Coming to Finland from Istanbul is incredibly refreshing. We got on the plane sweaty, unwilling to make any unnecessary movements, and by Riga we were delighted to find that we really should be wearing jumpers. The rain that has fallen on and off since we arrived is more than welcome. The other relieving thing is that suddenly views are panoramic, green and simple. I am shocked, again, by the feeling of space. The children are more energetic and play for hours in the evening, confused by the light that fades a little around midnight and is back by three. Playing in the drizzle is of no note here and I love walking Neve to sleep while tiny, light drops find her nose and eyelids. With less than a week to go before we return to the heat and claustrophobia of a city of well over 15 million, my thoughts turn to it more and more. I know that I am steeling myself, that the place I call home challenges me. These pictures will be a reminder to me of a fortifying gulp of breath, because I am more than up for the challenge, though right now I could cry about returning to the dust and misunderstanding. Recently I thought about how completely I fell in love with the Yorkshire Dales, and the decade I spent there was largely to make shared parenting of Ruskin with my ex-husband possible. I cannot gloss over the amount of tears shed over being a part-time mother, but I did everything possible to be as much of a mother as I could be. And part of that was making Yorkshire my home. Then I met Ville, and to enable him to do for Matti what I did for Ruskin, I have moved to Istanbul. There is no doubt that two more love affairs have begun: one with a city and one with a boy who just turned eight (wow, four years already!). In the meantime I take a deep breath of cool air, soak in the green and smell the pines.