tuut

.... was Wednesday.
My final pupil was a little norwegian girl, 5 years old, and it was not like teaching ski - we just skied and had fun for 4 days, the two of us. It's often like that in our skischool, so that's probably why I like my job so much. Now, as Wednesday was the very last day, at last, my boss and I decided we couldn't just go home, so it took a little longer. About 4 hours, and then I was sooooo tired.
Since Thursday, though, I have absolutely no time to be tired. A lot of things to be done. GrandOpa's surgery went well and he's just fine (as far as your are fine after a big surgery), but has to stay in hospital for at least one more week. I must admit, I do not miss him, but Emil does, because he has to do all the cow-work. I'm free as a bird, but want to clean up round the house, now that almost all snow is gone. That photo, up there, is from last year. This year we have little flowers on the lawn, instead of snow. Very early spring, yes. Tormorrow Emil has a day off and JuNi are at home (picked themselves up, after their mother brought the car - very practical indeed)  and I'm sure we will get a lot of "spring work" done. And have at least one nice cup of coffee together in the sun on the porch :-) Maybe even ice-cream :-)))) Niki has night-duty at the Red Cross, but usually there's not much, i.e. nothing, going on in Tannheimer Tal in the night, so I guess he get's a good night sleep and I hope he brings home a clean car. They've got a wonderful garage, with all kinds of cleaning equipments, at that Red Cross station!
Well, last monday I went to see a very nice doctor, who promised to pimp my knee. Not a big deal, he said. Like a spring cleaning, he said His name was Dr. Druml.......... hmmmm!? (Det far mig att tänka pa en rörmokare vi hade i Laholm, som Mamma kallade "Sikken-en-kludder"....) So, on coming monday afternoon I'll check in at the hospital in Reutte, Tuesday I'll have my knee "pimped" and Wednesday I can go home. On cruches. After 10 days I'll be as new, said Dr. Druml :-))))) I'm not sure, if HE is going to operate on me, but to be on the safer side, I have decided to stay awake during the operation, only the lower part of me will sleep and so I can follow the surgery on a monitor - and tell the doctor what to do. Or not to do!  I guess they'll have some means to make me chut up if I ask/talk too much. What if I get sick of seeing me poor knee from inside? I can't just run off to the bathroom!!!  I hope I manage to close my eyes in time, in that case, and ask for headphones with nice music. An exciting experience, for sure...... And if it doesn't get better, it can't get much worse, at least.
T.

It's raining. Like it usually does in the summertime....
Just got back from delivering JuNi in Innsbruck. Actually they deliver themselves, while I sleep in the backseat, I only take the car back home. I like the extra hour of daylight that we'we got for the next 7 months.
T.

Today is Maria Bebadelse, traditonal day to eat waffels, in Sweden. And in Schmieden (Swieden). But we will postpone it untill tomorrow, because it got to late today, as I went to Innsbruck (24°!!!!!!) this afternoon to pick up JuNi. And for tomorrow we are promised some chilly rainweater, more suitable for waffles, than sunshine and blue skyes.
This winterseason is finally coming to an end. Tormorrow will probably be my last day. This week I was the only teacher on the slope, with four little boys. Today we even made a race with loudspeakers and the whole tra-ra. We had a lovely and warm week and you can literally watch the snow disappear. Vaporizing. And different springflowers grow. The pists are still in good shape, though, but the cross country skis, you better put in the cellar and instead take out the good bike.
OgrandPA is going into hospital on sunday and have his surgery. I'll take the oppurtunity and make same severe springcleaning in his livingroom, coming week.
Yesterday I placed out all of what I could find of easterdecoration - eggs, roosters, rabbits and that stuff. I like these seasonal decorationtraditions :-)
T.

The king of Swieden!

I just talked to Uffe on the phone. He told me it's freezing cold and snowing in Sweden. In Budapest it's nasty and rugged and the spring doesn't seem to be what it normally is. Here, in paradise, Schmieden/Tannheim/Tirol everything is just wonderful :-) We had sun and blue sky for weeks - first cold, then warm. Yesterday was rainy, for a change (doesn't stop the skiinstructors!) and today was quite alright again. The snow is melting and the flowers popping out. But the skipists are still alright, thanks to snowman Frosty. It's sooooo normal and peaceful that you almost get scared, if you look around the world! I often feel like living in one of those family-disney-sundayafternoon-productions. Julia and Niki  still seem to enjoy it aswell, here in paradise, with their animals. At least weekends and holidays.................
Grandpa Opa came home from hospital yesterday. He seemed quite content. I think he liked the company of the other elder gentlemen in the room and the caretaking nice nurses. (Not only that bitch of a daughter in law.....) Now he's busy with his cows, of course, and ordering new clothes from the catalogue and he wants a cell-phone. All the other guys had one! With BIG buttons! March 28 he's got to go to hospital again, for 2 weeks or so, to have his surgery. He's been promised the same bed again, he told me, and the nurses will have it prepared for him when he comes, oh yes. I wonder if he realizes that he will have other roommates, when he returns?!
Now I have to have a look upstairs. Emil bought himself a new TV-chair to day at IKEA, assisted by Julia. "Poäng".
With footpart and two extra sheepfleece. I hear, they've lost a screw :-) Apropos screw; I'll hopefully get unscrewed on april 5, in the private clinic, where they send you back home the same day. Unless my private insurance refuses to pay - then it'll take a little longer and I'll have it done in Reutte.
Julias main weekend occupation, besides riding.
T.

