SUMMER 2016 Fact – by the age of five months, babies have good colour vision. So, as of last Thursday, I can’t pretend that our son’s puzzled look while drooling over colour swatches is anything but a speck of skepticism regarding our choice for home improvements. His sister has secretly circled Nancy’s Blushes, a venturous…
Read MoreCAT COAT GENETICS AND VARIATIONS IN CARPET CULTURE
AUTUMN 2015 A spell of home refurbishments means that we have temporarily escaped the commotion and moved kit and caboodle into a neighbouring ground floor flat. Two cats used to live here, but much to Little E’s dismay, they took their cat flap with them when they moved out. For a couple of weeks now…
Read MoreTHE RASPY YODEL OF THE ISLAND SWANS KEEPS YOU LIGHT ON YOUR FEET
SUMMER 2015 Think. Choose five things to take in your suitcase and two more for your pockets! We’re off to the remote Finnish isles of Näsijärvi! Undaunted, Little E selects a congeries of dollhouse paraphernalia and playmobil princesses while I make a quick note about my own desert island items. My parents-in-law are still astounded…
Read MoreHOW TO BE A GOAT IN THE YEAR OF THE SHEEP
WINTER 2015 I’m not too fond of new beginnings. At least not at this time of year. My circadian clock was set to academic years at the age of six and, thirty-something years later, it is very difficult to change the calling of that cuckoo! Come 31st December, I raise half an eyebrow listening to…
Read MoreHOLD ON TO YOUR CASHMERES! A KALEIDOSCOPE OF LEPIDOPTERA BESET PANTOMIME SEASON
AUTUMN 2014 Just last week, I was forced to throw out my favourite coat! The wool of this trusted mustard-coloured piece of vintage tailoring picked up on a trip to Dijon emerged from my closet as an unsalvageable case of Pollockian felt. The first logical solution to the pressing problem was, of course, to get…
Read MoreGOOD OARSMANSHIP AND THE ODDS OF TRAVELLING LIGHT
SUMMER 2014 It takes a certain kind of skill to carry something stone-heavy with nonchalance, like it is featherweight. Seemingly, I’m travelling as light as can be, mine de rien… 23kg. The waiting. The weighing. The odds of having to unpack, reorganise, reshuffle. The scorning looks all around. Skin cells shedding underneath the bulky clothing…
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