Monthly Archives: December 2012

Xmas at the Tadeusz’s

Xmas this year was spent down at Lara’s parents. A brilliant week was spent playing with the new dogs, walking, mixed in with far to much wine and cheese!

Ellis didnt’ really get the concept of xmas was yet, but I am pretty sure she knew it was a special day and she really enjoyed opening all her presents.  Thank you everyone for your generosity, she was a little spoilt!

The Crowthers came and joined us for lunch and we all had a great afternoon eating and drinking far too much as usual.

We had a little dance

Then came the weird and wonderful Majorcan drinking jug.  the concept being that you start with the spout in your mouth, you then have to fully extend your arm whilst still pouring the liquid (in this case sherry) then back again before you mouth come too full.  Tallie above forgot to even open her mouth….. Chester being the great husband he is obviously decided she needed a helping hand.

Frank didn’t quite get it either…….

A great fun day and thank you Frank and Caryn for having us.  the rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking on this

Squeaker goes sledging

Keen for Ellis to play in the white stuff ( and nothing to do with my own addiction what so ever), I took Ellis up to the Lecht to have a go at sledging.

The weather was playing nicely and it was reasonably pleasant and Ellis was wrapped up and enjoyed it!

Screams of “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” all down the slop followed by “again!” when we came to a stop.

We were outside sledging for about an hour which I thought was enough until we retreated into the warmth.  I think she is going to enjoy snow sports as she seems to enjoy the speed.  Good little squeaker!

I am a crap Contractor

Most contractors don’t dare take a day off, but with the recent snow fall and the weather forecast like it was, I just could not say no when Monica asked if I wanted to go skiing today.  I had talked to a friend who had walked from Braemar to Aviemore on Monday and he said there is lots more snow in the Northern Cairngorms, plans were made and an early start to Aviemore was agreed.

We spent a great day up and around the northern corries, there was not a breath of wind, the clarity of the air was amazing and we could see for miles – a refreshing change to the norm.

A great start to the season, hopefully it will snow some more as there is a great base up there already, and this should set us up for a great season.

The rest of the photos can be seen by clicking here

Beinn A Bhuird is a long way away

Retrospective is funny old thing.  When deciding on where to go, obviously thinking that our first day out winter climbing would be spent in Beinn A’Bhuird is retrospectively not the best choice.  It is one of the most remote places in the UK, under alot of soft fresh snow.  Still we never really thought about that, I was just keen on going some where new.

After cycling  and walking we finally go to the bottom of the route we came to climb ‘ Slab and Arete’ after 4 hours!  It was probably the longest walk in I have ever done.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a stunning day and the place was beautiful – just quite hard going for the first winter outing with heavy bags full of ‘stuff’.  We decided that eating lunch at the bottom was a good idea, this is were I found out I had left my lunch on the front seat of the van.  A few choice swear words and a grumbly stomach and we set off up the climb.

It was rather more than the guide book suggested and with a few alterations and swearing we got up it, not the conventional route but was plenty interesting and gave a really enjoyable climb.

We got to the Top around 4:15pm just as the sun was setting. What ensued is a long walk back to the bikes in the darkness across the top of Beinn A’Bhuird with amazing views of the sun setting all around us, we could see for miles. It was a pretty clear night so we managed most of it with out head torches, when we got back to the bikes we had a brilliant decent back down the snowy icy path slip sliding our way down.  Amazingly all of us staying upright.

A great day out albeit a long one, nothing like breaking us in gently!  Scottish hills were a great place to be that day!  All the rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking here