Our Study

So here it is for those who wanted to see it - the study. This is where we do school - when we're not in the garden on the deck or at the kitchen table or sitting together on a sofa somewhere. If we're not in any of those places then chances are you'll find us here. Except when we're not, of course.

This is what you see when you enter the room - the whole thing at a glance as it were. The chair closer to the camera is where I sit to read our read alouds. Sometimes Jemimah sits on the other chair, the one with the ikat tube sarong from Ngela in Flores on it, but mostly she sits on the floor at my feet or on my knee. I like that best. The glass table almost always has a cup of coffee on it, only it is holidays at the moment, so it is somewhere else - like the kitchen bench. Rest assured, it isn't far away... The Imari plate is a heirloom inherited from hubby's grandmother.

On the mantle piece you'll see a silver Miao headdress from South West China, still worn by young girls on festival days. To its right is a silk felted apron worn by the Miao in the Zhouxi area of Kaili county in Eastern Guizhou.

To the right of the door as you enter you'll see the black bookcase pictured above. The three black boxes from Ikea hold electrical gear and chargers. These shelves hold reference books - dictionaries and books about books - as well as easy books for Jemimah to read. My Donna Hay mags find a home on the bottom shelf, and my Mrs Beeton cookery book presides over all. As she should. The other pic is a close look at my desk. Should have hidden the electrical cords better, shouldn't I? Wry smile. You'll notice Santa brought the much coveted map...

On the desk you'll find Jemimah's school books for the current term neatly stored along the back, with photos, flowers and other mummy ephemera in front.

On the other side of the sideboard is Daddy's desk - a copy of mine. That's where the computer sits, but I don't think Daddy would thank me for displaying it to the world! The iPod is here. Today it's playing Sojiro - 土の笛のアヴェ・マリア. You'll need to imagine that while you're reading. We always have music playing in this room, and otherwise you'll get a false idea. Mostly it is classical or world music or acapella metrical Psalms. Amongst the IT gear stored on his desk you'll find a lovely Caithness Glass paperweight and an antique Japanese calligraphy brush that he uses for cleaning the computer screen. Otherwise this desk is fairly utilitarian, really.

The chest under the window also comes from hubby's grandmother. Inside you'll find old Bible Study materials mainly. The books at left are a series of Time Life books called Myth and Mankind. They're pretty good.

We use the top of the chest to display interesting things. At the moment that includes a flowers from our autumn garden, a recently framed tapestry completed by Jemimah, our parala game board and an antique Japanese box drawer containing Japanese incense sticks. The white thing is a whale vertebrae. Yes, a real one. We found it washed up on a Yemeni beach and carried it home.

The other wall - the one to the left of the door is taken up by the bookcases that I showed you recently and haven't bothered to include again. You can view these here if you want. They take up the entire wall, except the bit behind the door. It is a cut-out floor to ceiling window bit that allows light into the room. It looks like this:

It is a bit washed out, but it's a beautiful sunny day today, which made it a bit hard taking a pic of a window. Probably there's a better way of doing it, but I don't know what it is. Anyhow, in this photo you see the games chest containing marbles, card games, jigsaws, knuckle-bones and other interesting little games for rainy days. The light looks fantastic at night, because you can see it from much of the house. Through the window is the link where you can see our Go game board, and beyond that the pool. That's our view, and we love it!!

And that's our tour finished. I hope you enjoyed it. I always like knowing where people are when I read about their day-to-day lives. I'd love it if you'd post pictures of your school room, and I hope you have enjoyed having a bit of a look around ours. Oh, if you click on the photos you should be able to see them bigger if you want to see even more!

Have a safe, healthy and happy Easter break everybody. we'll be back next week!