On the piste again !!!!!

As many of you may know I love snowboarding and really enjoy trips up to the Scottish highlands in the winter.  One of the "draw backs" of our 6 month trip, was that we would be down in the southern hemisphere and was going to miss the whole season.  To be honest I was enjoying our trip so much that I never really thought about it too much and had pretty much written the 2011/2012 season off for snow sports.

However having been back for 3 weeks a late dump of snow in the highland's meant that the Cairngorm Mountain resort had re-opened for some spring skiing.  Our friends Nick and Susan both keen skiers were going up for a ski, so I jumped at the chance to go with them.

I would consider myself to be a pretty good snowboarder, but it has been 8 years since I strapped on a pair of ski's and I felt it was time to  take on the challenge and try some skiing.

At first I was a bit apprehensive about the ski's, but with the help of Nick and Susan I soon managed getting down a few green runs, then a red, then a hike to the top of Cairngorm mountain to ski the powder snow off piste.  It was brilliant fun and I remembered how good it is to challenge yourself and try new things.

It was a beautiful day on the mountain and the sun was shining (most of the time), and the views over the Cairngorm mountain's were spectacular.  Finally it felt great being home !!!!

Dean, Susan and some lovely snow on the mountain.

Dean, Susan and Nick enjoying some refreshments.

T for Tanzania !!!

Fantastic conditions

At the summit of Cairngorm mountain, just as the weather closed in !!! (Height 1245 M).

Attempting the slalom !!!

The beautiful Scottish mountains.

I never thought I'd even put on a pair of ski's

Ski Lodge at Cairngorm.

No snow on the lower mountain, just up the top.

Tanzania Ski Team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia  ?

Lets get this (garden) party started......

As I mentioned we were going to try and be a little more bit self sufficient and grow our own fruit, veg and flowers this year.  However as we live in the first floor of a tenement flat in Edinburgh that presents its own problems : we don't have our own garden !!!

Not to be deterred by that and inspired with our new found gardening skills from Tanzania, we had a solution.  Raised beds, plant pots, plastic boxes, old tyres, bags anything you can fill with soil you can turn into a garden.  We have a small communal garden at the back of our block of flats, so we have set this up in a little corner and turned this into the Green Living (Spring)valley !!!!.  Today we tidied up the area, built a little green house and planted some potatoes (or tatties as we call them in Scotland !!!).  A small beginning, lets see what it grows up to be !!!!!!

Picking up some Compost from the local compost project.

Tidying up the garden.

Our compost bin.

All our vegetable waste goes in here, not the bucket

Finally the Scottish sun shines !!!

Out little greenhouse, we are hoping to grow some tomatoes and chillies.  Note the footwear !!!

Planting tatties in plastic bags.  Rhubarb growing nicely also !!

Planting some sweet peas.

Green living (Spring)valley !!

Introduction.....

The 6 month adventure is over and we are back home in Bonnie Scotland.  It's freezing cold, raining and  miserable.  We don't have jobs,  not looking forward to job interviews !  What the heck do we do now ????

We really enjoyed blogging on our world tour, its a great way to journal what you've been up and look back on your achievements.  We thought it would be a good idea to continue blogging throughout the rest of year.  This time not to keep our friends and family at home up to date on our adventures, but rather to let  our new found friends around the world see what life is like in Scotland and what it has to offer.

Dean and Gillian.

Arthurs Seat, an extinct volcano slap bang in the middle of Edinburgh !!!!.  Great for hiking and running up.  Fantastic views across the city and over the Forth of Forth to Fife.

Gillian down the Meadows, a big park just south of the city center.

A popular place for Edinburghers to head when the weathers nice.  Running, football and BBQ !!!

Inspired by our work in Tanzania with Ben on the Green Living Planet Project, and Gillian's permaculturalist relatives in Wollongong Australia, we decided it was time to grow our own veg and stop buying the out of season, over priced, over travelled goods from supermarkets.  We have no idea how successful we will be, we're just gonna give it a go !!!!!

Gillian and our compost bin !!!

Our garden after being left for 6 months over the winter.  We actually had some rhubard growing !!!