by Natalie Karneef | Feb 22, 2017
“What are YOU doing here?” This is my greeting as I wriggle through the mountains of boots, mitts and snow jackets in the entranceway at Matt and Holly’s. It’s Sunday night, and I’ve been invited for dinner, for which, miraculously, I’ve made it on time. I’m...
by Natalie Karneef | Oct 17, 2016
I get home today after a big museum escapade to find Pietro and Maria playing cards at the kitchen table. This spurs to Pietro to tell me the story of how they met. He was at a ski chalet with friends, and Maria showed up with a mutual friend… and her then husband....
by Natalie Karneef | Oct 13, 2016
I am like a teenager in this house. I woke up at 10 today – I can’t remember the last time I did that. I stumbled down for breakfast, whereupon Maria asked me if I knew what Nutella was, since she puts it out for me every morning and I never eat it. “I know what it...
by Natalie Karneef | Oct 3, 2016
I wake up this morning at Ella and Ingvar’s to screaming, thumping, dishes clinking and the smell of coffee. I go back to sleep. When I wake up again, there is silence. I wander around the empty house, drinking tea, catching up on work, and reveling in the...
by Natalie Karneef | Sep 7, 2016
“Where your friend?” That’s what the waiter asks when I sit down for dinner in a thatched-roofed beach hut on stilts. The hut has floor cushions and a low table, and there four or five similar huts scattered around, all facing the same stretch of turquoise ocean, over...
