Eeeeeeeee

We bought a house! It is very cute. And that yellow ’sold’ sign? It doesn’t mean someone else snapped it up before we got our act together. That’s us. We did it.
It was nerve-wracking. We made the offer yesterday morning, then had to wait twenty-four hours to see if anyone would up the offer, and [...]

Read Full Post »

Cold fire

Last Friday, on a rare blue day, I walked across the bridge, through the town, and into the park.

This autumn is so nearly over.

But one tree was incandescent.

Its branches were like fiery rapids,

like all the warmth one could ever need.

Read Full Post »

Sunday afternoon

And then we threw a frisbee in the sun.

Read Full Post »

October

It is, all of a sudden, cold. There is something exhilarating about the swift change of season. We swapped lapping up the sun in Berlin parks for scraping ice off the windscreen at 7:30 in the morning. The trees are swiftly turning gold, and I drive through wreaths of mist to get to work. All [...]

Read Full Post »

Last night

Orange-fringed clouds at ten pm. A break in the rain. The grey, swollen river. I walk slow so as not to slip on the boards. At the harbour, a rather good band pump out melancholic Norwegian pop songs to an almost empty tented pavilion. The lead vocalist is the drummer. He is mesmerising. Families stroll [...]

Read Full Post »

Very good news!

Well, not in the grand scheme of things, I suppose. But in the miniature scheme of things, in the everyday and the here and now, very good news indeed. This kindergarten job that I ummed and ahed about for so long, and then hesitantly took the plunge, has suddenly become much more appealing. Instead of [...]

Read Full Post »

Sun

Today was the first day of summer, for sure. The meandering flocks of cumulus, which can turn sunshine into torrential showers and back again in the space of five minutes, were nowhere to be seen. Only the slightest wisps of white feathered the blue blue sky, so high they had nothing to say to us, [...]

Read Full Post »

Days and Years

It will never be today again. Never. He would not, in all his life, make another discovery more shattering.
Randolph Stow, The Merry-go-round in the Sea
In the last few hours of being 29, the loss of my twenties felt like some kind of a death. When you are in your twenties you believe you will be [...]

Read Full Post »

Everybody’s happy!

After Norway’s stunning victory in the Eurovision last night, the annual 17 May parade was even more fun than usual.

It was perfect flag-fluttering weather: warm, windy and bright.

Everybody said ‘hurrah! hurrah!’ You even needed to say ‘hurrah’ instead of ‘hei’ (hello).

We learnt from our mistake of turning up in scruffy clothes last year and dressed [...]

Read Full Post »

Progress report

Photos by Michael.
Well, I can declare the two quiet weeks at my desk a success. While none of the chapters I was working on is quite done, Murray is 95% done, Webb is 50% done, and theory chapter is 75% done. And I have clear plans for the remaining sections. By the end of today, [...]

Read Full Post »