I wish I had my camera today

We woke up today to crystal blue skies and bright sunshine.  When the sun is rare, you do appreciate it when it comes out.  I knew we wanted to go outside, but I didn't quite know what to do.  I dropped off EC at school, and A and I headed down to the Gloucester Green farmer's market.  I found an adorable pumpkin--just the right size, with a cute curved stalk that made a great handle for A to carry it around.  It was expensive!  But, I guess pumpkins here are not mass produced for Halloween as they are in the states.  It made me happy to have something to celebrate the season.  It's hard to remember that it's already October.  Our year here is flying by already!
At the farmer's market, I ran into another mum from EC's school.  She is always nice to me when we see each other, but I can't recall her name.  Her son in EC's class is named Freddie, and he's a cute little cotton-top (as many of the kids here are for some reason.)  He has a little brother the same age as A.  This mum friend said she was going to walk through Christ Church Meadow.  I asked if I could tag along, and off we went with our jogging strollers.  This mum is a really interesting walking partner.  She is quintessentially British, grew up nearby, attended Oxford for Uni, taught at a historic boarding school in England--Manchester, and lives a street away from us.  We admired the sun sparkling the dew in the meadow and pushed the buggies through a flock (is there a special word for a group of swans) of swans (rather quickly as we knew swans are mean!)  We admired the view of Oxford's dreaming spires that you can see from the Meadow.  The boys got to taste some blackberries from the hedgerows and look at flowers that we picked growing out of the side of an old building.  We then walked down a walking path beside the Thames while we watched rowers out for a morning practice.
After our great walking, she took me to her favorite coffee shop in the back of an old church right in front of the Radcliffe Camera.  It was a beautiful place to sit outside and have a little refreshment.  I had my new favorite drink, Roobiosh Tea with lemon and A had some artisan bread with some really wonderful raspberry preserves.
I had to wonder at the lovely morning we had, even though I had no idea what we would be doing when I stepped out my door this morning.  It turned out to be quite nice indeed!  Too bad I still don't know that other mum's name!