most people would understand that he thought it appropriate to have bust of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his office and that Churchill is well represented in the White House.) It is a kind of a minor tiff, but a sign that the “Leave” side are very concerned about the impact of Obama’s remarks, just as the attack on Khan is a sure sign that the Tories are going to lose the mayoral election. But the fact that they are pulling out the race card is disturbing. I had hoped that British politics was above American-style race-baiting. Nope.

Shakespeare on the Thames: Over the weekend, it was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. (Actually, it is unlikely that anyone really know the exact day that he died, but one of the days this past week is the one that is accepted.) They set up 37 video screen along the south side of the Thames and each one had an excerpt of one of his plays. (One screen for each play and each video was around 8-10 minutes.) Jane and Judy went earlier than me and saw close to 25 of them. I had a New Unity meeting and only saw about eight or nine. The films were often taken from productions at the Globe, but a number of them were filmed on location. The “Hamlet” I saw was filmed in Elsinore (and had the soliloquies done in Greek Chorus fashion by five great actors) and the “Henry V” was filmed in Agincourt. All the little films were good or even great and it was a tremendous concept.The whole thing was really a lot of fun and there were pretty big crowds, given the crummy weather. I am watching “Twelfth Night”with Mark Rylance below.

New Painting: This one is based on a photo I took in Italy over a decade ago. I started it about a month ago and couldn’t finish it before we went to Copenhagen and America. And then when I got back, I wasn’t sure what to do to it, so I started another one. I think I like working on multiple paintings at the same time. It gives me something to do even if I am sick of one of them or just stuck. I keep thinking I might go back and add some stuff to this one or one of the earlier ones. I’m somewhat torn about this. I have little doubt that I could improve some of my earlier paintings, since I have taught myself better technique over the last six plus months. But I also think that the most interesting this about these paintings, as a group, is the progression from start to now, and, if I go back and fix up the earlier ones, that will be lost. So I guess I won’t.