24 - 30 December 2012

Dogs are not just for Christmas, that we know, but now we know that dogs and Christmas should not even be mentioned in the same breath. Isn't Christmas already top of the list of the most stress inducing things? What on earth possessed us to decorate a tree with baubles, shiny things and chocolate, and put a load of stuff, some edible, some inedible but still possible to be eaten, wrapped in crispy, crunchy paper,on the floor underneath the tree, and then introduce a puppy into the mix. Twelfth Night may be well be curtailed to Fourth Night this year.

17 - 23 December 2012

The run of winter visitors kicked off with a lovely week spent with Justine's cousin Simon, and Fiona, Chris and Lucy. The first of 8 weeks of back to back visitors. Let's hope we still feel as hospitable by the time our last winter guests come!

10 - 16 December 2012

The origin of Maria Alm's church as a place of pilgrimage begins with the legend of a forester mauled to death by a bear in 13th century. Mourners erected a cross and a picture of the Virgin Mary, miracles started to happen, the image became known for its healing powers and pilgrims started to worship at the site. As more and more pilgrims came, the image was moved into the church. Legend then becomes recorded fact through votive pictures depicting the miracles. The original gnadenbild (picture with healing powers) was lost but a copy remains in the church and also at the entrance to the Almerwirt hotel. Now, thousands of pilgrims come to Maria Alm every year, which means Simon is kept in worthy employment and lots of people have become rich. All thanks to one bad tempered bear.

3 - 9 December 2012

Justine, who would win the booby prize in the Waldhaus Sparverein (Christmas saving club) if there was such a thing, was the winner of the top tombola prize at the annual pay out party. A beer advent calender is just what is needed to prepare for a festive period that generally includes a lot of beer.

26 November - 2 December 2012

Herr Licht is a lighting artist of international repute. Next year he will be creating a light installation for Canterbury Cathedral. This year he has created a wonderful Advent installation in Maria Alm church, at enormous cost to the Tourist Office. Simon's choir rehearsed there for Saturday's Advent concert and found that the cramped conditions were greatly eased if one just shoved all those huge lights into the corner a bit. After the concert Simon did his best to recreate the art work and his reworking of it is now being enjoyed by thousands of pilgrims and tourists. (Please note: name of aforementioned artist of international repute has been changed to avoid him ever reading this blog and our subsequent embarrassment.)

19 - 25 November 2012

The river that runs through Maria Alm is called the Urslau, from the Latin Ursa, meaning bear, a legacy from a former large population of bears. Bears threatened the survival of struggling farmers with little livestock, and since the wealth of the ruling classes relied on the farmers working their land, the hunting of bears was encouraged, until, by the 19th century, they were all gone. Following public outrage in the 1970's when a migrant Slovenian bear was killed in Southern Austria, support grew for the reintroduction of bears to Austria. Beset with problems, including a rogue bear who destroyed 50 bee hives, killed 20 sheep, pulled the plug out of small ponds to drain the water and eat the fish, and enjoyed a rabbit supper while children slept in a nearby tent, this project has been managed over the last 20 years by WWF Austria. The project appears to have mostly involved an 'emergency bear' swat team shooting rubber bullets at bears who are becoming human-habituated. This year, they announced that brown bears are extinct again.

12 - 18 November 2012

Having somewhat idled through the summer months, Simon and Justine are planning to make hay while the sun shines this winter. With a tally of ten different jobs between them they are grateful that the dog should be house trained by December, the children can make toasted sandwiches, and the winter only lasts 15 weeks. Bring it on!

5 - 11 November 2012

As we head into our sixth winter, just 5 more than we had planned on spending here, annual events are becoming very familiar. This particular week in November is the week of the huge, unmissable, second hand winter sports equipment sale in Saalfelden. The night before, at the special late night shopping and discount evening at the local sports shop, Justine and Simon, with complimentary wine and nibbles in hand, enthused about it, and persuaded those as yet uninitiated to sell their old equipment and pick up a bargain, until they realised they were being quite ungracious to their hosts.

