Kolo kolo mlynsky::

Spring weather has already arrived, and the trees are working hard to catch up, but they still stand bare with only buds showing at their tips. The children don't notice though, they are thrilled to be back on the playground and come home happily worn out, with sand pouring from their shoes (and their pockets). We've put away our skis for the season, it's biking time again, and I vow that this year will be the year I carry my camera along on our weekend biking trips. I've other spring...

Happy Valentine's Day. I'll be back shortly with tales from the icy heart of Prague, which seems to be in line for a thaw! In the meantime, what could be nicer than two boys cooking up dinner (beef and broccoli, yum) and hearts abounding, if you just look for them.

There's no snow in Prague right now, but the weather reports are full of the news of snow in the Czech mountains. I'm spending my work breaks piecing together snow reports, train schedules and Google maps in search of the closest open cross country track and day dreaming about our Christmas vacation in Switzerland. We didn't have a lot of days free for skiing, but any free time we had found us out in the mountains with the children. They practiced their down hill skiing, built snow men and...

Years ago, in another life, I went to music school, and for four years got to indulge in that most nerdy of all analysis - music theory. By the time we graduated, if you handed me a score I could take it apart chord by chord and tell you its harmonic progression, no problem. Everyone in our class could, it came with the territory. We also had to sing the chords to "A Star Spangled Banner" while playing the piano as a prerequisite to crossing the stage at graduation, and one memorable night a...

Back in November, I posted about Sandmännchen and the package Caroline mailed to his show. Guessing she wouldn't hear back, a few weeks ago I bought C a small thank you for her effort.At the time, Caroline's German listening skills were quite decent. Give her a few days in Germany or Switzerland, and she'd become positively chatty. But she'd never been able to decipher any of our German kids books, and while I understood simple books I couldn't reliably translate text into speech. I decided...

The angels and devils were out in full force tonight at Namesti Miru. Caroline thought she'd be too old this year, but changed her mind in the nick of time.

Zden'k Miler, Krtek's creator, died yesterday. I've written about Krtek, the little mole, before. He is the most gracious and kind of Czech illustrated characters and a dear friend of the children. He's also a constant in young kids' lives here, ours not excepted. Mr. Miler will be much missed.

Every evening just before 7, a little fellow with a red felt hat and cotton beard visits German kids' TV, taking his viewers around the world on all manner of rides. Monday might find him on a carpet in India, Tuesday, a submarine under the sea, Wednesday, he'll guide a troika into the wilds of Russia. The little man, Sandmännchen, visits children in these far off places and watches a short cartoon with them before he sprinkles moon sand into the air and sends his audience to bed. He's a...

Blue skies and above freezing weather this weekend made it easy to explore the Christmas market at Nám'stí Míru and take lots of pictures. The sun (sun!) and shadows kept tempting my camera though, so I gave it free rein, and decided a portrait of a bush was my favorite picture from a morning of clicking shots of Christmas booths.For those of you with access to the market, do drop by. I'd vote it the nicest Christmas market in town and am particularly fond of the hot apple cider at the...

"T-D, T-D, T-D-ahhhva. T-Dava," said Caroline, standing at attention in front of her kindergarten's director, years ago. "T-D-am. T-D-aktor," she continued, giggling a little as familiar words turned to nonsense. She repeated the list again, faster this time. We were in the director's office and Caroline was learning to roll her Rs. "T-Dava, T-DRava, Trrrrrrrrava." It didn't take many visits for Caroline to catch on. Rs in Czech are easy to pronounce once you realize that they begin in the...