Who ate all the pies?

We currently have our friends Knees and Clive with us from London and as well as enjoying their company (when they're not up the mountain with Mark), I get to try out some new recipes on them.  I made this Gala Pie for us to enjoy after an afternoon at our favourite apres ski bar, Merlins. It was perfect for soaking up the odd pint or two

and as you can see, it was devoured quite quickly.

I seem to recall the others had Australian meat pies for lunch, but didn't mind having two meals consisting of pies :-)

We also introduced them to The Hairfarmers, Whistler's best band, and another fun afternoon was had by all.

Cheers!

2016 US plans

A couple of people have started asking about our 2016 plans, so here they are at high level....

We'll pick badger up from storage in Bellingham on April 30th as that is the day we must leave Canada, then after a couple of days to get everything stocked up and ready to roll, we'll start heading east through the northern states. Specific places we want to see include:

• Grand Coulee dam
• Glacier national park
• Yellowstone national park, inc Jackson Hole
• Devil's Tower national monument
• Mount Rushmore
• Chicago
• Peoria (for the Caterpillar factory)
• Kentucky whisky trail
• BBQ trail
• Nashville
• Memphis
• Atlanta
• Savannah
• Kittyhawk
• Washington DC 
• and finishing with autumn in New England

We will probably take a more inland track on the east coast as it will be the summer season by the time we get there so coastal campgrounds will be busy. We will then backtrack down the coast to leave Badger somewhere like North Carolina where he won't freeze over the winter and head to Banff for the next ski season in the car.

When we collect him again in the spring of 2017 we can visit the coastal areas we miss this summer, and head up into the Canadian Maritime provinces before deciding where to view the August 21st total eclipse, and filling in any parts of the north east US that we have missed.

Fun in the snow

This week, our friend Blair from Ontario came to visit. Unfortunately, Mark only got to ski with him for one day before the flu bug bit and wiped Mark out for the rest of the week. Blair decided to take Wednesday as a rest day, so the pair of us went snowmobiling. And what a fantastic time we had! We did an advanced tour so there were only three of us plus the guide and we covered about 40km of trails in just over 2 hours. I wasn't as fast as the others and was more concerned that I might be holding everyone up, but they only had to wait 15 - 30 seconds for me to catch up. It had snowed the day before and the trails were covered in fresh powder. On some trails, we were the first ones to make tracks. We stopped to play in a fresh powder field and I got a little close to the edge and buried it. I stopped before it got too deep and one of the guides backed it out for me. As I got off the snowmobile, I was up to my thighs in fresh snow which took a bit of work getting out of. Blair said after that the rut made a nice bit to jump over. The views were also fabulous.

As well as having fun in the snow this week, in recognition for all the volunteer stuff I've been doing for the Whistler Arts Council, they've given me a day pass to the Scandinave Spa. My week just keeps getting better :-) 

Third time lucky

Our third xmas in Whistler ‎- we were here in 2005 with James, Steph, Gary and John  for his 40th - and we've finally managed a white xmas, at least up on the mountain. Mainly blue skies but the odd light cloud was blowing through and there was the odd flurry, so i'm claiming it as snowing on the day. 

Yuletide again

Decided ag‎ainst paying whistler prices for a tree, and figured the ski patrol would not be too happy if I took my Swiss army knife up the mountain and cut down one of theirs, so I got my Blue Peter head on and made this from some wine boxes and the fairly lights from the bus.

We've had a fantastic start to the season, and the best description I've heard of it has been "normal" so here's hoping things stay that way. We've had more snow in a month than I think much of the mountain got all last year, and runs that didn't open until mid January or not at all last year are now skiable. I had my first proper day skiing off piste in one of the alpine bowls today and my practise on the lower slopes has definitely helped my keep my momentum  which makes it easier to keep going as the bow wave of snow breaks against your thighs. It's still harder work than piste skiing but it s getting more enjoyable and opens ‎ up so much more of the mountain to me

Bit of a lull in the snowfall  this week ‎but still cold and cloudy with a few flurries forecast most days, and hopefully Maria will finally get a white xmas on friday‎.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We've seen a fantastic start to the season with a cumulative 430cm (168 inches) of snow, and 35cm (14 inches) in the last 48 hours. Neither of us have ever experienced this constant snowfall and Mark has started having fun in the powder.

In the last ten days there has been one glorious sunny day, which happened to coincide with Mark's day off, so we went for a walk in the sun. I've tried to capture some of the scenic beauty that the white fluffy stuff brings

Even the snowmen here like to party :-) 

In Olympic Plaza last year, the snow mound was only big enough for kids to walk up and sled down one side. This year, the mound is already large enough for 3 sets of steps to be cut into it and at least 4 slides of different steepness for the kids to sled down. And the snow has kept on coming, so this is now larger than it was when I took the photos.

More volunteering opportunities for me this week including participating in a yoga class with Whistler Adaptive Sports Program and running the coat check for the Arts Council's amateur dramatics production of the Chairlift Revue (which I got to watch too). Tonight we're helping out at another charity event in one of the bars (Buffalo Bills) for Whistler Adaptive. I'll be selling raffle tickets and persuading people to part with their money (which I seem to have a talent for) and Mark is running the silent auction. We're certainly meeting a lot more people this year and having lots of fun at the same time :-) 

Cheesecake, pork pies and frozen soup

The weather this week has been constant rain/snow down in the village, so not very nice for walking far.

As you all know, I love to cook but I get bored with everyday meals. So I'm branching out and trying to hone my baking skills. The cheesecake I baked yesterday took me by surprise when it rose 3 inches above the tin then sank when it cooled. It didn't look like the picture in the recipe but tasted fantastic

My pork pies are getting better although I'm told I need to look at the meat/pastry ratio (as in more meat would be nice)

Sausage rolls are around $6 each in the local supermarket so I've had a go at making them too and they were quite tasty.

I normally make a large pan of soup for lunch which will last us a few days. As there was no room in the fridge, I put it out on the balcony. Big mistake. When I brought it in the next day for lunch, I had a pea and ham Frisbee. Well, it had gone down to -12C overnight so should have thought a bit more about that one.

I've also been volunteering more, mainly for the Whistler Arts Council. Their main fundraising event, Bizarre Bazaar (aka Whistler Christmas Market) was a few weeks ago. As a 'thank you' all volunteers got  tickets to the Whistler Film Festival which was last weekend. I didn't get to meet either Kiefer Sutherland or Robert Carlyle but did see a few films I wouldn't have normally considered. 

I volunteered there too an now know how to make popcorn on an industrial scale :-)