Settling In
It is like we collectively exhaled and out came 37 Ikea Billy shelves and piles of dresses I fit into a decade ago when I wore heels all the time… Continue Reading
Newness Knocking
April is out of control. Someone needs to have a word with her. Two days ago, it snowed, it really snowed. Big, fluffy, wet, cold flakes. Now, this is nothing… Continue Reading
Easter & the Common German
We tend to do our weekly shop on a Thursday afternoon. It is a pocket of time during which things generally aren’t too chaotic; the older citizens of Kiel aren’t… Continue Reading
Moving
Where did March go? It slipped by in a rush of going back to work, and getting out into the sunshine, and succumbing to winter’s parting gifts of tedious, low… Continue Reading
The Slow, Well-Lit Crawl
There isn’t much that is extreme about Kiel’s weather. It doesn’t get extremely hot during summer, nor extremely cold during winter. We don’t get extreme amounts of snow – although… Continue Reading
How it All Began
In honour of Heimat now being available in ebook form, I thought I would share an excerpt of it with you all. This is taken from the introduction essay, previously unpublished, ‘How it… Continue Reading
Home Stretch (?)
Yesterday we awoke to the most glorious sunshine. It fizzed through the apartment and zipped into our moods like Tinkerbell on speed. We were all so bright. The morning flew by… Continue Reading
Life in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein
Grey
There is the Sky Grey, the Street Grey and the Naked Branches Grey. The Light Grey of Mid Mornings that dulls to Dark Afternoon Grey, a particularly heavy shade that… Continue Reading
Proud
Daily, I find myself getting all worked up over the smallest things. They are good things, and it is a good working up, like when my daughter does three levels… Continue Reading
Peruvian Mangoes & Needle Rain
And so we have arrived, cold, pale-skinned and severely Vitamin D deprived, in my most hated month of the Northern Hemisphere year; February. Ooh she is a cruel mistress, February…. Continue Reading
Erosion
As time passes and I find my answer to ‘seit wann sind Sie in Deutschland?’ changing to a number of years that seems heavy to me, a strange, uncomfortable thing… Continue Reading
German Culture, Travel: Germany
What I Know About North Germans
Let’s open with this: to a real north German, north Germany is essentially Schleswig-Holstein (der echte Norden) and, at a pinch, Hansestadt Hamburg. The Schleswig-Holsteiners say Meck-Pomm is east Germany, and anything… Continue Reading
Quiet & Slow
Temperatures plunged, the roads turned icy, and any lingering resolve I may have had to go outside disappeared over the weekend. On Saturday we postponed plans with family because the Feuerwehr… Continue Reading
The Sick Season
I used to think the most intolerable part of a north German winter was the grey. The grey sky, the grey trees, the grey water, the grey air. Days of… Continue Reading
The Darkest Day
It is the shortest, darkest day of the year today. Winter solstice. And yet, there is blue sky, and the sun keeps pushing through the clouds, undeterred. There is a… Continue Reading
Bittersweet
It has become apparent that, at this stage of the proceedings, I am essentially existing off Stollen. I was inclined to ignore it myself, but as I ferried in another plate… Continue Reading
Plätzchen
One of my aunties emigrated from Switzerland to Australia in the 70s, drawn there by my uncle (who she met when her father gave him a job as a shepherd… Continue Reading
I Will Teach Them
It is a cold Friday, but the good kind of cold. The red-cheeked kind of cold. You can get by without a scarf, but candles in cafes still feel lovely…. Continue Reading
Heimat, Identity, Life in Kiel
Of Acorns and Squirrels
When I was a girl, courtesy of my mother’s own girlhood literary leanings, I read and re-read and read again, until the pages were torn and the covers fell off,… Continue Reading
Life in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein
Herbstmarkt
Meine Güte the Germans know how to throw a good Markt. I can’t help but feel that perhaps hundreds of years of practice have resulted in perfecting all elements of a good… Continue Reading