Blogs which describe moments in my life, or the lives of my family.
The image above is of a postcard in my possession. It is entitled “On their way to war” and was taken from a painting by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia. Olga apparently painted this artwork in the early 19th century, perhaps at the beginning of World War I. But
One thing I had to consider when updating my grandmother’s memoir Upheaval, was whether or not to include a family tree. My grandmother had included a list of the important characters at the beginning of her memoir, but I thought a family tree would be better, as it would not
As some of you might know, or remember, I have been working on updating my grandmother’s memoir Upheaval to include explanatory notes and her diary from 1919. Upheaval describes my grandmother, Olga Woronoff’s life as a young aristocrat in Imperial Russia and details the impact of the Russian Revolution and
Christmas for me has always been more of a German holiday than a Russian one. It was a time of year that meant more to my Baltic German father, than to my Russian mother who put more effort into celebrating Easter. December 25th was a low key celebration as we
With Christmas fast approaching, I was looking for something to get me in the mood, something festive and traditional. Every now and again I look through the old bound copies of the St Nicholas magazines which sit on the bottom shelves of my bookcase. Today I opened the oldest of
If she were still alive my mother would have celebrated her 100th birthday on the 9th of November this year. When I was reminded of this, I realised how little I know about her. I remember asking her about her childhood but I can only recall one or two stories