Nail varnish. An extremely important part of my life. My mother had beautiful hands with perfectly painted fingernails. Always. One of my earliest memories is reaching for her hand and trying to find (unsuccessfully at first) the one without a cigarette in it. I took it, and held it and admired the shiny red. She […]Read Post ›
It was a very cold morning. I’d been up half the night with my insomniac two year old son, and now was trying to get my act together in our tiny cottage in Grove Road. I think it was snowing outside and Kasia was full of beans wanting to go out. Jacek had gone to […]Read Post ›
For MMoving home for many people is high on the list of traumatic experiences. I haven’t moved for over thirty years so cannot really remember the trauma, only the expectation of living in a better place, the excitement of something new. Having said that I realise it isn’t actually altogether true. I was on my […]Read Post ›
When I was very tiny I was sent to a private nursery school where I was a boarder. This was a traumatic time for my parents and for me because they couldn’t afford to look after me by themselves in London. At the time, however, it wasn’t considered such a shocking thing as there were many […]Read Post ›
For KGK who has just been to Florence and it reminded me of my time there. In April 1976 I went to Florence for a fortnight with my mother’s husband, Zbyszek. The year before he had come out to Spain to visit me on my year abroad and had enjoyed himself so much that he […]Read Post ›
A chance photograph prompted this. I am sharing this post because I think it is so interesting: This past week Basia Korzeniowska posted a photo to the Kresy-Siberia Facebook Group, one which made me do a double-take. Why? Because I have the same photo in my collection. Basia mentioned her mo… Source: A serendipitous encounter…
Today was an extremely special day.Easter by tradition has always been a moveable feast, but its moveability has rarely been decided by members of the general public. There are patriarchs of the various branches of Christianity involved, and governments too. But this did not interest us this year. Officially Easter Sunday was a couple of […]Read Post ›
Mothering Sunday. Ten years ago I still had my mother and my godmother, who was also my aunt. Five years ago I still had my godmother. Now I am mother to three of my own very grown-up children and Mothering Sunday is still an extremely significant day for me. This picture of the queen is […]Read Post ›
This is the link to a short film made with my mother about her time in Siberia. Many of you will have seen it before, but I thought I would put it here anyway. Thank you Graham Cooper for letting me do this.
