We were all wondering where I would settle: Sweden, where I’m a citizen, Germany, where I have ‘chosen’ family, Italy, where my daughter lives, or France, land of my maternal grandmother’s ancestors…
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Happy Birthday, Hainewalde!
2026 marks the 700th anniversary of the founding of Hainewalde, the village in Germany’s Oberlausitz region where I regularly spend time. Garostly gardening. I’m there at irregular intervals for variable lengths of time, so I was excited to be there the weekend of the big 700 celebration. While you’ve likely not heard of Hainewalde, you… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Hainewalde!
Adieu, Adine!
When Mother and I discovered and fell in love with Tolg’s ‘tailor’s cottage’ in 2003, we had no idea that a huge part of our Tolg happiness would be generated by you…
Recommendations
For me, it’s important to understand how my friends evaluate food just as it’s important to understand how to interpret Yelp or other popular restaurant rating systems in order to gather the desired information. I lunched recently in Paris’s Latin Quarter with friends with whom I periodically dine out. They had just returned from Sicily,… Continue reading Recommendations
The Commission
Monsieur Lacépede knocked lightly so as not to disturb the meeting, pushed the door open with his shoulder, set down a silver tray with Sèvres porcelain – two cups of coffee and a plate with four madeleines – on the table between them, and discreetly departed…
Grateful Progeny
My father always kept me engaged and entertained. Whether it entailed planting flowers in the garden, spending Saturday afternoons sitting cross-legged on the floor of the public library…
Appreciating Maillol
We all possess essential facets to our character that remain unknown unless the right person reveals them to the world through an anecdote, don’t we?
German Expats
German Expats, particularly those hailing from Dresden, played decisive and undervalued roles in the development of Neoclassicism in the eighteenth century…
Forest Bathing
Today, I did something that for me was once unremarkable but nowadays isn’t: walking in the forest of southern Sweden. For most, it was a stay indoors kind of day—chilly, thickly overcast, windy, and intermittently drizzly…
See with Your Heart
The first time I saw Gustaf Fjaestad’s magnificent pastel, The Boy Who Sees with His Heart (1898), it was love at first sight…