Dec 18, 2018 - Tue 18th Dec - quiet - grocery shopping

Tue 18th Dec - quiet - grocery shopping Had a quiet day today - extremely quiet up to 9:00am cos that’s when we got out of bed. Outside it was snowing heavily but it wasn’t going tp last - it was all done and turned to rain by midday. Noticed that the snow on the roof over the lounge area is about half a metre deep - and that is even with some thawing that must occur when it rains. The family were all gone nice and early because they had booked for a “First Tracks” breakfast up at the top of the mountain at the Roundhouse. $20 gets the...

Dec 17, 2018 - Mon 17th Dec - Tree Canopy Trek

Monday 17th Dec - Tree Canopy Trek We had a quiet morning at home. The young ones had gone onto the slopes. Izzy had a physio appt, and Andrew and Jen had gone to do a major grocery shop. When they came home we helped bring the groceries inside - I had snow boots on and managed to do a graceful non injurious fall at the bottom step to the kitchen. I rolled to the floor and the carton of groceries went down with me. Amazingly the 2 doz eggs in the box were all still intact - - and so was I - I didn’t even break my “yolk”. Lucky eh!!! We...

Dec 16, 2018 - SUN 16th Dec - Santa Day - Church - Ziplining

Sun 16th Dec - Santa Day - Church - Ziplining It’s Santa day on the slopes today. This means that the 1st 100 people who present after 7:30 at Blackcomb village get free lift passes up the mountain (doesn’t help our lot with pre-bought passes for the duration). The suits were bought in Bris and carried over to participate in the event. We had had a heavy snowfall the prev night and the plows were busy clearing the roads. When Kaye saw that we had made the effort to go down early to watch she left the lift line and joined us because she just...

Dec 15, 2018 - Sat 15th Dec - MOVE DAY and Markets

Sat 15th Dec - MOVE DAY and Markets The move to Talluswood (the name of the small estate) at Creekside (the name of the suburb) went smoothly John in his hire car took all our bags and board bags in one trip and then took all the passengers in 2 trips. The house easily takes the 9 of us. AnJ are on the top level (1 above ground and over the garage), Ron ’n Jan are on the split level between ground and top - and we have a huge bedroom with ensuite. (I’m going to take semaphore lessons in order to communicate with Jan after we’ve gone to bed...

Dec 14, 2018 - Fri 14th Dec - Snow-mobiling and Ice Skating

Fri 14th Dec - Snow-mobiling and Ice Skating Overnight the temps have risen to just on zero and we have had light rain so now all the tress have lost their snow they collected over the last few days. Some of the family went for an early run (ski that is) on the slopes. Not pleasant though as some gondolas are closed and some runs also closed due to high winds up on the mountains. We need to walk down to the village to be at the Hilton Hotel by 11:15 where the office for Snow Mobiling is. When all had signed their legal waivers and paid...

Dec 13, 2018 - Thu 13th Dec - Quiet day and Blackcomb dinner

Thu 13th Dec - Quiet day and Blackcomb dinner The eager snowboarders were out early again and we oldies arose at a more sedate time (as befits our age - well together we do make a “sesquicentenary” - if you can apply that to people’s collective age). Down to the village we headed in the light rain because the snow level doesn’t extend down this low. To avoid rain you have to be up on the high tops. Jan and I needed to do Secret Santa stuff in readiness for our Family Christmas Day on the 19th - early because John and Kaye’s family are...

Dec 12, 2018 - Wed 12th Dec - … but snow didn’t last

Wed 12th Dec - … but snow didn’t last Well, we might have expected some good snow last night but it was rather meagre. As usual the boys were off out of the house early to get on the lifts and slopes before the crowds. first uplift starts at 8:30. Andrew went up a little later and caught up with some of them. John, Mel and Cam are usually off early. John has good ski skills and enjoys skiing on his own. Mel and Tim will often meet up even tho she is probably faster than Tim. Fortunately most of them bought lift passes that enable them to...

Dec 11, 2018 - Tue 11th - more snow

Tues 11th Dec - snow has returned Most of the young gen-s headed off early for the snow hoping to get on some slopes for an uncrowded ski. And they achieved it but at mid morning the weather at the top was pretty miserable with high winds and low visibility. They tackled the slopes in the morning and came back to the houses for a soccer game at 12:00. Yay, says Tim, Liverpool is through to the next round. After lunch they were off again, this time building some small jump ramps near the JnK residence where there is a wide slope to get into...

Dec 10, 2018 - Mon 10th - rain, thaw

Mon 10th Dec - rain, thaw Most of the board-ers/skiers left early this morning to get an early start, which was just as well ‘cos when Jen, Kaye and Jan headed out (with me) the crowds were huge at the base of the gondolas because the Blackcomb Excalibur lift was stopped. By the time I ducked home to get Jen’s phone and back again the entire lift plaza was choked with people in long queues. Families with young kids were turning back to go home. For those who know Whistler, one of the queues went back has far as the bus interchange stairs....

Dec 9, 2018 - How Does Six Months Go By So Fast?!

The time seems to fly by so fast and it doesn't feel like we did much. The garden was very successful this year. By the time the rain started in early September there were many, many tomatoes to pick. What to do with them all? Four batches of green tomato salsa, tomato jam, bruschetta and some to eat. It is estimated that we had about 60 pounds of them in all from 22 plants. The potatoes were also very successful and we will grow more next year. We are also hoping to upgrade and increase the size of the greenhouse. Kelly completed...

Dec 9, 2018 - SUN 9th - snowing all day

SUN 9th Dec - snowing all day Today we woke to snow and it did not let up. That was a little contrary to the forecast. Our selected church option was put off because the snow would not make for pleasant driving for John and we didn’t fancy a half hour walk through snowing weather. So we had a cuppa, read, watched the fire, watched flakes falling had another cuppa, read, watched flakes falling, lunch and cuppa. It really was a busy morning. Mid afternoon we thought some exercise was in order so we walked to Kaye and John’s unit at Upper...

Dec 8, 2018 - Sat 8th - end classes

Sat 8th - Sat - end classes Well the sore muscles have continued and some are taking rests. We are glad that we took the Peak to Peak ride yesterday while we had blue sky because today has dawned with full cloud cover. The forecast was for some snow later today. Andrew told us later that it had been snowing on the mountain most of the morning while he was snow-boarding. In the house we noticed snow starting late morning and it has snowed lightly for most of the day. The forecast is for snow off and on for the next few days but unfortunately...