Eingewöhnung
I spent the first fortnight of this month in kindergarten. The first week, I was there Monday to Friday from 8.30 until around 11am, the second week until 1pm. The… Continue Reading
Not Frail, but Stubborn
There are days in April when the sky stands over you and empties herself of winter. Sleet, rain, hail, gusts of ungodly wind. All of it comes out in bursts… Continue Reading
What If You Don’t Like the Earth?
My four-year-old daughter, after a lengthy interest in pregnancy and birth, has now turned her considerable attention to death. I thought I might have had a couple more years up… Continue Reading
Of Stories & Connections
One of my house plants – they all survived – has brand new, bright green new shoots. My kids put their tracksuit pants on, and all pairs they seem to… Continue Reading
Sharp Relief
Things I always notice when I’m back home in summer: how hot the carparks are, the sun bouncing off the asphalt and burning through the soles of your thongs. How… Continue Reading
Go for the Blankets
As the plane descended into Dubai – lights off, flight attendants strapped in and watching that no one put down a tray or reclined a chair – I reflected on… Continue Reading
Like Clockwork
Winter up here always waits until people are muttering about how mild and wet January is. By then, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have usually taken a battering and the northerners start… Continue Reading
On Lessons We Learn from Pets
The boy, of about nine, maybe ten, was crying. He ran around, face to the sky, searching the trees as the light faded, screaming, ‘Spikey’. His parents, flustered, hapless, helpless,… Continue Reading
Colette
I wrote this little essay for a project I created back in 2013, with long-time friend and fellow writer, Sandi. We asked a handful of really good Australian writers to… Continue Reading
One More Sleep
I thought I was very organised this year, when I started putting together little gift parcels for Australian family in November. How merrily I selected little chocolates and decorations, how… Continue Reading
German Culture, Travel: Germany
The Cast of Christmas
I was most surprised, when I spent my first Christmas with the northerner I’d eventually marry, to find out that in the glorious Schleswig-Holstein, children get visited by der Weichnachtsmann. Quite literally,… Continue Reading
Remember What Was & Who Went Before
I have never really given much thought to Totensonntag, Sunday of the Dead, which falls every year on the Sunday between the 20th and 26th of November. It seems like there are… Continue Reading
The Foxes Are Cooking Their Coffee
I heard the loveliest expression the other day, and, despite others chiming in certain it wasn’t a Sprichwort in their region, and perhaps not a Sprichwort at all, it is so exquisite… Continue Reading
A Mother’s Country
I wrote this as part of a chapter for the non-fiction project I am writing (and will probably finish in 2025). It was the second half of something and it… Continue Reading
Apples & Acorns
We are swimming in apples. The trees in the neighbourhood are all groaning with rosy fruit, including the tree that straddles our neighbour’s garden and ours. Apparently, years ago, they… Continue Reading
Late August
Finally it’s raining. I used to hate the rain, but then I inherited a garden full of hydrangeas. I remember, when I was a kid, Mum would always sigh with relief… Continue Reading
Coexist
This extraordinary summer continues abated. The entire country seems to be in agreement that this is the best summer ever, even though Greece and Sweden are on fire and these… Continue Reading
Lucky
Summer solstice was a few weeks ago. We are deep in summer, barefoot and high on daily ice blocks and the smell of sunscreen. I find it strange how the… Continue Reading
The Sixth Stage
I’m working on a book. Heimat covered the first five years of living here in Germany and finding contentment, a feeling of Wohl, in a country I never expected to marry, have… Continue Reading
Perfect
There has never been a longer stretch of time, in which I have not complained about the weather in Germany. It is becoming almost discomfiting. I am not used to… Continue Reading