-  spring is on its way. This time the real spring! Although I'm convinced it will snow a lot, when nobody want it to, anymore. That's normal. But right now days are getting longer and warmer, little flowers are popping out here and there, birds are singing and the horses loose their winter fur....
It's been kind of a turbulent week, with daily 6 hours nonstop on ski, Grandpa Emil (Opa) got was delivered into hospital on Wednesday with prostata problems (couldn't pee). On monday he'll probably come back home and two weeks later he'll probably have a surgery. With emphasis on probably.
 Pontiac had to get a toth removed thursday evening. Broke and dead. The tooth!!! The dog was asleep. Had a nice chat with the vet, as he was sawing and pulling. I can remember that was done to me too, ages ago, only with the difference that I wasn't happy asleep and unknowing what was happening to me, instead I could hear that sawing and wrenchig and a nurse had to hold me head as the dentist was working..... 
 Emil has to milk the cows morning and evening, and do all the barn work, so, early mornings and loooong days. Julia and Niki don't come home until Friday, now, in the springterm, so I have one more HED. Even I start to look forward to the end of the season now. My knee too, it's hurting like hell in the evening. Tuesday I go to Medalp Sports Clinic in Imst and Doctor Schranz, who "mended" it summer 2006, will have a look at it. It's probably a screw, that irritates. Hope he's got a good screwdriver :-) Apropos screwdriver, Niki promised me a drink tonight;
NIKI!!!!!!!!!
T.
May I introduce -"Bernd, das Brot"

Julia against the morningsky.
She stood on the roof of the sheephouse to take that picture of me, the dog and the track my romantic hubby Frosty made in the snow, and as she stood there I thought I might as well take a picture of her :-)
 
And then I thought I might as well take one of our kitchenwindowviewmountains, from behind the house, for a change.
 

T.

At last it's March! We had Marchweather almost all of February, but now. at last, the weather suits to the month - i.e. sunny and rather warm days and slightly frosty nights, birds singing and snow drip-dropping. Mornings are icy, so spikes are good:

Bikespikes

Horsespikes

I'm doing what I've been doing all winter long -teach ski 7 days a week. That's good so! Because the winterseason is short this year, skiarea closes up on April 3 and so will skischool. Of course!!!! This all due to late eastern.
Niki went back to school yesterday, monday. Julia got another week without lectures but is learning hard. Has a chemistry test saturday. So on Friday Julia drives to Innsbruck and Niki drives home, for the weekend. Julia stays in town. Back to normal, so to say.


Look what I found this morning, as I took the dog for a little walk in the field behind the house.
That's how a  true
snowman shows his love :-)

T.

Last night "my" skischool had a ball. A charity ball, for needing people. It was fun. It was a lot of work; I waitered, Julia sold tickets, Niki was taxidriver, Emil had a lot to drink - all for the needing people. The music was really good - a local band from Reutte. Five grown up men and and a singing, somewhat younger, lady.
It was a very special evening; Emil and I danced (together) for the first time since our wedding, almost 24 years ago! One is sure - I didn't marry Emil because he was a good dancer (an Emil not me because I'm a good cook!. Must be love....) And for sure, Emils dancingarts have improved. Maybe not enough to be married for, but still :-)))) Anyhow, we all didn't get into our beds until around 5 o'clock in the morning and then up again at 7. Wasn't hardly worth going to bed. ZZZZzzzzzz...... Emil went to work at 8, I went out with the dog, then into bed again ( after a good breakfast, of course), for another hour, and at 10 Julia and I went to work at the skischool. Julia 2 hours, me 4h's. Niki had the day off, because he has night duty at the Red Cross, until tomorrow morning. As I got home at 3 pm, I had something to eat and hit the pillow for another hour. And now I'm astonishling (homemade word???) awake. Maybe I'm not THAT old after all....... hmmm... ???? - I think I turn 29 this fall, because Uffe just turned 30 (or was it 35???)

