Snow melt

It was nice to see the sedum bed again, as the snow melted rapidly on a warm winter day (~50°F) in the mountains.  It was a welcome change to have sun and mild temperatures. 

Mocha behind newly emerged sedum bed

Not having grown up with snow and cold, snow is a treat, but prolonged slippery ice and cold isn't so welcome.  I enjoyed walking this morning without worrying about tripping on an ice patch!

New Year new skiing holidays USA

Happy New Year from Chalets USA - We hope you have a fantastic 2011!

Colorado is having an epic ski season with over 14ft of snow so far in many ski resorts. We are pleased to offer some fantastic new ski holidays with some great deals for 2011.


New for 2011:


1) Chalet Anna Breckenridge

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• Brand new interior with top of the line fixtures, fittings & furnishings
• Book a room or whole chalet
• 1 FREE night in 7 all season long
• Limited time offer


2) Aspen self-catered holidays

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• Self-catered holidays Aspen
• Studios up to 5 bedroom apartments
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• Ski in, ski out & walk to gondola
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3) Colorado Hotels

Hotels Aspen ski holidays in hotel rooms in Aspen USA

Hotel rooms Breckenridge:

• Great Divide Lodge
• The Village Hotel
Hotel rooms Aspen:

• Independence Square Hotel
• Little Nell Hotel
• Hotel Jerome

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Contact us:

UK 01223 655642
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http://www.chalets-usa.co.uk/

And Then There Were 4.

Half of our visitors left today. Sam and Kate were driving Alex back down to PLymouth before heading home to Teweksbury and had gamely volunteered to take Linas down to Plymouth as well. I think that was before they realised just how much luggage Linas had with him. He had managed to carry an awful lot of luggage up on the train, after all you can't separate a man and his PC. It was an exercise in spatial logistics to get all the luggage in but with some bags sitting on the youngsters' laps and Milo the dog scheduled to be perched on Sam's lap it was all sorted.

L-R, Linas, Vytas, Romas, me and Peter.

After a chilly photo session, (a family tradition), we waved goodbye to the travellers and wished them a safe journey home.

As usual our boys like to pose some action shots to show their true characters.
The rest of the dismally gloomy afternoon is being spent with Vytas and Romas finishing off a wargame in the conservatory while I motivate myself for yet more school paperwork. We haven't decided yet if we will head into town for the New Year's Eve celebrations. I would as much like to stay home and relax as to go in, enjoy the ambiance and the fireworks and then come home. We'll see how we feel later on.

Happy New Year to All Of You

Happy New Year to you!
May every great new day
Bring you sweet surprises--
A happiness buffet.
Happy New Year to you,
And when the new year’s done,
May the next year be even better,
Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

Ordering seeds and seed catalogs

I've been getting e-solicitations from my favorite seed companies, an excellent sign that days are lengthening, and it will be planting time eventually.  I'm looking forward to the seed catalogs that are waiting at home in the Piedmont (hmm, not that I need any more seeds, but you never know).  There's Garden Fest (with vegetable transplants) to plan for, in addition to my raised beds.

The beds here in the mountains have been totally covered with snow (no overwintering cole crops here this winter!)  And I'm afraid my rosemary, sage, and oregano plants have probably succumbed to the continued cold weather. 

But, they're easily replaced and warmer weather is on the way.

First Flowers.

A quick stroll around the garden revealed the first flowers on the winter flowering jasmine that grows by the kitchen window. Soon the bare green stems will be covered with small yellow flowers that will brighten up the grey wall.

The countryside was back to being damp and green as I headed off to the dentist in the morning. He's put a temporary filling over the broken one but the whole filling will have to be taken out and replaced, I fear for the little tooth that is left. No signs of the mysterious bump in my mouth now but I moaned on about the various aches that I still have after he 'dealt' with them 6 months ago so he took some x-rays. Being only the poor people's NHS dentist you don't get the results of the x-rays straight away. Instead they phone you if you need treatment or as in my case let you know at your next appointment. Naturally they don't do week-end appointments so the first appointment they could find to fit in with my work is in 2 weeks' time and that is only because I can leave school early on one of my planning afternoons. Otherwise it wouldn't have been until the end of January.

I then dropped into the High Street to check out a few more sales and in Millets I bought a light fleece hoody for work reduced from £20 to £6, a fluffy fleece for Peter (£35 to £16) and a compass for Vytas (£13 to £4).

