Phyl's Blog

Partial (95%) solar eclipse.

It has come round astoundingly quickly. Yesterday, I had this tiny little blond boy who was starting primary school and today, thirteen ...

When dad died, we took over his car loan. The car came complete with two extras that we left in place. The first was a Buchanan tartan r...

I never really thought before about how it feels at five to have a brother who is 17. Marcel will leave school a few months before Amaia...

We were shopping in See Woo the other day doing an exotic stock-up. The kids were more than impressed with the dragons left over from New Y...

Amaia has grown out of her black indoor shoes for nursery, so I have replaced them with the next size up. Nursery has two rooms, each with...

Cute conversation overheard by Thomas on passing the bathroom... Anna: ... and he fainted. Amaia: What does fainted mean? Anna: ...

Once a month the primary sends home the kids' classwork for parents to see how they are getting on. While checking through (7 year...

Léon has a very Scandinavian outlook on language (funnily enough!) Completely out of the blue today he remarked:  Th...

Another cute little observation from Amaia as she tries to understand the world: Amaia : What country was daddy born in again? Me : Den...

It's sometimes hard to imagine how young kids make sense of their world. This morning I had a rather odd conversation with Amaia. ...

Although my preferred areas to work in are lexicography, followed by translating, I do occasionally do proofreading and copy editing to make...

Two and half hours sorting hama beads on a Saturday afternoon. It's amazing what forms of entertainment you can come up with to occup...

Sometimes in photos Amaia looks like a beautiful porcelain doll. The light in the igloo yesterday was just perfect!

You can always rely on little kids for a dose of reality... Overnight it hadn't snowed but it did feel cold and Léon was dressed ...

It has been nearly five years since Léon was first diagnosed as long-sighted and I am surprised to find I am actually still learning how ...

I know it's just a stage because I remember it well from when Marcel was this age, but it still drives me quite mad. It is when your ...

We decided to resume our windmill walking yesterday. We try to do that every week for an hour but things had slipped over Christmas with all...

And off it has gone. For the first time in 25 years I am no longer a car owner. And to rub salt in the wound, I was even charged £50 to c...

My little niece, Catriona (left) has a dimple on one of her cheeks. Anna is quite fascinated by it, given none of my kids have dimples. ...