The Last Days of Summer

Officially Autumn begins on the 22nd September but to me, and I suspect to others, the summer is over when the schools go back. 

In many ways I love Autumn. Things look like they're over, but that's just sleight of hand. Nothing is really dying. In fact it's a time of great fertility - every dropping acorn a potential oak - and glut: apples, tomatoes, blackberries.

It's been a good summer, and a busy one. In addition to my trip to Oxford I've been to 3 proms, 2 Royal Academy exhibitions, 2 V&A late nights, The Shakespeare Metamorphosis at Senate House, HMS Belfast,  and the Fire Garden pictured above.

(In case anyone is wondering, yes I have a full time job, but I only work the actual hours I'm contracted for.)

The Fire Garden was amazing; metal forms shaped into primitive machines, and flames so much more beautiful and elemental than any power we might use now, to drive them. Chimneys that gorged and spat sparks into the air, orb-shaped furnaces that hung at head height, twisted forms with bunsen blue flames that boiled water into steam.

And so back to study. This October I'm beginning an MA in English Literature with the Open University. The giant cardboard box they sent me went untouched for a week, but I cracked it open this evening. Onwards we go...

Sassoon's Obelisk, Enfield