Phyl's Blog

As a small child I spent my Friday nights at my granny's. Granny knitted all her own cardies so I learned to knit. I don't knit ...

I was in McDonald's last week... well, there's a phrase you don't hear me say often (it was 1am and I was driving from Copenhage...

When Thomas and I bought our first house with a garden (12 years ago), the first thing he wanted to plant was hollyhocks. I'd had ...

Everything on Funen is Hans Christian Andersen. He was born in Odense, so he's everywhere. I use the statues of him to navigate my ...

For the seven years the kids were at primary school, getting them in on the last day of term was never an issue, though it did seem fairly p...

Back at our Scottish school, I used to find birthdays a bit of a burden. I had five kids (granted I only ever had three at primary at the on...

...you don't see on the school run in Newton Mearns. A garden with a traditional windmill on the driveway up to their house!

...you don't see on the school run in Newton Mearns. A wee 'gingerbread' cottage by a lake. (Appearances are deceptive - it...

      In Scotland we had built up an amazing garden over the 12 years we were in that house. By that I don't mean amazing by the ...

...you don't see on the school run in Newton Mearns. I thought I'd do a wee photo from time to time of things that make me stop on...

I've mentioned their liquorice fetish before, but I'm now surrounded by it. On my first day back over here a couple of weeks ago...

This one is for my friend Stephanie! Back at Kirkhill, we had the best lollipop lady. I won't go into the details because I already ha...

Léon was always going to approach this in a cocky and positive manner. To be honest, I've been quite apprehensive that he might crash an...

As school is winding down towards the summer break, school trips are the thing this week. On her first day Anna was told there are two (fr...

Since we had our tour of the two Danish schools last Thursday, we've had varying degrees of bravado and worry vis a vis going to school ...

I took this photo back in Italy in 2017. We'd found a stunning field of sunflowers by the roadside in Poppi in Tuscany. Amaia rem...

So this is how the 'little' three started the school session 2018-19. And on Tuesday, I'll update it to how they are finishing...

We went shopping today in Flensburg in Germany. The big hypermarket was selling four-man tents for the summer holidays, but not just any fou...

I've been a traveller much longer than I have travelled... From the first time I heard a foreign language, I knew I needed to escape...

I'm starting this series of blog posts the week the house goes on the market, but I expect I won't be hitting the 'publish...