After a robust evening meal of sausage & mash we spent the evening playing Balderdash, a word bluffing game which at times had us in tears of laughter.

Home plan and elevation - 3046 Sq. Ft

Total Area-3046 Sq.ft
Ground Floor-1797 Sq. Ft
First Floor-1249 Sq. Ft




Architect : Praveen.M
moyacheri (ho)
kottakkal
vatakara(via)
Phone:9645457494,9388744505.04962275234
Email:praveenarchitect.m32@gmail.com

Rainy Devon.

A sleepy wet day today. Outside it has rained and/or dripped the whole day long. No signs of normal water service returning. If it is simply due to ice in the pipes then it should soon be back to normal but if it is the pump that needs replacing then that will be another hefty bill.

It seems strange to see the countryside in shades of green and brown after the pristine white of the last few weeks. However at least we have free access to the outside world which for me means a trip to the dentist tomorrow. A chipped filing needs repairing and a small bump in my mouth makes me think I've got another root infection. I'm taking immediate action because the last time this happened I ended up losing the tooth, and my patience with lying National health dentists.

Finally today I've knuckled down to sorting out my school planning. I've printed off pages of plans sent to me by my colleagues and then sat there looking glumly at the overall week's plan wondering how I can fit in daily literacy, reading, phonics, numeracy and PE lessons as well as Science, art, IT, RE, music and PSHE. It just doesn't all fit. History and geography already get merged into other subjects and there has to be some very creative timetabling so that everything is covered.

The rest of the household have been occupied with reading, drawing, painting & playing a wargame (lots of little figures and books of rules) as well as marching Milo the Jack Russell out for a long walk up the hill in the rain. A typical Christmas holiday.

Winter in the mountains

A snowy hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a slippery walk around the neighborhood, and watching birds yumming up black oil sunflower seeds from the feeder (we're refilling it daily) are primary nature components of winter days in the mountains.   But the sunsets are special, and the clear winter air makes them crystalline.

view from the staircase window

We don't see expansive sunsets at home in the Piedmont, but in the mountains, our windows and the siting of the house give us a backlight forest as well as a direct view of the sunset from the stairs up to the loft.

Bye-Bye Snow.

Last night's rain has washed away all the snow and not surprisingly it is so much warmer. Linas and I escaped to town, a relief to drive along ice-free roads, to do some shopping. The River Taw looked very dirty with all the ice , mud and branches being swept downstream as the thaw continues. Town was heaving with eager shoppers but despite all the publicity about the bargains I only bought a diary (to record each day's photographs as I down (up?)load them onto my pc. and a pretty child's necklace and bracelet half-price at Monsoon. I intend to re-make the bracelet into some long dangly earrings and the necklace will be fun for school.

Back home via the Co-op, lots of bargains, and the carpet warehouse to pick up some off-cuts to replace our downstairs hall carpet. It was quite old when we moved in 17 years ago and has become totally threadbare (and had a few cat mis-haps). To get a single piece to fit the L-shaped space would have cost £70-£150 even at remnant prices so instead I bought 2 pieces of the same carpet, one to cover the main section and another piece to fit the bit that goes under the stairs. The price of those 2 pieces was £23 and with a bit of sweet-talking I bargained them down to £20 for cash. Much more reasonable.

Once home it was a bit of a rush to swap bedrooms over (with a really bad headache) and do a quick tidy up before our friends arrived to spend a few days in sunny Devon. Luckily Peter has taken charge of cooking tonight's supper- roast pork, mm.

Single Floor House Plan and Elevation - 1680 Sq. ft

Designer: Smarthome
Engineering and interior Consultancy
Mala-Thrissur
Ph.04803271484, 9809060630
Email: smarthomemala@gmail.com

See Floor Plan after the Jump

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Snow at sunset

Clearing skies framed sunlight at dusk.

We ended up with over 13 inches of snow from Christmas Day until today.

It was light, fluffy snow, and folks ventured forth a bit on foot yesterday.

The platform feeder was actively visited.

Today, the roads are OK, at least with AWD, and the temperatures will be moderating by mid-week.

This squirrel seemed to be working on her/his nest materials.

The evening winter light was lovely.

Temperatures Rise.

