The Bridge Jumpers

The recent warmer weather brought out the village idiots. Who is that climbing over the bridge to jump in the water....oh its the man that I married.

He was testing this as a new hobby? Well that is what he claimed. There were also some more swimmers ready to cool down from the heat.

Kicking around at high tide.

The next day saw more takers. Three crazy girls.

Racing each other across the river.

Splashing competitions

All wrapped up and ready for a warm shower.

Not to be outdone by the girls, the boys also decided to show them how it is done....from the bridge.

He they go and with an audience. They had mistimed the jump as the tide had turned and ended up having a tough swim against the current to get home and climb over the fence.

Then there was BBQ and beer and then we let the kids watch TV = happiness for all.

Feeling hot and bothered?

It was a long winter here in Europe. Spring certainly took its time coming. For a few days here and there it seemed as if spring was on its way. Then BAMM, another cold front arrived and the heating stayed on. Now we have had weeks of rain and some serious flooding in Europe.

Yesterday they had a call in session on the radio where people could speculate what the big yellow thing in the sky was....as it had not been seen for so long!

So now the hot and bothered people are coming out. Driving around yesterday, they were honking their horns whilst being stuck in traffic with the sun beating down on their car.

I came across these photos I took with my phone camera whilst walking at the end of February. It was a cold and frosty morning.

There was lots of eery mist, which I recall being around for most of the day. Don't you just feel cooler looking at the photos?

Here is my attempt at an artistic shot as I passed by the cemetery. There is a huge and beautiful tree in the middle of the local cemetery. I can't say I was anti-cemeteries but would not have chosen to walk through one. Walking through our local cemetery is a short cut between home and school, so I have been a local visitor! Rather than being creepy its actually quite relaxing. There are always a few people bringing some flowers or tending the plots, planting, trimming or watering the little gardens. Where there is death there is life.

Come on feel the chill...its the type that just goes straight to your bones.

These are our local whomping willows....name that book/movie!!!

And the first signs that a change is on the way.

Going for Ice cream

Today we decided to pop into Buxtehude for ice cream. Big sister was away on horse camp, so it was just Mum, Dad and a 4 year old princess.

We got out the canoe, popped on A's life vest, dug out the paddles, leapt over our fence and dropped the boat into the water. As we live on a tidal river, one needs to take advantage of the window of opportunity. That is, we want to go to Buxtehude when the tide is coming in. Then we eat ice-cream and have a coffee while we wait till the tide changes.

Today we decided not to "park" in the main part of the harbour but we wanted to see if we could get further. We made it to "Am Fleet" in the middle of the old part of Buxtehude. 

Here we are making our way up the Fleet. Its pretty narrow but we have a thin canoe ;-).

It was then only them a matter of jumping out in front of the coffee shop. We tied up the canoe by some steps leading to the water. This provided much amusement to passers by, probably waiting for me to fall into the water as I climbed out.

Our local parking spot and we did not even need to buy a parking ticket - that means an extra scoop of ice-cream.

Pizza, ice cream and coffee were ordered and enjoyed.

On our way back A insisted on paddling but did not want a paddle but a length of reed. We actually collected several of them as they don't last long. It was at this point that we needed to recall the importance of the journey and NOT the end destination. That is because there is no ice cream on the return trip. Luckily I had freshly baked chocolate cake to keep up the motivation.

On our trip we saw the local pair of swans, baby ducks, and just enjoyed being on the river.

Here we are just turning into the main bend with Estebrügge in front of us. You might be able to spot the church steeple just right of the middle of the picture. The water looks very still, but we hardly needed to paddle as the river narrows dramatically at this point. We were swept along by the tide.

This is the last bit of the trip as we enter the village and you can just see the blue and white painted swing bridge in the distance - our target.

Home sweet home. Taken just before we did our landing manoeuvre. Then we had to haul the canoe over the fence again...well Ron is so good at these things that I only needed to provide emotional support.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

The Green Room

They say the grass is always greener, and it certainly was last weekend. Our oldest daughter was in the Snow Queen - a ballet by the local ballet school with over 200 performers.

This is the green room - literally. It's usually a classroom in the local high school but it is where the grass hung out whilst waiting to perform.  Here they are all lined up in the backstage corridor getting ready to perform.

As they were there for more than 3 hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the grand performances, there was lots of grassing around. Hands up who likes grass?  

Although completely biased, I must say the grass group did an excellent job. They were 2 grass down but performed their dance perfectly -  it looked like no one was missing. Very professional. Each member knew their dance and so no one let the group down. Here they are on stage. They worked as a group, then broke out into 3 groups, back again etc. Excellent choreography, crappy photography.

Hand ups for the grass!

The Cake Buffet

Don't read this if you are hungary. It's pretty much only about cake and some other food. In fact just think of it as the upside down food pyramid blog piece.

My youngest sister in law got married! The wedding was on Silvester (which is what they call New Years Eve in German speaking Europe). 

