Magical

We spent an afternoon punting on the Isis in Oxford on Sunday, passing by the botanical gardens, Christchurch Meadow and the fields beyond, strewn with picnic rugs and literary types enjoying the late summer sun. This view, was so totally magical that I can almost imagine the wings attached to this dainty figure in the tree! It is the stuff of J M Barrie or the Flower Fairies! So, for a brief moment, a blissful summer arrived in Oxford....I won't dwell on the fact that it left as swiftly as it arrived....Instead, here is further proof of the weather that was...

Pretty things make my world go round

Oh how I long for a such serene place to study!

I am about to start my teacher training course, in fact, today has been my last day of the seemingly endless summer that I have allowed myself, and as it has been raining and raining and raining, I have spent most of it reading Living Etc and sorting lever-arch files on a shelf in our living room. It is at times like these that I weaken, and wish that I had followed the more lucrative path of a lawyer or doctor - submitted myself to the trials of training in order to be rewarded with the financial gain. Perhaps then I would have been able to have made it to a beautiful little cottage by now, with room for a separate study and living space?! Alas, I chose to drift, for my sanity's sake I suppose, through a few creative and charitable jobs before settling on a (hopefully-to-be) rewarding teaching career, minus a mortgage!

I am extremely excited about this next move, and know that it is the right step, but while I train I must be satisfied with our lovely house in Oxford which we share with an old friend, who puts up with us wonderfully, and console myself with dreams of our future home. Despite spacial limitations however, I am enjoying creating a space to work, and have managed to sort a couple of spaces to shuffle around when the boys in my life are out doing other things. God bless interiors magazines for inspiring my dreams in the process!

A xx