how to staycation Amsterdam-style

We had been lusting after a getaway for a year, paging squinty-eyed through our agendas waiting for a weekend to magically open up. When time and space suddenly shifted to uncover three days off… Continue reading →

grand life lessons

When flying off a bike and onto a snowy street,  position your hips so as to bruise both your legs equally. Enjoy a week of dancing to “Single Ladies” with epic Beyonce-sized thighs.… Continue reading →

getting my good cheer on

Hello, you darlings – I’ve missed you terribly. Since we last spoke, the days have shortened and the nights have acquired a fierce bite. My knuckles are red and roughened from night-time bike… Continue reading →

let’s go foraging {norway.2}

See this, children? This is what fishing for your supper looks like.  Then we pulled on gumboots to comb the mossy marsh below the cottage for cloudberries. Our lovely host, Helle, smushed them into… Continue reading →

of the things they saw in Norway, pt. 0

In the summer of oh-twelve, two intrepid kids headed due North. North, they found out, looks like this: And this: And thankfully, like this too:  It’s all coming up! I’m wading through pictures… Continue reading →

of summer roasting

It’s almost July! *cue vacation shimmy* During the summer the country sucks in its beer belly and shrinks dramatically. The Dutch enjoy about 25 paid vacation days per year, and many use those… Continue reading →

of Spring being late to her own party

Spring is white wine and scratchy grass picnics. Spring is jam jars playing house on the pantry shelf. Spring is an odd ramshackle bird in the middle of the city. Spring is the… Continue reading →

of grazing

What kind of reader are you? I’m a grazer – always nuzzling about for a juicier blade of grass, a greener clump of leaves – and there is an ever-shifting clutch of books… Continue reading →

of the Afternoon Friendly Cake

There comes a pause in the middle of a productive afternoon when one person turns and asks the other, “Shall we have a friendly?” A friendly is a moment of repose from study… Continue reading →

of Liverpool, or four hard days’ nights

Liverpool. City of big hair, orange tans, thick Scouse accents. City of my sweet friend Maia, who has none of those things. We spent a four-day weekend alternately braving the city and retreating… Continue reading →