It looks like the thaw may have started. The temperature has been just above freezing and the snow has begun to retreat, at least until the next cold spell. Maybe we'll be able to sort out the water before then as I'm getting a little weary of lugging buckets of water around the house.
Last night we all watched The Fellowship of The Ring (extended version), hopefully The Two Towers tonight and Return of The King tomorrow. I've always been a great Tolkien fan but what really fascinates me about the films is the design - architecture, costumes, jewellery, the whole other world aspect. I think my New Year's resolution will be to find more time for drawing / copying designs from the films.

I've made a start on the selection of Indian sweets (sweetmeats) that Vytas gave me for Christmas and thought I'd better photograph them before I ate any more. Barnstaple is very limited in the variety of multi-ethnic food available. A couple of Chinese restaurants and a few Indian restaurants are the limit of adventurous eating unless you count the odd Tapas Bar or Giovanni's Italian restaurant. Some Greek and Eastern European foods can be bought at Lidll's or at the delis and basic Indian or Chinese ingredients at the supermarkets but that is the lot. So something out of the ordinary is a special treat.

Nothing much done today, lie-in, reading and a bit of housework. The shops will be open tomorrow so we'll make a dash into town before our friends arrive in the afternoon.

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Some unique villa designs

All exterior designs are featured in this post are the property of their respective owners

A Minor Flood.

It still remains cold and snowy. The outside temperature has climbed to a balmy 0C after being -9C yesterday afternoon. The day has not been as restful as I had hoped. Due to a misaligned kitchen tap (which has to be left running to avoid freezing up) I came downstairs to find water across the kitchen floor and in the under-sink cupboard. That cupboard was a bit in need of a sort out anyway but the water made it 10x worse. A big clean up operation (by self) followed, including scrubbing things in the icy stream and now I'm determined to spend the evening relaxing.
The cold conditions outside have caused ice crystals to grow from the surface of the snow. Very pretty but hard to photograph.

Paul has finally put some salt down to make a clear walking path up the hill and has driven his Discovery down to his house. Our vehicles remain right at the top of the drive. We haven't walked up the hill today so don't know how much of the snow drifts remain on the drive up to the road. Perhaps an expedition up the road tomorrow to check out conditions.

A Christmas snow

Even in the mountains, snow on Christmas Day is a treat (at least for Southerners not traveling anywhere). It started after daybreak, falling all day long. We may have over 10-12 inches by tomorrow morning.

Quite beautiful to look at, but nice to be snug and warm.

We haven't had internet access for a couple of days (and won't for another week or two) so have been appreciating the disconnection from the virtual world that travel brings. The silent and snowy streets this morning made it seem like we were somewhere unfamiliar, too, as did Christmas Eve visits to historic downtown churches normally closed to visitors.

It's a tradition for us to remember our various Christmas adventures, and this will be one of those - a white Christmas being home with Mocha in the mountains.

Family Christmas.

A very relaxed Christmas Day. After a late breakfast of croissants and bacon it was time to open those presents so lovingly wrapped and placed under the tree. Despite appearances Patch was enjoying sitting on Linas' lap.

We like to give silly presents and generally attempt to disguise our presents using recycled packaging.
Vytas was very happy with his Dremmel (craft drill) which he wanted for his model making.

At the end of the present opening we sit amid a sea of wrapping paper, some to be saved but most destined for the fire. The boys spent most of the day attempting to repair the straps on the snowboard before hitting the slopes (Ron's field) and taking advantage of the snow while we still have it. A late Christmas dinner followed, it's hard to cook a dinner which mainly consists of items needing to go in the oven - bird, sausages, stuffing, parsnips and roast potatoes, when the rayburn with its tiny oven drops its temperature every time a new dish is added. Nevertheless it was a slap up feast and there is plenty left over ,( and from our fish based Christmas Eve meal), so that we won't need to do any major cooking for the next few days. Not to mention all the chocolates, German salami, Indian sweets and dried fruit that made up a large part of our presents to each other. I foresee a return to the diet in January but for the time being I'll enjoy the nice things that have been given to me. A wood fire and light tv viewing are now making for a relaxing evening.

(It would have been fool hardy to drive out to Shirwell for the midnight service so we listened to the morning service from St Martin's-in-the-fields.)

Christmas Greetings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all my friends and visitors.

Have a wonderful day.