And the proof is in the eating........

Making Ravioli or You will have fun cooking with mum......

As always this seemed a good idea at the time.....now that my back feels as though some one has hit me repeatedly between the shoulder blades with something heavy like, well, lets say a pasta maker I am not so sure. Jamie makes it look soooooo easy but then I am no Jamie. The pasta itself is quick and easy although I am not too sure that I ever quite got the elasticity described by J with enthusiasm so easily achieved by small, dark, be-scarfed Italian women. It was just the filling, but hey, the kids did that so what am I moaning about.......At least the pigs have actually been combined to their field all day after Toby and I piled almost the entire wood supply against the wire fence.

Mud, Mud Glorious Mud

Running and piggy antics seem to have take up most of the day today despite my best intentions to get out in the garden.I Met Liz at Furnace Village Hall and did my best to drag legs that appeared to have two or three hard tennis balls lodged in the place where my calves usually are round and about and up and down. This condition is a legacy from Wednesday night (see last entry) and stayed with me for the whole soggy 8 miles but were most obvious on the hilly (up) bits. I was truly scared near the end as Liz began to sprint for it in earnest just as we went through Furnace Quarry until she remembered that we had parked further away than usual and still had 1/2k or so to go.....she also had Ginny pulling her whereas Lucy was flagging (excuses, excuses, I can dredge them up from nowhere).
In order to sooth my legs and render movement tomorrow a vague possibility I eventually got into the bath mid afternoon accompanied by a good book. Halfway through a chapter dedicated to a curious mixture of Christian fundamentalism, pornography and bombers (don't ask) I heard suspicious banging noises from the pig food shed...Yup, Miss Oldest Piglet had done it again, another piggy dash for freedom and food. Linda and I eventually bullied,cajoaled and bribed her back to re-join the other good (and hence probably with a longer life expectancy) piglets and Mrs Pig on the right side of the fence.The pigs being, well, pigs and having done their job well this was a very muddy job and meant another quick dip in the bath and so the afternoon passed away. As Garret is away until Sunday it was left to Toby and me (until he hit himself on the knee with an axe, wooden bit luckily,again an explanation of how this happened exactly is really not necessary or indeed fathomable) to try to barricade the fence against further attempts. Hmmm been there and done that before. ..WATCH THIS SPACE

Tuesday and Wednesday

Well, it had to happen but the snow is rapidly receding with the last weeks mild weather. We made it up for an afternoon when skiing was limited to the main basin and around about with good snow but narrow in places which did make me scream. My runs slowly improved in style and decreased in squawking until I decided to call it a day and retreat to the bottom cafe for a delicious bowl of soup whilst Garret swooped down released from a weeping wife for a few more runs...indeed I think that he was last down (again). It was pretty hard on the legs as there was no warm up and not let up on the way down. I was definitely the least experience one up there so nothing new there then! Fingers crossed for a dump of snow this weekend........
Last night saw a different form of torture (sorry, exercise) as we had another time trial at jogscotland which involved staggered starts along the 6.5k tri route with Garret starting 13 minutes after the leader. It was HARD going as neither of us could see who we were chasing (in his case me!) for a good long while and then it took a long time to catch them up. however, fantastic result as all the group knocked time off in some case minutes from a month ago. the handicapping was very well done and meant that there was very little hanging around. Result....very tired legs today!

One man and his Hoss

Another hard day at work for man and horse. Well, brushing Lewis, chatting with the stable girls, then ambling along the forest track can be really tough and riding him on such a horrid day really unpleasant for all concerned. Lewis knows his way to our back door but was not too pleased to be given a couple of parsnips in with his carrots.

Blogging By Numbers

A bit late posting these but, well you know the rest of the saying I am sure.......

1.Three pals and a dog off for a walk.
2.The old "jumping the ditch" game
3.Lucy and Ginny are bored with that game now and have transferred to the "It's my stick, No it's mine, no really I know it is mine"! conversation
4. Down the hill we go
5.Cally having some "me" time.
6.Ginny is not too sure about swimming in February
7. "we can do synchronised swimming in a line"
8."Off we go again"

"The tale of the Big Snowball "or " Never trust yer brother!"

From a little while back in early Feb...

Piggy Freedom!

The second escape in as many days and the future is suddenly not looking quite so good for the Three Little Pigs and Mrs Pig. Toby and Rosie were met yesterday on their way up the track home from the bus by a bold little pig trotting along on her way down to make her fortune....Rosie was dispatched to get the bucket to shake and foil her Fairy Tale dreams and hence discovered the other escapees standing in the food bin (or what was left of it) munching away. Today I was alerted by a humongous and angry squealing that one piglet had this time tunnelled out in solo bid for food and was attaching the poor decrepit pig nut bin again. Unable to bear the sight of this the others were going mad with jealously and successfully sniped on her. Fifteen frantic bucket shaking, bread roll trail making minutes later and the prisoner is now in with Mr Pig as his was the easiest field to get her into....He's a Happy Mr Pig, especially as we had to bribe him away from the gate by lobbing stale bread buns past him into the field. All very entertaining, especially as I was just back from a very sneezy, itchy (am allergic) riding session and so had on old faded pink dressing gown in preparation for a bath....stunning teamed with long riding boots, the first "appropriate" footwear that came to hand (to foot?).

More Skiing!

Well, got to make the most of the short Scottish season so we dragged Liz and her achy calves and two apprehensive daughters up the slopes and had a great day despite the low visibility. The Big Sisters' screams could be heard over much of the mountain and the little sisters did fantastically well with a great new instructor called Josh. Josh took Toby down Mugs Alley after the lesson and did us proud . All are sore this am but proud of our achievements. Rosie had a wee rest after the lesson and rook control of the iphone camera.....

FANTASTIC blue sky ski-ing day with Liz, Garret and Toby.

The photos say it all!



PHOTOS
Garret fastening Liz's boots!
Frozen Falls on way up
Looking down the plateau
Liz on the tow up the plateau
View (not bad eh!)
view above and looking down on plateau
Lunch!!! Not much left by the time we got there!
Across to the Cliffy Lift / The Snowboarders have hit town again!
Liz and Toby top of cliffy /Toby on the chair lift stationary whilst Liz is scooped up by the tow guy.
Two Views...one I liked so much I put it on twice and now cant get rid of without disrupting all the photos.
Apres Ski