Still winter holiday

It is not ok to have a bad cold when all you want is to go out skiing in the lovely weather we have here these days. The tracks are perfect and the temperature is – 5 C which is absolutely perfect for me. There are no problems to wax the skies and you are able to ski almost everywhere. There has been no wind either so it hasn’t felt cold.

However, I have been stucked in our cottage, sewing. I have sewn together all the blocks for my big quilt, the sashing strips and the innerborders so now I have to make many Flying Geese, actually 128 altogether.

Yesterday I did not sew very much. Instead I met with one of my best friends down in the village. One of her daughters send me an SMS and asked me to come and meet them for lunch. I told her that I suffered from a terrible cold and would probably would infect them but she said there surely were more than mine germs in the air so I had to come. What a nice thing so say! However, it was a very nice lunch that lasted for hours as it tend to do when women meet. It was good to see other people than my husband too.

Look at these photos. Isn't it beautiful? I love the wintertime when it is like this. Today I have skied a slow run with my husband. We walked in tracks we have only cycled in during the summer. We skied about 13 km and it was very easy to ski. I felt much better when I woke up this morning and we went out pretty early so we could really enjoy the good feeling of being the first one to ski in the tracks. People are not going out early in the mornings these days. Most of them wait until the grooming machine has set the tracks. We can follow the machine on the internet and we do so every morning. I am so happy to have my mobile internet device with me so I can keep an eye on everything that happens.

Winter holiday

It is winter holiday in Norway, at least in some parts. I have always gone up to the mountains for the winter holiday and this year is no exception. I love the mountains in the wintertime. We came here on Friday and I intend to spent nearly two weeks here. I have my sewing machine with me and a big project to finish so I will not run out of work. I also intend to go skiing as much as possible. It is also one of my favourite hobbies. Now I can combine the two hobbies.

Unfortunately, I got a bad cold during last week. It started out very slow. On Saturday I felt it was not good for me to go for a long trip, mainly because it was very cold outside but also because I felt there was something wrong in my chest. So we only went for a very short, slow trip.

This morning I woke up and could not speak at all. My husband was happy, and I actually was too. We lit the fireplace from the very morning and I enjoyed it. I could devote myself to my second favourite hobby, quilting. Last year I bought 12 blocks from a serie called Patchwork Party Summer 2008. There are 12 different blocks with patterns and fabrics from 12 different shops and you had to purchase them before a certain date.

I have sewn all the 12 blocks but have not finished the quilt yet. I bought the finishing kit from one of the shops that offered a finishing kit and now I have to sew it all together.

When the blocks were finished I had to start here:

I cut strips and and cut them into smaller strips and squares and pieced them together. I also have remedies to keep my bad cold on a reasonably level although it lives its own life in my body. I cut all what was needed to finish the quilt and now I have started to sew it all together. I really am looking forward to finish it. Then I will send it away for machine quilting.

My sewing machine is cooperating and everything goes smoothly.

I made some flying geese blocks today in a way I have never done before. Look at the photo here:

I am sure that many of you have

made flying geese like that.

I will continue tomorrow because I do not think my cold is any better then. I am not looking forward to the night but I am really looking forward to continue my sewing tomorrow. I guess there will take some time until I can go skiing again in the speed I want to and am used to.

Winter holiday in Austra

From the 24. - 31. January my husband and I spent the time on a ski holiday with my cousin and his wife in Bad Gastein in Austria. I'll show you some photoes from the trip. First we flied from Gothenburg to Klagenfurt in Austria. There we had to wait a couple of hours before we went by train to Bad Gastein. We had a very good time skiing there, almost every day. I say almost because it started to snow and the conditions for skiing were terrible. Not only because of all the snow, but the light was so flat that you could almost not see where to ski.
Together those conditions are what I like to call "brake a leg" conditions and I don't want to brake a leg. I am so experienced so I know when to take a day off.
On the photo to the left my husband and my cousin are walking in Klagenfurt. We were looking for a pub or a bar, but it was not easy to find. Finally we found one and here you can see the three of us sitting.

When we arrived at Bad Gastein we only packed out our things, ate dinner at the hotel and took an early night. We all wanted to go early out next morning. The day started grey and the light was flat and it was diffucult to see where to ski but we explored the area and had much fun. At last our thigh muscles were very tired. I discovered muscles in my thighs that I didn't know I had. The next day we were even more stiff in our thighs so we tried to take it easy. It was the day for going to Sportsgastein. The sun was shining and it was really lovely. We had a great day there. The sloops were very steep but funny.

This photo shows us when we were skiing in Sportgastein, about 20 minutes from Bad Gastein by bus. There were free skibuses that drove to and from the different skiresorts all day long. If you didn't like the place you skied in, you could easily jump on a bus and go to another place.

On Tuesday evening it started to snow. It snowed the whole night and it continued to snow. It snowed for two days and three nights. I think it snowed about 50 cm with heavy, wet snow.

The first day it snowed about 20 cm and my husband and I decided to go to the Felsentherme for swimming and relaxing in the hot water instead of skiing. We knew the conditions would be very difficult and the sight = 0. We knew that and we were right. The ambulances went constantly from the ski area and the hospital and back again. Instead we were swimming outside in the cold while it was snowing and the water temperature held 34 C. We were surrounded by high peaks and it was just fantastic being there in the hot water. Afterwards we both felt very relaxed. I also had a massage for halv an hour and that made me really good.

It started to snow on Tuesday evening and it continued to snow until late Thursday night.The snow was much needed and the sloopes on Friday were in excellent condition the whole day. We even had sunshine.

When we first went to one place for skiing we stayed there the whole day. We often took the gondol up to Stubnerkogel, 2250 m. Then skied down to the skicentre in Angertal and then skied in the slopes on both sides of the valley for the whole day. The sloopes were in good conditions most of the days, but when we first started the holiday it was a bit icy. The best day was Friday. Then the snow was very good packed by the machines.



This is the ski centre in Angertal where we went to and from skiing all day long most of the time. People were having refreshments outdoors in the sunny weather last Friday, our last day.


We also celebrated my cousin's birthday one of the days. My husband and I invited them our for dinner that night. We started with champagne in their room before we went out and ended up in a bar in one of the hotels before we went to bed.

The picture above shows my cousin and his wife on his birthday in the bar in the Salzburger Hof Hotel, one of the most exclusive hotels in the village.

Most of the people in the village were young people, espesially Swedish youngsters. They were working in the bars, in the restaurants and as guides for the travel companies but they were also ski bums that did nothing else but ski and go from place to place all winter.

There are also many nice and cosy "gasthof" in the slopes where you can have something to eat and drink or just rest your legs. On the photo to the left you can see me and my cousin doing just that. We had lunch in different "gasthof" every day.

We really had a great time skiing. We all love it very much. We also had great times socially. The photo to the right showes my cousin's wife and me on Aprés Ski. Luckily, we were not the oldest ones in the skilopes, neither in the Aprés Ski. Actually there were many skiers that much older than us and that was good to see. It gives hope for future ski holidays.

At last I will show a photo of a nice hotel nearby our hotel that was so spectacular when in the dark and with the lights on the whole area. On my photo it also snowed. I think it was so beautiful.

Lets101 Quizzes - Quizzes for Fun