February Half Term

Its a pretty wild half term as the picture shows, a brisk northerly wind and no shortage of snow up on the hills.  Had a lazy day today, went over to the shop, did the recycling and popped over to Ellenabeich where we were met by the view above.

Went out to Piazza for a meal this evening, then came home for pudding of Julie's lemon and poppy seed cake and ice cream.

Forecast is better for tomorrow so Ellie and I are heading to the ski slopes, either Glencoe or Nevis Range, we'll make our minds up in the morning.

Action Packed Weekend

Wow, what a weekend!  Started off with an early start on Saturday, Ellie keeping goal for the S1 B team, they won 3-1 against Aberdeen Grammar A team, a really good result.

Sunday was up to the Lecht for Ellie and I for Gordon skiers. It was seriously windy to start off but thankfully the wind dropped and the sun came out to give a fabulous day's skiing.  The only down side was the queues were a bit long as the Lecht was the only ski area that managed to open the rest being buried under tons of snow and stormbound!  Never the less the skiing was great both on and off piste, Ellie getting her first introduction to off piste skiing!

One exhausted skier at the end of the day!

Fabulous conditions at the Lecht seen here at the end of a long day.

This Weekend

Saturday saw Isobel baking again, this time coffey and chocolate cupcakes, the chocolate ones are the ones with the chocolate lattice work on top, the coffey ones are those with a maple leaf in coffey sprinkled on the top.  Both were delicious...............although Isobel did have to admit that they would have been even better had she remembered to add hte baking powder!

Went to Monymusk film club on Saturday evening, a great turnout for "The Angels Share", which we all enjoyed, highly recommended.

Ellie and I have had a slightly frustrating morning.  All of Scotlands ski areas are closed due to snow and high winds so skiing was cancelled today...........and there were the two of us with nice new skis to try out! Guess we'll have to make do with watching ski Sunday instead.

Nick Nairn

Julie cashed in her Xmas present, a voucher for Nick Nairn's cookery school in Aberdeen.  Went to a class on cooking lemon sole with a nutty butter sauce, beans and crushed potatoes..... and the odd glass of Shiraz!

"What a fab way to spend jury duty, wasn't required on the Friday so booked myself onto a two hour late lunch course.  We were shown how to skin and fillet flat fish and prepare a lemon sole for cooking on the bone.  It was so interesting and Simon our Chef made it all look so easy.  When I asked where in Aberdeen you could buy good fish a voice behind me chipped in how awful it was that there were no good fishmongers, that voice was Nick Nairn himself.  I am pleased to say he has matured since his heady days of first fame and is definitely not that arrogant so and so I met at the Good Food Show some 20 years ago!  As there were only 5 of us on the course I was working on my own so Simon would come over for a gossip and use my fish as the example.  So far this is my third course, the next one I'm hoping to do is a classic Indian course but since the date for that one is the same as Isobe'ls hockey match against Watson's from Edinburgh, I will have to wait for the next one!"

The Weekend

Great weekend.  Started with Isobel keeping goal in a 6-0 defeat of local school St Margarets.  She was actually called upon to make 1 save so not totally redundant and looked very smart in her new goalkeeping gear.

Saturday evening was spent at the Alford Bistro celebrating our 19th Anniversary, complete with the girls of course!!

Ellie had a great day skiing at Glenshee today.  She was moved up a group so was very happy with that but it was a long hard days skiing and a rather stiff Ellie by the end of it!  The weather was a million times better than last week with some fabulous views as you can see.

 The aches and pains were of course eased by the site of one of Isobel's finest cakes.  A rum and lime flavored sponge cake.

More Skiing

Its tough having a budding ski racer!  For the second time in 3 days it was up at 6.15, leave at 7AM and head off to Glenshee.  There had been some new snow to freshen the pistes up so tickets were bought at 8.15 and skiing by 8.30.

 Stopped for 10 minutes at 10AM  for Ellie to have her morning sausage bap and then skied through till 12.30 by which time our legs were well and truly warn out and we had clearly had the best of the day as the queues were starting to build and the snow was getting pretty heavy and soft so we headed for home.

For those familiar with Glenshee we skied the GS and slalom runs along with the run next to the Butcharts Access poma.

Start of The Skiing Season

Ellie finally won the battle and dragged me up to Glenshee for a morning skiing, snow was pretty good and Ellie finally got to wear her ski racing outfit!

Christmas Nail Art

And how about this for a little Christmas nail art!  Ellie with her very own set of 10 reindeer!

New Years Day Walk Up Millstone hill

Unlike most of Scotland we were all in our beds by 10.30 last night so also unlike most of Scotland we were in a fit state to go out for a walk this morning!  Somewhat cold and overcast but not too windy and at least it was dry.  Managed to find our way round most of the trees that have come down over the last week or so in the storms.  Here are a few piccies.

So a Happy New Year to you all from the Greens.