If you have ever wondered why I wanted to update my grandmother’s memoir, this post will explain all. When my father died in 2012 I inherited many documents, letters and photographs which were relevant to both sides of my family. For a couple of years they languished in boxes in
The first time my grandmother, Countess Olga Kleinmichel, saw Empress Alexandra the Empress wasn’t smiling. In fact, according to my grandmother’s memoir in which she describes the celebration of Grand Duchess Olga’s sixteenth birthday, Empress Alexandra “wore an expression of weariness and sadness which ‘society’ took for coldness and haughtiness.”
Several years ago I reread the book my grandmother had written in the early 1930’s, her memoir Upheaval. I have always been curious. From the moment I could formulate a question, I wanted to know “why”; why some things happened and others didn’t, why people made the decisions they made,
It’s been two months since I last posted, but I have a reasonably good excuse. I’m putting my apartment on the market and have spent these weeks sorting, packing and cleaning, as well as overseeing tradesmen. This week my apartment officially went on sale, which doesn’t mean I can relax
I have a question! My regular readers will know that I’ve been researching my maternal family for quite awhile now. My maternal grandparents, Paul and Olga Woronoff, escaped Russia in January 1920, during the Civil War in which my grandfather had volunteered for the White Army. As the Red Army
A couple of weeks ago I spent some time in Perth, WA visiting my son and a couple of friends who I have known since high school. It was lovely to catch up with all of them and just take time to relax and chat. And I enjoyed the weather