Yup, still winter

Do you guys remember the waterfall in this post? It has had a complete winter makeover!
And this is the stream leading up to the waterfall. That's a novel concept: "I climbed a river today!"
Otherwise, nothing new. Winter continues.

-23 and counting

It's summer in NZ. The sun burns mercilessly, the humidity and the heat makes you sigh every minute, and you want to surround yourself with fans and cold drinks and icecream and sea waves and anything else that might help cool you down.

And you can't help wondering how it would be if, just for a while, you were in a place where everything was cool and icy.

So icy, in fact, that even your front door lock would freeze over.
On the inside of the house.
Mmm, that would be refreshing, wouldn't it?

A thought has just struck me. Wow, I'm living in a chewing gum commercial.

This is probably the most belated account of New Year festivities in the entire blog world. I guess I can pull my usual excuse: I'm Transylvanian, don't rush me!

Not that it was terribly exciting. We went to a cabin in Bistra (no Wikipedia page, sorry), in the beautiful Mures valley. Loaded with festive food, appropriate clothing, skiing gear, a considerable amount of alcohol and anything else a self-respecting Transylvanian may need for such an important occasion as the end of 2009, we expected to have a great time. We were planning to spend 4 days there.

The weather was terrible: rain, flood warnings, thick clingy mud, obviously no conditions for either skiing or hiking. But, as the climbing of some height or other was compulsory for such dedicated mountain people, on the first day we rushed to the nearest cliff in the few hours of daylight we had left.

It was already dark by the time we got to the top. Walking on muddy ground in the dark is quite a delight! But the hike was worth it, even just for seeing the breathtaking moon. I wish one of the people who can actually take pictures had their camera with them. But they didn't, so these murky images are my only proof of a beautiful evening:
After our return, it was time for eating, drinking and merrymaking. The other guests were most sociable,
...the host very welcoming (and very tipsy)
...and the midnight firecrackers were of the appropriate loudness.
Later, high class entertainment was provided to those who wanted to sleep...
...so they didn't sleep!

And in the morning, the skiing gear, festive food and alcohol were taken back to the city, as there was not much point staying longer in that weather.

And after that, i spent the first 2 weeks of the year (going on 3) being sick. I hope it's not a sign for the year to come.

But there, I've done my duty and told you about my latest exploits. Maybe I should drag my convalescent bottom to the craft table now and catch up with this month's projects.

Merry Christmas

For those of you who enjoy this glittering, stressful, snow-infested day... Merry Christmas, folks!

For those of you in NZ, where my text messages don't reach... Merry Christmas, folks!

For those of you who read and occasionaly enjoyed my blog throughout this year, Merry Christmas, folks!

'Tis the season to be grumpy...

Let me propose to you a little "spot the difference" game. This is my front door last June:
And this is my front door yesterday:
The more perceptive of you might have noticed that the white stuff is back. It's cold and clingy and I've forgotten how to walk on it. I must admit it can look pretty at times,
But I'd rather have the dust of summer on my stream-side roller blading lane.
And it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so!

Catch up

What I'm about to show you happened 3 weeks ago, but I haven't had time to write about it. Not that it's very interesting, but I have to update the contents of this blog every once in a while, don't I?

Aanyway, after a bumpy ride in a chocker-full minibus with only standing room (which gave rise to a lot of jokes about indian trains), we got to Lunca Bradului, the place where I spent at least half of my childhood. The murky, misty wet rainy weather kept us inside the cabin for half the day. Which was not so bad for me, as I had brought some stuff to sew (call me mad, but I've gotta finish!)

But when the rain stopped, it was time to explore what we were there for this time. We had found out about this cabin/conference centre/team building exercise site which is of course private and not to be used by the general public. But there's nothing in Romania a little bribe cannot handle, so we bought permission to play around its perimetre for the rest of the day.

First, it was this:
A giant flying fox going down the hill, over the road, over the stream and over the courtyard, aaall the way to that tiny red shack you see in the distance. SO much fun! could have stayed there all day. (scroll down for video)

But there were other interesting things to do. Like this obstacle course of sorts, high up in the trees. However, what looked like an interesting activity turned out to be the emanation of a wicked, twisted mind. Once you got up there, there was no way of going back or going down mid-way; you had to go all the way to the end or you were stuck there forever. And that pursuit did take a good hour, perhaps.

I like this pic, it looks like she's flying. But there were some rings there she was holding on to for dear life:

I didn't try it, as 4 people went off ahead of me and it was already getting dark ... but mostly because I was scared I wouldn't be able to finish it. Not that I was the only one being scared! If you look up "white-knuckled" in the dictionary, you will surely get this picture:

So I was content staying firmly on the ground and filming or photographing the others....

...or laughing at them when they were stuck in mid-air between two stations. Or setting up a brainstorm to figure out a way to help them go on.

I did try some things that didn't take long to complete and were closer to the ground...
...and admired some climbing walls. Will definitely be back here in spring, ready to bribe with generosity!

Happy Birthday, Christine!

photo taken from http://otavia.blogspot.com

Hope you have a day full of everything you love! *hugs*