New dress

Lucius finally fits into her dress 'n tights that Aunty Mel gave her for Xmas. Too sweet and suddenly looking quite grown up. And sitting on our new, insulated, perfectly level subfloor in the attic

L skates

Lucius has been getting way rad with her first skating efforts.
Instigated by Papa, squeals of delight by both

The 'Seated Flyer'

The 'Belly Out'

Hanging five on the nose!!! Check out her style!!!

The weekend

Last weekend John and Lula drove up from Spain to visit and get out on the snow. Leigh was flying in from England to join us...

Unfortunately this is as close as Leigh got; his flight was canceled due to a French air traffic controller strike. He was notified after driving to Stanstead, checking in, having his bags on-board, going through security, etc... Terrible (but not as bad as my hasty Photoshop work)

The old Cauterets train station. This was my first visit to this resort. A very sweet old town linked to a single ski bowl with about 7 lifts and some nice off-piste

View down the valley towards the Spanish border from Artouste Fabreges, one of the more local resorts. After much French head-scratching and strolling about with big hand-tools, they got the lift running at 1pm and only opened half the pistes due to storm damage and low snow levels. This allowed John and I to spend the morning drinking coffee and getting sunburned

The conditions were far from perfect, but we made the most of it, finding some spring lines off the beaten track. Thankfully there was barely anyone else there

John getting all sequential, oooohhh

Kicking up a bit of off piste spring slush

And then cooking by torchlight as Hurricane Xynthia knocked out our power and phone lines; we always try to provide a bit of adventure for our guests

Rugger and teef

Today, we watched our friend, Steven, play rugby in the nearby village of Morlaàs. He is an ex- professional athlete who has played for Worcester, Saracens, and clubs in France.
Tres intimidating on the field

It was a close game, with our team winning 21-18, in lovely pre-spring sunshine

In other news, Lucius has begun pointing at EVERYTHING this week

And her first two teeth have broken through! Lower front. And without much fuss. We are attempting to capture proof of them.
Very sweet, but not what we're looking for...

No teeth, but lovely...

Open wide, that's it...

You can catch a hint of them...

Ah, there's a peg. More to follow

Sorting blocks at the block sorting office

(Otherwise known as sitting at the coffee table opposite Papa acting all grown up and ting)

Landy's got new shoes. Vrrooooooo

Book

After many hours of searching, sorting and editing, Neil's book is finally finished. We found a little artisan printer in the city nearby with some lovely old kit. His office is a nostalgic graphic designers dream

Parsnip love

Valentine's day veg

Her first cold

Sadly, Lucius has caught her first cold, following a playgroup last week. Here she puts on a brave face / wave, even though her nose is streaming, her cough is scratchy and her outfit is a crazy mix of sickly comfies

Back in the Pyrenées

Today, fresh snow was hard to find and it was a little crusty on top. It was still easy enough to crack on through revealing the powdery bounty beneath. Here I (Neil) found some nice gully's where I could leave my mark, until the next snowfall at least

The wind ripped surface felt quite lunar in places