Awesome Baking!

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!

Awesome Skiing!

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.

Exhausted Girls at The End of The Day!

Sunday Skiing

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!!

Hockey Tournament

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.

Northern Lights

Wow!  This was just a small part of the free light show we had last night, one of the finest displays of Northern Lights we have ever had up here and the first time Isobel and Ellie have seen them.  It went on for several hours, we got a bit chilly after and hour and a half!!  Although some of Jura's finest did help thaw me out! The picture sadly does not do it justice, the colours were more vivid with intense reds and crimsons as well as the green and purple hues seen here.

Hockey, Cakes and Skiing

Its been a busy old weekend.  An early start on Saturday for both girls to catch the coach down to Madras College in St Andrews, Isobel playing for the A team, Ellie in goal for the B team.  Isobels team won 10-0, she never actually touched the ball and by her own admission spent most of her time in goal watching the S4 boys rugby match on the next pitch!  Ellies team drew 0-0 against Madras A team and unlike her big sister she actually made some saves, one of which involved flattening the opposition attacker!

Julie cooked an absolutely fabulous orange cake for us, some well earned calories!

Sunday morning saw another early start for Ellie and I although the sound of the wind in the trees made me question whether it was worth it.  The drive up Donside did nothing to dispel the doubts, the River Don looking rather too full to be good for the skiing!  When we got there things were no better, the snow was wet and there were streams coming off all the runs with wet patches of slush appearing at alarming rates.  Gordon skiers are an intrepid bunch however and it takes more than that to put them off!  Malcolm, ellie's coach got them onto snowblades (little skis about 2 feet long) and they had a great time.

The weather perked up in the afternoon and the sun even made an appearance late on.  Ellie's turns are definitely improving and she made light of some tricky heavy snow conditions (which was more than can be said for her father!).

More Skiing!

Just had to call in to Aonach Mor on our way home, had a great mornings skiing although the light was a little flat.  Skiing great, spent the morning racing Ellie down the Fairway, I have to admit it is starting to get a bit tight at times but dad still managing to hold the upper hand!

And just to finish off, just to prove I am not the only one that falls over...............here is Ellie upside down on the last home run back to the top gondola station!!

Awesome Skiing

View from the summit of Aonach Mor looking East

Ellie and I went to Nevis Range at Fort William today and had an absolutely awesome day.  We were there for the first lift up and enjoyed some fabulous powder snow in the Goose Gully.  Spent the day skiing the quad chair.  There was wall to wall snow,you could ski anywhere on the mountain with all the snow fences buried, the snow depth must be several metres in  places.

Here are a few pictures of our little ski racer!

A tired but happy Ellie on the way down in the gondola

Looking back up from the car park

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.