21 - 27 March 2011

The current Women's Slalom World Champion, Marlies Schild was in Maria Alm on Saturday for the last race of the season. She only lives five minutes down the road so she didn't have too far to come. Caspar came first in his age group, benefitting hugely from the fact that the rest of his age group have already put away their skis and got out their bikes and roller skates. First out of one, and another hideous trophy to add to our growing collection.

14 - 20 March 2011

The tourist office reports good conditions on the pistes with depths of 90cm on upper slopes and 50cm on lower slopes. With the omission of the word 'snow' here this report could be entirely accurate. Conditions are good for muck spreading, and the water comes almost over your ski boots on the lower slopes.

7 - 13 March 2011

When we are not making the most of the woods and fields and mountains on our doorstep, then we have limited outdoor area attached to our apartment. Our balcony is 12.5m2 but if we want to take maximum advantage of the space then we have 37.5m3 which is just enough for Simon to build a high ropes course.

28 February - 6 March 2011

Schadenfreude best describes what Justine, the children, and visitors Jo, Hamish and Noah felt this week as we enjoyed skiing together while Simon stayed at home and nurtured his bad back and his new enthusiasm for baking and cooking. Noah and Hamish learnt to ski beautifully in only three days.