A Quick Trip

I have been quiet on here recently as I have just returned from a brief trip back to the UK. I went back for a couple of reasons, firstly to visit my grandmother who is currently recovering in hospital from a stroke. It was so wonderful to spend some time with her (and cheer her up by setting her up with Classic FM on the hospital radio/tv thing). Yet another reason to be thankful for having a big family, as they are taking it in turns to take my grandfather in to visit every day and spend some time with them both while she recuperates (and also smuggle in lots of pana cotta and homemade soups - so much nicer than hospital food).

The other main reason for my trip was that my youngest sister very bravely (and very successfully) organised a big Cancer Research Event on the Sunday, so I felt I should really go and give her some support. I enjoyed my marshalling duties whilst watching giant ginger-bread men and fat-Elvis's doing their 6K run! I am really proud of what my sister has achieved along with the help of her many volunteers, and I am looking forward to finding out how much they raised for such an important cause.

Everyone who knows me well, understands that I am not that fond of flying. In fact it would be fair to say that I hate it. Being in such an enclosed space in such close proximity to strangers doesn't help, add to that peoples general attitude towards you when you fly with small children (no matter how well behaved they are), and it wouldn't surprise you that I would rather walk anywhere! But for the very first time, and much to my surprise, I really enjoyed my flights. It might have helped that there was no turbulence at all, I was flying alone, and both were on really clear days so you could see everything below! If I could guarantee that every flight was like that, then I would secretly be quite looking forward to the next one! The state of the house upon my return was forgiven when my husband presented me with a big bunch of Dahlia's at the airport. Huge beautiful bunches of them in all shapes colours and sizes are for sale everywhere right now. They are considered to be quite old-fashioned flowers in the UK, but for some reason they just look different here (someone will probably tell me that they are not actually Dahlia's now!), and they will always remind me of autumn in Denmark. Other things in abundance at the moment are chanterelle mushrooms, red-currants and cob-nuts, wooden crates of them dot the supermarket shelves. I love how seasonal produce is so important here as is local food, and as I have said before it's something my home country and quite a few others could do with taking note of.

I have a day or two to get organised before some more guests arrive. I should start by de-cobwebbing the house! I always equate the arrival of lots of spiders with autumn, and if that's really true, then autumn isn't just pretending anymore. I will have to search for some conkers and place them in the corners of the rooms to see if this old wives tale really works!

Next week we will have been here for a whole year! Something I can't quite get my head around.

Take care.

Emma xx

PS. Incidentally, I did watch Out of Africa again the other day. Meryl Streep's Danish accent isn't that great admittedly, but it's much better than Robert Redford's British one!!