December 2008/ January 2009

Hello again! It seems like time for a little update that doesn't involve jigs and table saws. Our winter in Nelson has been going well. Around Christmas time we got a lot (waist-high) snow, the Salmo-Creston Pass kept being closed due to snow (the grocery stores started to run low on stock), and we learned that the city likes to leave snowpack on the roads and not plow sidewalks much at all. Ah well, at least our landpeople are fastidious about keeping things shoveled.

The walk to our door circa mid December

We also thought that by mid-winter the tourist hoards would have dissipated at the local hotsprings, so off we went one day to try out swimming in the snow. The experience of floating in the naturally heated water and having big fat snowflakes fall on your face is really something, and the caves were neat. Our friend Danny dared us to hop out and roll in the snow "to improve circulation"... here's how that went.

Thought we missed home we had a lovely Christmas with our Charlie Brown style tree. We got to hang out with our families over Skype, which involved getting up at 5 am for one of us. We invited a crowd in for a Christmas potluck and went sledding at a friends on Boxing Day. Josie rode on a GT Racer for the first time. We gave eachother cross-country skis for christmas and have been getting out, mostly at the golf course up the street. The best fun is struggling to the top of the course and skiing all the way down the hills to the bottom.


For Scott's birthday most of his classmates were away, but when they got back we had a crowd over for good food and lots of talk about wood, woodworking tools, and occasionally things not related to wood.

After a James Bond themed New Year's party, January gave us thre weeks of overcast conditions. It's a little mountain treat called "valley cloud", where it's gorgeous and sunny on the peaks and all the valley are sealed in cloud. We watched a lot of movies during this time. When the sky finally cleared we were so excited we booted it down to Lakeside Park for a nice walk and to bask in the sun.

Elephant Mountain and the Big Orange Bridge

We're hoping to get outdoors and skiing (downhill and nordic) more in February. Hopefully this will result in some lovely pictures to post here. We just need some fresh powder...