29 October - 4 November 2012

Justine is relieved to read that the trend in Salzburg for decorating graves is tending towards a more 'natural' look. On All Souls Day, 2 November, in preparation for the traditional blessing, graves in Maria Alm are extravagently decorated with flowers, candles and angels. Justine hopes that the 6 priests' graves that she and Simon tend, another Messner responsibility, will be recognised as 'natural' rather than unkempt. Simon enjoys embracing all the Catholic traditions, Justine struggles and welcomes a little step along the road towards (undermining hundreds of years of Catholic tradition and) making everything just a little more practical.

22 - 28 October 2012

In the first couple of weeks of our new puppy's arrival, combined, not ideally, with the first couple of weeks in which Caspar began learning the trumpet, Justine, in a shrewd move, went to spend a quiet fortnight with her mum.

15 - 21 October 2012

Adopting the downhill racing position in the most unusual or incongruous location - that is 'Herminating', named after ski idol Hermann Maier, and Austria's answer to 'planking'. 850 people doing precisely that at one moment - that is a new world record, and Caspar and his school friends can take the credit for setting it on Tuesday.

8 - 14 October 2012

Look who's joined our family!!

1 - 7 October 2012

Simon has just learnt that he has been neglecting one of his many duties as Mesner; that of 'Wetterläuten', ringing the church bells long and loud when bad weather is on the way. These days insurance companies protect themselves against hefty claims by sending text messages to their insured when bad weather is on the way, anyone else looks out the window and ringing bells just seemed unnecessary. But we were mistaken in thinking that Wetterlaüten is just an early warning system. Wetterlaüten, apparently, prevents storms. When storm clouds gather, the noise of the bells shakes up the atmosphere and dispels the clouds,(a more scientific explanation was not available). If Simon had done his duty, Maria Alm would not have suffered quite so terribly in the recent floods, storms and hailstorms, and he could have expected 'Laütergarben' a gift of wheat and oats from the farmers as thanks for protecting their harvests. This tradition fell out of favour somewhat in 1709 when the Messner of Bergheim rang the bells whenever a cloud appeared in the sky, day or night, the farmers withheld the Laütergarben, even though he had worked so hard for it, and it all ended in a big fight.

24 - 30 September 2012

Caspar recently attempted to teach Simon and Justine the niceties of the Pinzgau dialect. Basically, it doesn't matter what you say, what mistakes you make, in gender, case, tense, vocabulary, intonation or word order, so long as you get your meaning across and sound 'lässig' (laidback). Simon, champion of the German language, and Justine, handmaid of the daily struggle to master the dative and genitive, are appalled.

17 - 23 September 2012

The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalise or insult certain groups of people, i.e political correctness, does not appear to be widely practised here. The pejorative 'Neger' is bandied about liberally, first encountered by Justine at the Waldhaus for a term referring to a drink of Weiss beer mixed with cola, and this week from Caspar describing what we know as a 'dead leg'. This particular 'Neger' put him on crutches for a week.

10 - 16 September 2012

The first snow of the winter. Summer is well and truly over and we didn't see a single wasp.

3 - 9 September 2012

When a pile of concrete blocks, old steel wheels, wooden rails, and other industrial rubbish was dumped in Saalfelden this week, we assumed it was modern art at it's most unappealing. Not for one minute did we ever assume that it was for crazy, crazy people to ride their bicyles on. The World Trial Bike Championships took place in Saalfelden this week. Justine could only watch through her fingers, and you could tell the competitors by their mangled bones and the blood and scars on their shins.

27 August - 2 September 2012

Free contraception is not available in Austria, (unless you happen to be a student at the International School of Sex in Vienna, which has a curriculum offering '5 courses, 200 lessons, a lifetime of pleasure and free contraception'). This, and perhaps a good Catholic upbringing, means that abstinence in teenage years amongst Maria Almers appears to be not unusual. Justine is fondly reminded of the Ski School end of season weekend. Following a game of strip poker the boys climbed into bed with the girls, sung them a lullaby until they were asleep and then crept quietly back to their own dormitory. Justine is considering being a NHS tourist to avoid a 500 euro bill for contraception.

20 - 26 August 2012

This week the opportunity for Justine to spend 6 months working at Dartington fell through. Unfortunately Justine has already realised that 5 years of ski teaching and waitressing is about enough and is now feeling decidely unsettled.