The food arrangements were as follows:

6.00pm - Prosecco and traditional Burgenland snacks - Saltzstangerl and Grammelpogatscherl (low calorie carbs).

7.00pm - Soup, 2 types. 

7.15pm - Boiled beef, horseradish, apple sauce and a bread sauce thing that tastes nicer than my description.

7.30pm - Schnitzel, chicken and sides plus a salad buffet.

It was a real feast to "line the stomach". A process that is absolutely necessary as the Burgenlanders are hard core party goers. 

In addition, there is a Burgenland tradition that guests provide cakes for the "Cake Buffet". An excellent tradition in my opinion. 

Here is a long view of the cake buffet. Just to get your mouth watering. Apparently the yellow cake was delicious, but I never even tried a piece. I'm devastated and may need therapy if I keep looking at it.

Getting a little bit closer, so you can see the wonderful decorations. There are hours of work in many of these cakes. They are each a work of art.

Some adorable hedgehogs. They look almost too good to eat. But I smuggled one home in a napkin to be eaten the next day.

This was a LOVE cake and it is one of my all time Austrian cake favs - Diplomat cake. There was nothing diplomatic about my huge piece, except that I shared the lurid coloured icing with my daughter. We were both happy with this arrangement.

Sweet mini cupcakes that tasted even better around 3am. They were the perfect size to just pop one in your mouth on the way to and from the bar to the dance floor.

This was my youngest gals favourite cake. You know 3 year olds have exquisite taste....bright green base and princess pink on top and lots of silver sugar beads. One level was a Sacher torte and the other a chocolate nut cake. She went to bed before the buffet was opened, so I promised her I would bring her a piece. It is what she ate for breakfast and she was overjoyed.

Can you see the little lamb family back there, gorgeous. A young man was eyeing off those or maybe it was the pink round things. They are full of rum drenched vanilla and chocolate cake then covered with a thin pink icing. They also taste good for breakfast.

And finally the wedding cake. What an amazing cake. My brother in law is about 2 meters tall, so that might given you an idea how large the cake was. My mother in law made it. We were "caked out" by the end. Which is shocking given that I am VERY partial to cake.

Here are 2 lovely girls after the wedding ceremony. Although not cake, they are sweet as it....most of the time!

I am now fully recovered and looking forward to my next Burgenland feasting and cake buffet.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

Can a snowboarder of more than 20 years transform to a skier?
You be the judge.

During our recent ski holiday Ron Snowboarder decided to take up skiing to:
1.  Ski with his daughters and,
2.  He claimed not be to fit enough or was that too old for the board.

Although he clicked on the skis, I sensed that the snowboarder was just under the surface. They say a snowboarder never dies, his gloves just smell that way. A reminder not to breath deeply when someone  (especially a snowboarder) takes off their old skanky gloves in the cable car.

The camera never lies, so I decided to document Ron's journey from snowboarder to skier.


A photo documentary: 
Snowboarder to Skier - learning to stand on ones own legs.

Ron uses a typical snowboarder pose to soak up the sun and snow and wait for me to fiddle around with the camera located it in one of my jacket's 7 or more pockets.
(Please note that every other skier in the background is in the upright position).

Caught relaxing in the shade of the snow machine.

Looking sexy on the slopes.

He even had the audacity to teach the next generation of skiers how to laze about in the snow.

Finally in the standing position.

Here are father and daughter in what could be called a typical ski pose....both do not look over excited. I sense in a few years we will have a break away cell of snowboarders in the family, who can spend more time lazing about on the snow.

I will retreat to sipping warm Egg Nog with whipped cream (locally referred to as Snow White or Schneewittchen) - the drink de jour in the Dolomites!

Helmet Hair

The revolution of helmets whilst skiing is a double edged sword. Of course it has probably prevented many accidents. In fact since wearing a helmet I am surprised at the number of times I have managed to bump it whilst getting in/out of the cable car. Hitting my skies against it...and these are just a a couple of examples.

At the best of times I suffer from bad hair at least once a week. I have this special hair that between 3.30am - 4.30am tranforms itself into something to rival Medusa. Anyone that has seen me before a shower in the morning can attest to this strange but true phenomenon. Helmets have certainly not improved this situation.

Helmets can look sweet, especially if they are on the heads of my daughters!

My husband chooses to wear a helmet whilst drinking - preventing any foreseeable injury.

An example of why I should have kept my helmet on during a break - even if the weather was fantastic and the fact that I had washed my hair but a few hours previously.

This persons hair seems impervious to the effects of "The Helmet" - how can we have any similar hair DNA?

An upside of the helmet is that I can try to take a cool photo of the mountains in the background.

 It can also be used as the starting point of reindeer horns.

So folks, remember to be safe of the slopes and wear that bad hair with pride....hopeful of summer time when you can then transform effortlessly to sunhat hair :-(