Chilly Times

Well we had an unseasonably long and hot summer and now we're having an unseasonably cold and snowy winter! It's been awesome the amount of snow we've had. This is snow like Basel hasn't seen for 20 years! We have been sledding in our garden, the kindergarten behind us and the hills around us, it's awesome!

It's so cold though that Benjy absolutely hates being outside so it's been hard trying to get out there to enjoy it, but the other day Flynn and I were out playing while Benjy slept.

First attempts to build a snowman failed due to the snow being total powder - just won't stick together and compact down

Blake and Flynn built some jumps

The kindergarten behind us has some small slopes to get into the swing of things

Then its off to the big slopes a couple hundred metres down the road from us - it was just like being on the learners slope of a mountain!

Flynn came hurtling down the hill like a bat out of hell! He's a brave little rascal!

 

I had a go and it's amazing how fast you get! Thank god for the brake!

Benjy pretty much screamed the whole time. It was -10 degress, so fair enough, i took him home.

Via the goats in the field near us, who looked pretty damn cold too

With perseverance (and a jug of water) it IS possible to make powder-snow into a snowman

Another weekend we drove up into the farms nearby (5 mins drive) and were amazed at the transformation of all the farmland into beautiful ski slopes. Loads of people are using them for sledding and you could even ski them - if you were happy to walk up the hills.

The snow was powder, awesome sledding for Flynn

The temperatures have been around -6 degrees this last week (the high) but the week before we were starting the day around -17 to -14 . It has been lovely having all the snow but now I am getting a little sick of the coldness - especially as the snow is now icier.

I went out for a girls' night about a week ago and we were waiting for the tram at 1.30am in -18 degree cold. Chilly!

The main downside is that the kids can't play outside (well, Benjy can't) and we can't go for walks. You get very cold very quickly, especially if there's no sun. We have to keep the car in the garage now as the doors freeze shut otherwise. When the temperature is colder than about -7 the condensation inside the car also ices up the insides of the windows while you drive - even though the heater is on and it's warm inside. So it makes it hard to see out the side windows - just a little hole where the heater blasts out.

We are expecting a warmer week next week - may even get out of the negatives! Yay!