13 - 19 August 2012

Having joined in the massive pealing of bells to celebrate the first day of the games whilst in England, we brought a bit of Olympic fervour back with us and spent many a happy hour shouting at the television. Not being able to receive BBC television here, we have had the disadvantage of a German bias in the Olympic Games' coverage, with, however, the advantage of German commentators who can pronounce both 'w' and 'v' but apparently never in the right place. This advantage was best enjoyed during the coverage of the tennis final with Wenus Villiams.

5 - 12 August 2012

Justine and Simon should be careful what they wish for. This week a bolt of lightning took out four trees by the apartment that had obscured a lovely view and the morning sun, and that Justine and Simon had always wished away.

30 July - 5 August 2012

Back home in Austria, Simon is not so sure!

23 - 29 July 2012

Simon, forgetting that he was currently enjoying the luxury of grandparents on tap, couldn't envisage any problems with the suggestion that Justine worked from November until June at Dartington, 3 weeks on, one week off, covering the Creative Producer's maternity leave, while he was in Austria with the children.

16 - 22 July 2012

This week, 10 days later than planned, we set off to England for two weeks of sunny weather, possibly the only two sunny weeks in the entire English summer. Elizabeth hopes that in England's teeming metropolises we will get the items on her Christmas wish list - sellotape, paper and dental floss.

9 - 15 July 2012

Immediately following Justine's recorder pupils' end of term concert Justine was hospitalised. Despite the concert, the problem turned out to be appendicitis.

2 - 8 July 2012

Since Elizabeth was grounded this week having gone awol on the afternoon of her accordion lesson, it was important for Justine and Simon to be at home when she came back from school to enforce her imprisonment. On Wednesday, after an early start, they managed a 10k walk, a bike ride, 3 geocaches and a swim, and were home when school finished at 11.15. House arrest was the perfect punishment for Elizabeth,who would move permanently into her friends' houses given the option. Having had a lovely day of cooking and board games, Mary is looking forward to Elizabeth misbehaving again.

25 June - 1 July 2012

Simon spent this week enjoying the simple life with the Taize Community in France, a monastic order with a strong devotion to peace and justice through prayer and meditation, along with 2000 17 to 30 year olds from all over the world. Not qualifying as a 17 - 30 year old he went as a helper with 40 local young people and a few teachers. At the start of the week his verdict was 'rehab but with singing', by the end it was a remarkable and unforgettable experience.

18 - 24 June 2012

Jan Ware has rallied the village into some 'balsam bashing'. The invasive impatiens glandulifera with it's exploding seed pods is smothering our native flora. Mary and her school friends filled 22 bin bags with this Himalayan Balsam/Policeman's Helmet/Gnome's Hatstand/Kiss-me-on-the-mountain, and with such gusto that there could well have been a few rare species of orchid thrown in too.

11 - 17 June 2012

Elizabeth's delightful imprecision in her English language usage has given us another classic; when she's breathless and exhausted through over-exertion she claims to be 'out of tough'.

4 - 10 June 2012

Pomp and pageantry are part of the culture here. Fronleichnalem (Corpus Christi) celebrated on Thursday involves flags, cannons, the band, and a procession. Planned with precision to rival the Queen's Jubilee, Simon had a strategy meeting with the vicar the day before. Later and by chance, Simon learnt that the vicar had neglected to mention that the centrepiece of the procession is a life-size statue of Mary decorated with flowers (traditionally carried by 6 virgins). The statue was hastily found, erected, decorated, and, as if by magic four strapping young lads turned up to carry it on the day (we didn't ask if they were virgins). A centuries old tradition lives on despite the fact that Simon is Mesner. If the Madonna had not been present for the procession it would have been akin to forgetting to put the Queen on the balcony for the Jubilee.

28 May - 3 June 2012

According to the official geocaching (real-world outdoor treasure hunting game) website, the 'location placement should not cause unnecessary concern'. Justine was unnecessarily concerned when a good walk was ruined by three attempts to find the blasted little lunchboxes. Nothing was found, patience was lost.

21 - 27 May 2012

Justine's birthday was eclipsed by two big events this week - Eurovision and Elizabeth's birthday party, which we finally found time to organise 8 weeks after her birthday. She received 2 Kiddy Contest CD's for her birthday and now spends hours in front of the mirror emulating the grating tones of pre-teens pretending to be pop stars. It's an anomoly to her that someone over 70 could be considered a pop idol and she innocently asked if Engelbert Humperdinck would still be alive when Eurovision took place at the end of the week.