Hektor - he got old. At least for a ram.
T.
PS. It's snowing. That's GOOD!

Here we are, all of us, in Ischgl 11 days ago
as we spent a 36 hours winterholiday with "rodeling", skiing, eating, drinking, talking. And eating. Was fun :-)

A got a new warm jacket for Christmas, matching my skis. Like Marleens skis match her jacket.

Last week, though, was soooo sunny and warm - no need for thick jackets with eiderdown (!) anymore


Only my suntan is not so lucky, but it's impossible to ski work without sunglasses
Maybe I should try som self-tanning lotion.....
Julia and Niki has now finished their guestplay at the skischool, to relax a little bit more for the rest of the month. (Maybe they are afraid to end up like their mother?) And learn. Julia has some tests next week again.
This week is a bit calmer - so I had time to go to some stores. Found some yellow tulips, I couldn't resist. And some pink toiletpaper.......
Emil bought himself a pair of new skating cross country skiskis last, and shoes, and now he enjoys this sport on his days off, together with Niki. His old gear was almost historical. My knee doesn't allow me to skate anymore, and it isnt't Julias sport, so to say, so we spend a little more time with the horses. The little brown one (Norka) got shoes today, after a barehoofed snowseason. We could do with some more snow, by the way - a meter or so. And of course we "climb mountains" on ski in the moonlight. Last sunday all of us went up to a just lovely mountainrestaurant some villages further away. Mmmmmm. Thats my favourite sport :-) And all of us have looooong breakfeasts, and all of us can sit together at the kitchentable and talk and talk and talk, in the evening, when everybody is ready with the work and chores for the day. I LOVE MY FAMILY!
T.

......, to be more exact, January 15, Julia, Niki and I were in Munich to watch Red Bull Crashed Ice.

It was fun, but once is enough. Maybe it had been funnier if we had drunk some of the "Hot Bull", with rum and wodka? I waved my swedish flag, but it didn't help - the one and only swedish hero flew out in the second run. Julia waved her finnish flag, but she had it a lot easier as there were lots of finnish competitors. One of them won.
We had a great place, though.


Now to more recent activities. Ehhhhhmmm......??? At a second thought we do what we have always done, in the recent weeks. I teach ski and clean and ride and cook and wash and...., Julia and Niki study, Emil works. Wednesdy is Tai Chi, Thursday dancing. Sounds almost boring, doesn't it. But yesterday was a special day! I had my first day off, since December 18! By a chance. My private lesson kid didn't want to ski, which it loudly declared in the ski rental shop. The guy there, had never experience something like it, before; screaming and kicking the kid made clear to the parent that it did NOT want to ski. So I had the morning off! And didn't even feel guilty :-) Good kid! So I went for a most wonderful ride in the fresh snow, accompanied by Pontiac. The sun was shining, temperature moderate - just wonderful. Then I had a massage. Luxury for me and my leg :-) And then I went to pick up JuNi in Innsbruck. Two hours earlier then planned, so they didn't have to wait for me. Luxury for my soul :-) Niki has mid term holidays until the 28th of february now, Julia has one more week with lectures and tests.
Emil had (has) his day off today, and in our efforts to keep boredom far away from us, he and Niki went to a Motorcycle Expo. They'll be back soon. Wonder if they bought something......?
My next day off, will be in exactly one week from now. Everybodies day off! Then we go to Ischgl, for our yearly skiday together with Uffe and his big family.
T.

This is what a cold morning looks like, referring to a previous comment.

White trees - cold morning.
Pink sky (refering to previous blogg) - bad weather coming up.
So much to alpine meteorology.
T.

It's about 8° C below, it's snowing, everything is white und fluffy again; winter is back! Welcome! This after warm, sunny, icy days, that followed the rain we had, about a week ago. Or was it two???
My snowman has started up his snowmachines again and left very early this morning to bring them off the pist and in new positions, for next night. And as having breakfast alone is not very attractive, I thought I might as well write I little something before I take the dog for a morning walk in the snow and the hoover for a walk on the carpet. Then it's time for skischool until around 2 o'clock and THEN it's time for the highlight of the week: I go to Innsbruck and pick up JuNi :-) One day later as usual, Niki has a test today.
So - everything is very normal. Finally I managed to get rid of Christmas aswell, this week.
Better get going!!!
T.

Last weeks kitchenwindowveiw (KWV)

For example with getting to a saturday night beer:
Impressions

Observer the green heads of me and Ju :-))))))


After going up up and up we have to go down a bit, before we get our beer.



