Friday saw us heading over to Easdale for a walk, some stone skimming and some lunch at the Puffer bar. The primroses on the hill were fabulous, a pale yellow carpet. The ex-world champion was on good form and clearly preparing for another tilt at the world title now she is in the under 15 category!
Tuesday Saw a lovely evening and Isobel and I decided to head out for a Kayak, tied was flooding and it was a southerly wind so we headed south down Seil Sound to get the benefit of an easy paddle back. We went round into Balvicar Bay and then down to the point at Ardmaddy before heading back.
Thanks to the fantastic winter there was till loads of snow at Glencoe over the Easter Hols and Ellie was not to be denied her skiing. We headed up to Glencoe on both the Monday and the Thursday, Monday wasn't great with very flat light but Thursday was great. Only problem was trying to keep pace with my daughter. I thought my skiing had improved over the winter thanks to taking Ellie every Sunday, but clearly not half as much as Ellie's had improved, especially when we got onto the steeper stuff. The role of me encouraging Ellie down the steep sections was suddenly reversed!
Sorry, been a bit quiet on here lately, a lot to do with a combination of busy at work and busy at home! So anyway, here's a quick catch up. We will start off with the Easter Hols. They started on the Saturday for Ellie and I and the Sunday for Isobel and Julie as they were staying behind in Aberdeen so that Isobel could keep goal in two matches for Inverurie Ladies hockey as there normal keeper was injured. A mixed couple of results for them with a win against Ellon and a loss to Aberdeen Ladies in a physical and bad tempered match.
Meanwhile Ellie and I came over to the cottage on the Saturday. Sunday saw some mixed weather but we headed down to Arduaine for a walk round the garden. Here are a few photos.
Great evening yesterday, the Robert Gordon's Spring Concert. The array of talent was as ever impressive, their Young Musician of The Year playing Finzi's Bagatelles for clarinet at a standard way higher than I could ever dream of! Isobel and Ellie played in the Intermediate Concert Band playing two tunes, the first one is Sagebrush by Curnow, the second is The Mask of Ravana by Lopez. Enjoy.
Whilst Ellie and I have been swanning off skiing, Isobel and Julie have been enjoying some Sundays at home, baking some fabulous cakes for the famished skiers on their return! Here is a selection.
Isobels Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes
Isobel's Whole Lemon Cake (as per Mary Berry)
Julie's Chocolate Cupcakes
Isobels Lemon Swiss Roll
As you can see, you have to go skiing in this family just to make room for all the cake!
Today was the last day of training for the Ellie with Gordon Skiers.............and what a day to finnish off! Awesome conditions. Despite losing a lot of snow over the last week or so there was still an excellent base up on the higher runs and the fresh snow of Friday and Saturday freshened the runs up beautifully.
Ellie and I were up at 8.15 so time for a few warm up runs before club started at 9am. Here is a video of Ellie having a quick warm up. Don't be taken in by the weather, it was gorgeous sunshine only 5 minutes before then the snow shower came through!
After that it was up to the upper runs on Corrie Fionne and Glas Maol, pretty windy up high but the kids skied everywhere, on piste , off piste, over cornices etc whilst us parents just let rip on the pistes, stunning snow conditions and beautiful sunshine.
After lunch the coaches set up a skier cross race course for the kids to race down, three at a time, great sport and some impressive skiing.
We finished off across the road with Ellie getting a timed run down a race course that had been set up in the GS piste. Then a final run that involved skiing over a cornice to get across to the Tiger, seriously steep and Ellies first black run, and it has to be said she probably skied it better than her father! Then it was off to the cafe for a well earned cup of tea for me and hot chocolate for Ellie.
Skiing this weekend was back to Glenshee as the skier-cross racing was on there. Ellie wasn't racing (thankfully!) but was training. No pictures of Ellie skiing this week, she disappeared off with her pals and coach, and when she did ski with e over lunchtime I had all my work cut out just keeping up with her! She is getting seriously fast and her turns are improving no end.
Ellie second from left!
Weather was fabulous although it did cloud over a little in the afternoon. Still stacks of snow, especially at the higher levels and a nice sprinkling of new snow to freshen up all the runs.
At home meanwhile Isobel and Julie went off to see The Book Thief at the cinema and thoroughly enjoyed it. And for pudding tonight? Isobel's finest Strawberry Daiquiri cupcakes! Heaven!!
A great result in the hockey tournament this morning, Isobel was keeping goal for Robert Gordons B team today in a round robin tournament against Albyne, St Margarets, Cults and Grammar along with Robert Gordons A team.
The end result was Robert Gordons A won with 3 wins and to draws, including a win against their own B team. Coming in to the last match between Cults and Albyne Robert Gordons B team were in second place with 1 win and 3 draws BUT if either Cults or Albyne won then they would leapfrog over the B team into second place. It was a nail biting 30 minutes with the combined Robert Gordons cheering on whichever team was defending in the hope of a 0-0 draw. They were not disappointed!
So a great morning and a very happy Isobel with a silver medal and the school qualifies for the Finals of the Scottish Schools Championships in Glasgow.
