So it was my birthday yesterday (I turned 37, a number it’s taking me a little while to get my head around), and among all the gifts and greetings I received from near and far, this one from my friend, Debbie, was certainly the most appreciated by my and my family’s tastebuds: That there is… Read More Scrumdiddlyumptious

If I’d had the presence of mind this morning to snap a photo when I emptied into a storage container a bag of what I supposed to be steel-cut oats but was in fact a flock of live grain moths, this would have been quite a memorable blog post. As it stands, I’m the only… Read More Unexpected

A couple of bright, sunshine-y days and a bit of elbow grease on Olof’s part have left our porch free of snow. The same can’t be said of our yard just yet but its time will come, too.

It was nearly seven years ago — on the morning of my thirtieth birthday, in fact — that I discovered, and promptly plucked, my first grey hair. Since then, plucking has been my standard method of dealing with the occasional grey, and up until very lately it’s been satisfactory. These past several months, though, have… Read More If you can’t beat ’em …

Nearly a decade of living in the Frozen North has changed me. Oh, probably not in any major way — I was always a commie-loving, tree-hugging liberal, after all — but there are some subtle differences, to be sure. For instance, I now see nothing wrong with eating cheese on a slice of buttered bread,… Read More Re-learning

It was recently brought to my attention by my mother that I haven’t posted a picture of Tage in quite a while, even though the blog has been replete with photos of his sisters, the dogs, the cats, and even the odd snow mountain. Yesterday’s Lilla Vasaloppet — the children’s version of Sweden’s famous cross-country… Read More The boy

You know how they say if you’re not the lead dog the view never changes?

Months and months ago I bought tickets to see Mika play in Stockholm on March 18. I had wanted Olof to go with me, but he doesn’t travel unless he absolutely can’t avoid it, so I offered the second ticket to Lydia. She’s not a huge Mika fan and her response to my invitation was… Read More Showtime

For the past couple of years my younger kids have been big fans of Barbapapa, a French children’s book character from the ’70s who is lately enjoying a revival of popularity here in Sweden. I think he and his kind are a little creepy, but they’re ultimately harmless, so I do buy a Barbapapa book… Read More Head-scratcher