Next saturday there will be no mountainbeer. Julia and Niki and I intend to go to Munich - "Red Bull Crashed Ice". Julias idea. Whose's else?!?! Hope the ice won't melt - it's going to be warm. And wet. Snow only above 2000m! The rest, rain :-(
Luckily we have some indoor activity options aswell. First of all, getting rid of the Christmas decoration. I like to decorate in December, but now we all have enough. Everything at its time!
Other options are Tai Chi (tonight) and DANCING. Tomorrow night. Did I ever tell that Emil and I attend a dancing school?!?! Since November. Although I doubt that Emil will ever learn to dance, I admire his efforts :-))) He thinks the music is disturbing as he tries to sort out his feet and count the steps......... Sigh! Nobody's perfect :-)
T.

Sedan i lördags har jag aterupptagit mitt liv som skidlärare. Fransoser 3 timmar om dan. De kan inte ett ord tyska :-) Stenkul! Om nu fransoserna tycker det är stenkul att lyssna pa min hackiga franska vet jag ju inte, men de tycks första vad jag säger och jag förstar tillbaka, om de inte säger mer än 5 ord sammanhängande och det  langsamt....
Vinterkylan har dragit sig tillbaka och det ska bli smaregnigt och tö de närmaste dagarna. Julregn. Inget ovanligt. Fast pa julafton ska det visst bli kallt igen. Det kan ju bli livat! O glatt!

Julia och Emil plockade en julgran i dag. De skidade helt enkelt ner genom skogen under bergbanan, med en sag i ryggsäcken, och vid sextiden kom Julia släpande med den. Det är dags att den kommer pa plats nu, sa tomten slipper gömma paket pa alla möjliga och omöjliga ställen i huset :-)
T.

Wednesday evening we went to Innsbruck, Emil and I, to visit the youngsters.

Christkindlmarkt in Innsbruck, only 10 minutes walk from JuNi's "home".
The snow on the roofs is real!

The "livingroom"

The "guestroom"
Pontiac slept in Julias room, but in the morning he came dragging my jacket along, and told me he wanted to go out in the yard. And pushed me off my "bed".

The "breakfastroom"

The yardside, with Julias panorama window.

Julias "panorama"
Niki hasn't got any view - only a window......

This is the view over Innsbruck, seen through the Olympic rings of the skijumping arena.
After this morning walk, we did some shopping, Emil and I. And Pontiac. At lunch we met Niki and had a nice lunch. Julia didn't get any lunch, except for the sandwich she had packed, poor child. She had lectures until 3, then we picked her up and went home. 24 hours!
T.

Aren't they nice?! All decorated by Julia. They are nicer than good. We tried a new recipe this year. We shouldn't have. But in that way, maybe they last longer....
Emil had the day off today. Almost. Between 0900 until 1600. In that time we actually managed to get some Christmasshopping done! Before, he was snowing half the night; went at 1900 yesterday evening, came at 2200, set the alarm at 0200 and left, came back 0600 this morning, fed the horses, took a shower, had breakfast and left at 0800. And he's still out there on Snowy Mountain. When it's so cold, as it is right now (about 10° celcius below) you just HAVE TO snow, because you get 100 % out of those machines and even if it rains at Christmas, the pists are good. One reason for expensive skitickets.

Decosnow  made by King Winter and Mrs Holle.

Tomorrow evening we go to Innsbruck, Emil and I, drink Hot Spiced Wine at the Christmasmarket and they stay over night on JuNi's kitchenfloor. I wonder how much you need to drink, to sleep well on a kitchenfloor....???
On Thursday, then, we'll do some Christmasshopping, ho ho ho, until the kids are ready for the day and we all go home together. Almost like holiday :-)
T.

Only the swedishspeaking readers will hopefully, when not forgive, at least understand, my spelling up there. The sun was my lightbringing Lucia today, and there where millions and billions little tärnor och stjärngossar in the snow. Yesterday Julia and Niki made the lussekatter. Lucycats. And the gingerbreads. Why pepparkakor? No pepper in them!!!

Emil har äntligen en ledig dag och har akt till Hochfilzen med kompisar för att titta pa Biathlon. Skidskytte. Upps! I'm writing in swedish again. I suppose it's because I've been writing in swedisch all day. Christmas correspondence. In front of the fireplace, high up under the roof. It's been a very windy day, and snowy. But not very cold. But very cosy! Julia went riding, Niki walked the dog in the forest, I made blinis and zaziki. Wasn't bad :-). Julia decorated the pepparcakes in the afternoon, as we watched mens giant slalom from Val d'Isère. Ligety won. Again. I just called Emil, he's at McDonalds in St.Johann, the other end of Tyrol. I made a ruccolasalad for the JuNi and will fry some chickenbreasts for them, before I and Pontiac leave for Hubertushütte, with the "uphillskis" (randonnée) for the first time this winter. Seasonopeningup. The perfect finish for a typical LED!
T.