Skiing and sewing

Two contrasting weekends in the Mansell household this week. Jim spent a couple of days in the Rockies skiing at Sunshine, whilst I stayed at home and "looked after the dog" - which is my wonderful excuse for avoiding another humiliating day falling over on the slopes.

It was Jim's first skiing trip this season and although there was lots of fresh snow, it was also very windy and a couple of the chairlifts had to be closed.

Chairlifts are actually the main reason I have taken a break for snowboarding. There's only so many times you can be dropped out of them at the top, landing on your hands and knees whilst the whole lift is stopped and you crawl out of the way, but Jim assures me that you can ski all day at Lake Louise and only use the gondola. Maybe I'll venture back out...

So whilst Jim was skiing I went into town with my friend MaryAnne to the Medicine Hat psychic fair - you've got to do what you can to create your own entertainment on the prairie in winter!

We both had our palms read by a psychic who bizarrely insisted on drawing out all the lines on our hands in red pen, as you can see above. Don't ask me why I have so many more lines than MaryAnne, clearly a more interesting life?

This weekend I've also returned to a neglected quilting project. A year ago when I first started sewing I decided to make a "Canada quilt" where each square depicts something about our time here. Nothing like a complicated idea for your first design huh? With my quilting mentor due to leave Ralston in April, I'm racing to finish it. I've completed 11 squares and have 7 left to do.

As far as the weather goes, temperatures are going to be above freezing all week, which I think means we're better off than the UK for once...