Bees blew like cake crumbs through the golden air, white butterflies like sugared wafers...

I love Laurie Lee's descriptions of the women in his life in Cider with Rosie. I want to be like them all.

On his sister Dorothy: "[She was] a wispy imp, pretty and perilous as a firework. Compounded equally of curiosity and cheek, a spark and tinder for boys, her quick dark body seemed writ with warnings that her admirers did well to observe. 'Not to be held in the hand,' it said. 'Light the touch-paper but retire immediately.' She was an active forager who lived on thrills, provoked adventure and brought home gossip... [She was] as agile as a jungle cat, quick-limbed, entrancing, noisy. And she protected us boys with fire and spirit, and brought us treasures from the outside world. When I think of her now she is a coil of smoke, a giggling splutter, a reek of cordite. In repose she was also something else: a fairy-tale girl, blue as a plum, tender, and sentimental."

On his mother: "She was, after all... disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischevious as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at dancger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red. She lived by the easy laws of the hedgerow, loved the world, and made no plans..."

"Our Mother was a buffoon, extravagant and romantic, and was never wholly taken seriously. Yet within her she nourished a delicacy of taste, a sensibility, a brightness of spirit, which though continuously bludgeoned by the cruelties of her luck remained uncrushed and unembittered to the end. Wherever she got it from, God knows - or how she managed to preserve it. But she loved this world and saw it fresh with hopes that never clouded. She was an artist, a light-giver, and an original, and she never for a moment knew it... With her love of finery, her unmade beds, her litters of unfinished scrapbooks, her remarkably dignity, her pity for the persecuted, her awe of the genty, and her detailed knowledge of the family trees of all the Royal Houses of Europe, she was a mass of unreconciled denials, a servant girl born to silk... She tried me at times to the top of my bent. But I absorbed from birth, as now I know, the whole earth through her jaunty spirit."

I hope that if I have children one day, they write about me like that.

And I think this would be true also:

Love, Jackie Kennedy and Polly Pockets xx

The women are very pretty, and all the men deliver...

...They got music, it's always playin',
Start in the day time, go all through the night
When you hear that music playin', hear what I'm saying, it make you feel alright!

-The Princess and The Frog.

I love, love, LOVE this movie! According to the trailer, it's from the makers of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid - and it shows! All the old-fashioned true love, high adventure, good against evil, musical numbers, wishing-upon-stars and happily-ever-afters you could hope for - and a 1920s dining club-style dream thrown in for good measure! It might even rival Enchanted in my affections...

My favourite part of the tale had to be the love story - and not the one between the two romantic leads! The Cajun firefly Raymond, who helps the Prince and Princess unweave their enchantment and become human again, is in love with "the most prettiest butterfly ever did glow," "Evangeline" - unaware that his lady love, is, in fact, the evening star.

"You know, I talk to Evangeline almost every night. She is kind of shy, not say much. But I know in my heart someday we gonna be together."

Raymond: If we just go back there, we gonna find that your fairy tale come true-
Tiana: Just because you wish for somethin', doesn't make it true!
Raymond: It's like my Evangeline always said to me...
Tiana: Evangeline is nothing but a star, Ray! A big ball of hot air a million miles from here. Open your eyes now! Before you get hurt... [Walks away]

Raymond: [Looking up at Evangeline] She's just speakin' out a broken heart... That's all it is. Come on, Evangeline. We gonna show sug' the truth!

Skip this next bit if you haven't yet watched the movie - but the end of Raymond's love story had me in sobs!!

The Boy and my friend mocked my distress to no end, but I thought it was beautiful - like The Little Prince and his flower - and the most bittersweet, magical bit of the whole movie.

And speaking of magic... Catz May Ball did not disappoint!

Champagne on tap, bouncy castles, fajitas, Shakeaway milkshakes, S Club 3, chocolate fountains, cheese tables, indoor fountains, cocktail bars, crepes, jazz bands... and best of all, getting to round off the year with my Cambridge compadres [and their fabulous dresses/tuxes...]

Too good to be true, clearly!!

And so I come to the end of another year at my beloved Cambridge University, hard to believe as that is! And so, also, comes the inevitable sadness with it. May Week, with its lazy sunshine-y days of picnics and its nights of revelry, is over and done...

...I leave my flat and its inmates for good - some of whom study languages and are going abroad for the entirety of next year. Worst still, I only have one year left here, and I am no closer to thinking with any seriousness what my life might be like afterwards... Time is tick-tick-tocking away, and I feel it happening much more now I'm back at home, at a loss, with nothing to do but kill it with Italian-studying.

This is just how I am about everything - from backpacking around Europe, to my years at Cambridge, to my love for The Boy. I really hope it's not a case of not appreciating what I have - I think it's the opposite! The more wonderful I recognise my present to be, the more I dread it ending. I need to practice a bit of Dr Seuss wisdom...

...but somehow I always seem to end up indulging in a mix of both! [Heavy on the first one...]

Perhaps I need to do all three a little more - smile because it happened, enjoy the present, and trust that the future is bright! There's certainly a lot to look forward to - I got my exam results [I managed to scrape a First - shocking, but hooray!], and consequently Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia, might supervise me for my dissertation next year!! As for the summer to come, in just the next two weeks I have the camerado coming to visit tomorrow for cinema trips and cake eating, and a descent upon The Boy for camp-outs and cocktails in a tent in his back garden! [I am so proud of him - he is on the university cricket team, and was named "man of the match" and "hero of the hour" when he turned the game against archenemies Oxford around! Not that I know a lot about cricket, but still!]

Possibly my favourite May Week photo!

But that's enough rambling for now - sufficient to say, the magic of make-believe, Disney, dresses, Prince Charmings, and sparkles and crumbs [when it comes to cake, at least!] must and shall continue! At least for the next few days...

[Ooh, and take a look at my Interview by Her over at Tuesdai Noelle - I'm feeling very honoured to feature on one of my favourite blogs!]

Love, frogs and kisses xx