Atop Latrigg

At last, Cumbria is back to its usual, beautiful self (although many people have a long way to go before they’ve recovered from the flood devastation). Anyway, we decided to go for a walk up Latrigg near Keswick (where Prince Charles turned on the Xmas lights yesterday…not sure whose job it originally was). The above picture and the following three were taken by Luke during our outing. He loved the whole experience!

And these are by me…this stunning mountain is Skiddaw:

A funny story from this morning…Luke was having an extended bath, splashing like mad and getting the leaky floor very wet, so I asked him to calm down a bit, pointing out that the water would drip into the shop downstairs. “It’s flooding,” came the savvy reply.

Finally, a very Happy Birthday to Jossi!!

Floods; Cumbria and Singapore

OK, so bizarrely, Singapore had the worst flash floods for about 50 years on Thursday, the very same day when I wrote the previous entry. I got away to the airport on Friday, via “the Struggle” (that’s what the road up to the Kirkstone pass from Ambleside is called locally – even on dry days). There were abandoned cars in a couple of places, but amazingly, once we made it to Windermere, the direct train to the airport actually ran.

Anyway, when I got here, I found out that on Thursday there had been flash floods in this the very most well organised of all countries. Unlike Cumbria, the only casualties were a couple of Ferraris…

And here you see the kind of drainage system the have in place, which normally copes with anything:

I have to say it was a sad time to leave Cumbria, and totally weird to sit in the bar at the Hyatt here and watch an old lady in Cockermouth talking to Gordon Brown on CNN. Surreal. I cannot tell you how badly the floods have affected our community.

Martin’s footage has now been on Sky news, Channel 4 and tonight BBC Northwest tonight is running it with a proper credit, and they are visiting Grasmere to show where it was taken. So far his exclusive  content has generated some 9000 visits to cumbrialive!

Other impressions from Singapore: Rainbow snacks (Jochen tried it, I refused), Razor Tv (Singapore Press Holdings’ web tv venture) and a couple of editorial mascots! (back home tomorrow evening)

Rained in…

… this is life in winter in blessed Cumbria – here’s the “green” outside our bedroom window as per this afternoon. ALL roads from Grasmere are cut off due to extreme flooding, and the river has burst its banks (oh, can just see Martin returning in the Jeep from an hour’s filming, thank God for that – he stalled in half a metre of water this morning, but there’s no telling him to stay home!) Check out today’s action here!!

And I’m supposed to fly to Singapore tomorrow from Manchester Airport. Seriously might not happen…

Here’s Luke, who doesn’t really care about the weather, although enjoyed our splash this afternoon, playing with his fleet of “naironplanes” yesterday. Then he took a couple of shots of his parents.

Our new cleaner

We don’t pay him anything, but then he isn’t all that thourough…:-)

And these two are taken by the cleaner himself!

Cousins

Martin’s brother Justin (who last year turned 30…or was that 40?) is one of this blog’s regular readers and commentators – thank you J! He and his lovely family, wife Meeta,  Yasmin (8) and Aran (soon 6) are currently spending half term in the Lakes, and we had a great Sunday together. Luke’s cousins  are just the sweetest kids you ever want to meet, and the three of them got on like a house on fire. They brought a boardgame (Pesky Pirates) for Luke – a new concept for him, and taught him how to play. Then they disappeared into his room, and just played the entire day away. So nice.

…and guess who came for dinner! Lukie exclaimed “They are my brothers!” while pointing and jumping up and down as they walked in:-)

Georgetown revisited

When I lived in NC – about 15 years ago – Washington DC used to be my saving (political) grace…driving the seven hours to stay with my super liberal Russian speaking friends Kevin and Maren was such a relief from the prevailing conservative winds in the south (much as I loved life there). I’m now back in Georgetown, having half a day off during the latest e-reading seminar…

Love it!

The old favourites…after some fantastic frocks over the years, I feel I am definitely too old for Betsy J these days. Sadly – she is just brilliant!

And the fantastic deli Dean & Deluca – selling unpasteurised cheese against federal law! Since then it’s become a national institution…

And a couple of pics from last week – first Martin testing some borrowed equipement to film his own paragliding…no idea how my little camera managed to focus on just him:-)

And Lukie at his favourite past time…having Mamma read him When We Were Very Young while he’s on the potty… for a very long time…

Nine at Broadgate House

Last night was some sort of record – there were nine of us sleeping in our flat! My sister Ulli with kids Ida, Ture and Sara have been over all weekend, and Matt and Josh joined the Sunday night get-together…

Ida has been a super book reader for Sara and Luke over the entire weekend!

Yatzy is as popular as ever with this crowd – both the Knutssons and the Campbells.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Keldwyth House, with the main activity being picking apples and refining them – here’s Martin juicing.

He also made some rosemary and  apple jelly, using less than orthodox methods I think…

…Ida made apple crumble for everyone, Sarah’s focus was apple and black berry jam, and Matthew and I hung with the kids in the garden for much of the afternoon. A great day!

A Paris aujourd’hui

Last minute secondment to the French capital to report on yet another e-reading event…and for the first time I find myself in the La Défense business area of Paris, which to a large extent came into being as Mitterand’s legacy to the world (well, the French at any rate). Some amazing architecture, and the sheer scale is just mind-boggling. This from the man who basically asked for sparrow for his last meal. (Actually l’ortolan, a tiny, yellow-breasted songbird which is actually illegal to eat in France – it is nevertheless roasted and eaten with bones and all, at least by men who don’t have to worry about details like the law)

Happy Birthday Lukie!

Three today! We managed to wake up before Luke this morning, to bring him his presents (while singing) in bed…

He got some good extra bits for his train track and Dad helped build a much extended version

On Sunday he had his birthday party. Mormor, Morfar and My Hanna were over, and his friends Jacob, James and Eleanor came as did Matt, Josh and Carmen. Lukie rode his new bike (and everyone else rode theirs!) But not  before Dad had demonstrated how to wear the helmet (this was in the morning; he doesn’t normally wear a kimono when we have guests…)

And some pics from earlier during the weekend, when we went to lovely little Watendlath with the Swedes…

In James’ garden

The weather in Cumbria is currently absolutely stunning – and has been for quite a few days. This weekend saw the Great North Swim taking place in Lake Windermere, with 6000 swimmers (3000 each day)  doing 1 mile, starting and finishing at the Low Wood hotel…Martin was there to document, check it out over at Cumbrialive! Just click on the swimmer.

This afternoon we went to visit Luke’s friend James in the village…his parents Lianne and Andrew have built a house on the side of Lianne’s parent’s house, which has the most amazing garden facing fields and fells! I forseee many days playing in this place – indeed there were big tears when we had to go back home (might have had something to do with Jame’s extensive collection of toy trains as well…)

And beyond the garden there’s a great big paddock…much fun was had!