Seville Orange Gin

70cl gin
2 seville oranges
70g sugar (or to taste)

Put ingredients in a sealable jar. I use a 1.5l kilner jar.
Leave for a month or more in a cool place out of the sun. Shake occasionaly
Strain and bottle.

Seville Orange Curd Recipe

Grated zest of 1/2 a seville orange or 1 lemon

Juice of 3 seville oranges

200g sugar

100g butter

3 eggs and yolk of 1 more egg

Method is the same as for lemon curd http://laviealapetiteferme.blogspot.fr/2014/02/lemon-curd-recipe.html

Vin d’Orange

3l rosé wine
75ml vodka
500g sugar
8 seville oranges (perhaps 2kg)

Mix everything together and leave for about a month
Strain and bottle
Drink neat or over ice

Poppy on the drag-lift

It was very quiet in the ski area on Saturday due to it being the end of the school holidays and snowing heavily. So we took the opportunity to take Poppy up one of the drag-lifts and down a closed piste a few times. She had super fun and was tired for at least a day afterwards!

Running alongside the drag-lift

Running back down the piste.

She overtook me the first few times round

Fab Christmas present!

I have finally got round to giving this ago. I was super excited about it, but also a bit daunted as reviews on the internet make it sounds awesome but potentially tricky to get the hang of (correct wet/dryness to the mixture mainly but partly flour type etc).
It probably helped that I went on a pasta making course many years ago. It really helps with what the dough looks like when it is right.

It was sooo successful now I am worried I have peaked on my first go and will never achieve such perfection again!

These are giant macaroni...

... and fusilli

There there some other shapes too. A smaller macaroni, a bigger macaroni like thing (but called something else), spaghetti and a thing which is like fat spaghetti with a whole down the middle.

They tasted good too...

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

I am wondering if we might be better building an Ark rather than a house. It will need to float well on mud as well as water.

The rain starts to get quite depressing after a while because everything turns to mud.

The chickens eating in the mud

Owen beside his mud swamp (which is much better than precious years considering the amount of rain. Doug dug it all off with the mini digger before winter).

Hainoa eating hay in the mud

Looking on the bright side (hard to do day after day of MUD and WET and COLD):

• The rain here is snow in the ski area. 
• We don't have to live out in the rain like the animals (and we can escape the mud up to La Mongie which they cannot).
• We worry sometimes whether the spring might dry up if it is dry for too long.
• In the summer we will be complaining it is too hot.
• We had the chimneys taken off so the roof doesn't leak.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2018
... pause while I try to deal with how on earth we are at 2018...

Being old, we went to bed earlyish and only somewhat drunk so we could get up and go skiing in the morning. It snowed overnight and was clear (though somewhat windy) in the morning. Perfect!

Walk on Hogmanay to try to tire Poppy so she could sleep through any fireworlks

Fireworks on the piste just outside the flat! Perfect. Poppy didn't mind too much.

Going skiing in the sun in 2018 (!!)

First tracks of the year

1st and 2nd tracks of the year

Ooooof this is tiring

 Lunch at the Etape du Berger (where Macron went for lunch when he was skiing here at Christmas)

Steak and chips - YUM!