Me and my Cousins...

'Hip Hip Hurrah! Artists' Party, Skagen' by Danish painter Peder Severin Kroyer (1851-1909)

This weekend we go to Copenhagen for a big family party. My Uncle is turning 60 so the family are gathering to celebrate the occasion. My mother is Danish; I am half Danish. Denmark is in my blood despite never having lived there and (rather shamefully) not being able to speak the language. This resulted in much gesturing and sign-language between my Mormor (Grandma) and I, who lived til she was 94.

I have not been back to Denmark for 5 years. I owe my absence to having children! They do make travel more...how can I say? Cumbersome.

So we have a big family there - I have 10 cousins and a handful of second cousins with whom I grew up. Every family holiday was spent there in pure, clean, Scandinavian loveliness, we had quite simply, the best time. My parents split when I was 8 so my Danish family provided the thread that kept that fabric of familyness together for me.

Back then all my Danish cousins looked something like this...

...or this...


My family live on the outskirts of Copenhagen, my aunt and uncle's house sits on a lake where they can canoe in summer and skate in winter. Everything in Denmark, from my recollection as a child, is beautiful and calm. Everything has been designed as a 'thing of beauty' - fit for its life purpose.

My cousins and I; we climbed trees together as children, we got drunk together as teenagers and as adults, sadly its tailed off abit as we were all reproducing! There are now, as well as the first generation cousins, 8 new babies for me to meet!

This is the Danish Royal family - how chilled out do they look? I mean can you see our Queen Elizabeth sitting on the steps to Buckingham Palace with her grandchildren frolicking in front?


The weather will still be cold in Copenhagen - but it will be a breath of spring air nevertheless to see my family again...