Off to Fernie again

Another update after a busy weekend. We had a pleasant surprise when the weather took a step towards spring on Friday. It was plus 6 during day and outside all you could hear was the sound of running water as a slow thaw began.

Jim and I had to do some hasty shovelling around the sides of the house to prevent the metre or so of snow cover from melting and seeping into the basement. In the end the thaw wasn't that extensive, but it has still revealed patches of grass and long forgotten bits of summer garden ware!

Once again we drove up to Fernie on Friday afternoon. Eight hours on the road every weekend has become almost routine and the monotony of the long roads is broken up by having our Sirius Satelitte Radio in the car - It's absolutely fantastic, we love the comedy channels and Maxim & Cosmo radio which are speech and really help to pass the time.

This weekend we were staying at Violet Cottage (see photo left) with ours friends Kirsty & Mark. The house is owned by Joanne & Patrick who run the Old Nurses B&B in the town. We'd tried to stay at both our regular haunts but because it's a long weekend had found everywhere booked out, however that didn't stop us dropping in on the B&B to pay our bill and staying for an hour drinking their wine and talking to the guests!

As usual Jim and I spent Saturday on the slopes. Despite all the weekends away, I'm still only on my 7th snowboarding day and only stepped onto a ski slope for the first time 2 months ago, so it's been a long uphill struggle to master the lifts, get my balance on the board and finally learn to "carve" - the art of repeated turns across a snow slope.

Therefore I am quite proud of the following video clip. I will apologise to more advanced boarders and skiers who read this blog, who will not be remotely impressed at my snail pace descent, but it's a lot harder than it looks!