New Year 2008

It's late at night and I am taking a quiet moment in the inn keeper's library reflecting on what happened between New Year's Eve and today.

The end of the year 2007 was celebrated with a nice supper cooked by the inn keepers. The home-cooked meal consisted of: oven-baked ham, curried chicken, scalloped potato, and other nice foods that were served with red wine. After supper, the guests played some non-competitive snookers, followed by a few games of scrabbles. At around quarter to midnight, the big TV screen was turned on and we watched the crowd scene at Times Square in downtown Manhattan. As the inn's grand-father clock struck twelve, we broke out into the traditional song Auld Lang Syne written by Robert Burns in 1788.

On New Year's day, the weather outside looked nice and I went snowshoeing in the field behind the barn. Snow flakes were falling from the sky all day long and the ski trail I had made previously was almost completely covered with new snow. Unlike yesterday, the wind was not blowing hard which made the trip pleasant and relaxing. The rest of the day was spent lounging around in the 6,000 square feet farm-house that had been turned into a bed-and-breakfast inn.

I woke up at 4:30 am before sunrise the next morning, contemplating a hike up one of the two 4,000-ft peaks. However, given that everyone had stayed up late last night, I decided it would not be a good idea to wake people up. By the time I got out of bed at 8 am, the temperature outside had already dropped to about 10 degrees F with a 10 mph wind  (taking into account the wind-chilling factor, it felt like 1 deg F). If I had gone out, I would have been caught in the blowing snow on the mountain slope.

However, being the restless type, I was not content to sit around reading books while the powder snow on the ski hill was calling. So, at 11 am, I drove to Mad River Glen and spent the next five hours skiing up and down the mountain. Despite the chilly weather, I must say I enjoyed skiing on many of the blue (intermediate) and black diamond (difficult) runs. The powder snow and the beautiful winter scenery more than made up for the cold temperature. Upon my return to the inn, I was treated to a cup of hot cocoa and some short-bread cookies made by our hostess.

I have taken quite a few photos on top of the mountain but since I am currently using the inn keeper's Apple computer, I have not been able to post them on my blog right-a-way. As mentioned perviously, I will respond to your comments (which I read) upon my return to Canada.

Haricot

(near Mad River Glen, Vermont)