14 - 20 May 2012

Justine is having a blooming nightmare. Responsible, by default, for the church flowers and bearing in mind that the Easter flowers cost about €500, she decided to go cheap and cheerful for Pentecost. She had already filled the trolley with bright bargain bucket blooms when a helpful friend warned that some sensitive souls could be affronted when flowers more commonly seen on a grave appeared in the church. That leaves Justine with few options since each individual grave is a microcosmic Chelsea Flower Show, with not a petal out of place. When a petal is out of place the flowers are banished to the bin - whence they find their way to the Peberdy balcony, and they would win a gold medal, in spite of and because of their beautiful flaws.

30 April - 6 May 2012

First communion time again. A big support team was on hand to encourage Elizabeth in her efforts to be pure and angelic. Nina, Helen, Jon, Ellie, Dominic and Rebecca all lent a hand, and Caspar lent his bed and set up camp very happily in a hammock on the balcony.

23 - 29 April 2012

Today was the first day of the first week of the first of three two week swim courses, involving over 60 children and just as many hours spent in the water for Simon and Justine. The annual kindergarten swim course didn't take place last year because of Simon's back and since there is no other local provision there is now a glut of non- swimmers and the course has been extended to include the school children too. Some of the 5 year olds stepped into a pool for the first time today. In a land-locked mountainous country it seems it is considered more important to be able to ski than swim. Just like skiing it is a joy to teach.

16 - 22 April 2012

Caspar has a fairly extensive German vocabulary due to his diverse interests, sport, music, church and reading Asterix books. Occasional pitfalls occur, such as this week when a visiting vicar asked Caspar, during a wedding ceremony to fetch him a docht (taper), and Caspar ceremoniously presented him with a dolch (dagger, or rather kitchen knife because he couldn't find a dagger in the vestry).

9 - 15 April 2012

A long and busy winter, which featured a combined family ski distance of 3333 kilometres, over 100 children taught to ski, temperatures of -30 degrees, lots and lots and lots and lots of snow, and 25 blogs that Justine did not find time to write, is over.

2 - 8 April 2012

Caspar knocked his tooth out for the fifth time this week, and this is completely unrelated to the fact that he is learning to unicycle. Watch this space for forthcoming catalogue of injuries.

19 - 25 March 2012

Natrun closed today with full cover still on and off piste. The children are already anticipating the start of summer, Mary perhaps a little prematurely (see photo)!

13 - 19 February 2012

There's a lot going on here this week. For Matthew Rogers that is one reason why it takes a long time to get to bed, despite the best efforts of Simon, Justine, Steve and Catherine to banish children for the evening. The other reason he proffered was that 'including pants, I've got ten layers on'. Very sensible when the temperature is -20.

16 - 22 January 2012

Here is something Simon translated; 'It is said that the fragrance of stone pine is very special. No other wood has such a distinctive aroma. So mild and rounded, like incense and vanilla. It is also said that it has a comforting effect and calms the heart. This fragrant gift comes to you from the Eder hotel, providing you with some special moments of peace and we wish you many more special times in the coming year 2012.' This translation was put on a tag for a gift of soap for all the VIP guests at the hotel. As an afterthought the hotel decided to add its own translation to the tag, promoting the gift shop in the hotel; 'More souvenirs, like Polo-Shirts, Caps, pocket flasks, books, handy-pjama, Schnaps and a lot more, are offered in our small and beautiful shop! Cool, usefull, casual and ... fucking awesome!'

9 - 15 January 2012

Taking time off from school can seriously affect forthcoming GCSE results, which is why schools will often refuse permission for a term time jolly, and Josh and Aisling chose to surreptitiously visit us for a week. It's not easy to say if the week of study missed had negative effects, but Josh can confirm that not being present at a GCSE exam does seriously affect results, as a huge dump of snow prevented them getting home on time.

2 - 8 January 2012

Just over one month in the job and new Mesner Simon, has already achieved some firsts in the 505 year history of Maria Alm church; the first time that one bell accidentally tolled for a whole hour so that villagers believed that the Pope himself must have died, and the first time the Ewigeslicht (Eternal light) stopped being eternal and went out.

26 December 2011 - 1 January 2012

Simon celebrated his 42nd birthday this morning by clearing up dead pigeons in the church tower. A moment when one wonders, how did I get here?