NEW BLOG ADDRESS!!!!!

finally, after three years of putting it off i got around to moving/changing the blog to something more permanent.

so.....from now on all new posts will appear only at:

www.simple-lodge.com

there's one waiting there now.....

note: it's still partially under construction and so stick with it while i iron out the bugs in the new site - thanks

see you over there.

cheers, gairy.

ERIC (is) BEN ANNA (man)

good evening,

the extent to which the title of today's blog entry makes any sense to you will very much depend upon:

- how english you are.

- how old you are.

- whether or not you know ben, anna and eric.

- whether or not you knew that they'd been out to visit us recently.

ok, moving swiftly on.....

we had a visit recently from anna and eric!

we were still in the depths of a cold spell and so much wintry fun was had by all.

to begin with we went on a nice walk around one of the bigger peaks in the area (Mount Mezanc if you're interested).

here's anna at the start of the climb (well - sloped walk):



and nikki enthusiastically showing off the view:



as we entered the forest the snow/ice was really impressive:



and obscuring:



we walked up and round for a while before it became obvious that there was no way (at the rate we were moving) that we were going to make it the whole way round the mountain before we ran out of daylight and so we opted for an off-piste route which took us quickly back down to the car.

here's part of the final bit of climb before we headed across and back down:



and a beautiful group shot at our highest point (at around 1600m altitude):



on the way back down anna and eric stopped to make Un Homme de Neige - and here he is in all his french glory:



due to the very cold weather we built up a temporary fireplace inside the big stone fireplace in the front room and here's the place looking cosy and warm (yeah, right!):



the next day we went for another (more local) little walk to the river and got some more nice photographs.

here's a nice shot of an ice-fall:



and here's Taco striking his usual photograph pose by the river:



there were some very cool ice formations by the river to be seen as well - here are a couple of the better ones:





as the temperature was so low me and the monkey boy had an idea - CURLING!

we made a little wooden frame, lined it with some plastic sheeting and then filled it with water and come the next morning we had one hell of a mighty fine curling rink!!!

so, on their last night we had ourselves a little competition.

the results aren't important (ok, i'll include them after the photographs) but here's how things looked.....

miss katz concentrating hard:



and monkey-boy gazing after one of his shots:



and finally contest winner eric during his match against anna:



if i remember rightly the final results were:

1st - eric
2nd - monkey-boy
3rd - nikki
4th - anna
5th - gairy (i never found my length)

next time.....

so, a day after anna and eric buggered off - ben arrived!

now there's not so many photographs of ben's stay for two good reasons:

1. ben isn't as snap happy as anna was.

2. the weather had warmed up and all the pretty snow/ice had gone.

but.....we did get these shots of some new-born piglets at ediths farm:



and this one (i can almost hear everyone's "aaaaaaahhh" from here):



we also had dinner with french robin williams - i kid thee not!

he was a guest at edith's and was a very funny and knowledgeable fella (and able to communicate well due to being an english teacher at a local school).

over a few days m.b. made the fireplace situation more permanent with some nice stone-work.

here's the finished fireplace including levelling from our new laser-level which illustrates nicely just how level it is:



we went for some nice walks with rudie and me and ben even managed to get out mountain biking (it was very warm!) which was the first time i'd been on a bike since Bob!

all-in-all a splendid set of visits!

that'll do for now but i'll leave you with a nice shot of the icicles from underneath the terrace:



i think we're all about ready for the arrival of spring but try telling that to the weather as we had more attempted snow this afternoon!

cheers, gairy.

Honey-Bob - Weeks 4 and 5

for two very good reasons i have combined the final 2 weeks of the Honey-Bob trip into one blog post:

1. the final week wasn't so much to blog about and so will be fairly short (yeah, right!).

2. i'm sick of it ruling my life and sucking so much time and i want it finished!

ok, after we left the Arctic Circle we spent three days driving back down through Sweden to Stockholm where spent a few days walking around and taking in the sights (what really happened was that we walked between places to eat all day and then went to bed).

here are a few nice shots of places we saw on the drive down through Sweden:




the one above was taken when we were diverted off of the main road we were on and then we took some crazy wrong-turn before eventually finding what we (correctly) presumed were the Swedish signs for 'diversion'.

a nice little sunset:



the sheds below were traditionally used for storing/drying hay but now they just wrap the hay in plastic and so they're all falling down - shame as they're nice (and much nicer than big rounds of plastic in every field):



once in Stockholm we (via a combination of adequate directions and good fortune) soon found the place we were staying right in the heart of the city.

it's an old converted ship which is now used as a hostel.

here it is at night (looking like it's been taken by Judy Finnegan's shaky Gin hands):



we had some very nice meals (my favourite was Moose Meatballs and Mash) and saw some nice old parts of Stockholm and even managed a first on the Honey-Bob trip - a photograph of the two of us!

this was taken on the underground on our way back from a meal:



next, we drove on down through the remainder of Sweden and into Denmark.

we stayed in Copenhagen for a few days and pretty much loved it.

Copenhagen felt a lot more 'real' than Stockholm (grittier and more 'normal' somehow - not that we hated Stockholm).

we stayed in our nicest accommodation on the whole of the trip opting for a nice little boutique hotel which was all organic and ethically sourced etc... and very nice it was too!

Copenhagen has loads of old buildings which illustrate it's past well but they don't seem to figure much in modern day life in Copenhagen and so are pretty much just left alone:





we paid a visit to Freetown Christiania which is a semi-autonomous area within Copenhagen but is run pretty much independently and allowed (more tolerated) to govern itself.

it was started in the 70's when some hippies moved into and took over an old disused military base and they've been there ever since.

the first thing we noticed on entry was the smell of some very strong weed and the source was many people just wandering around smoking joints on the street.

there's a street called 'pusher street' where stalls sell hash out of suitcases which is fun.

and before you get all 'drugs are evil' on us it's worth noting that whilst alcohol and cannabis are allowed within Christiania nothing else is and so despite lax rules on the smoking of weed it is the only place in the entire of Copenhagen with zero hard-drug problems - so there!

it's somewhere between a very interesting hippy village and a dingy squat (it looks worse in winter without leaves/flowers etc...) with many houses being built solely from scavenged and recycled materials creating some pretty interesting architectural results - like this house:



on our way back we say this couple pushing their baby in this pram and then Nikki pointed out that their older child was laying face-down on the bottom which can't have been overly comfortable but it seemed happy enough:



there are loads of interesting little eateries in Copenhagen and here's a shot of one we had some decent grub in:



after an early morning of lows (being woken up by the fire alarm in the hotel and having to stand around for the better part of an hour while the firemen figured out what was going on) and highs (gaining a free organic breakfast on the house as a result) we packed up and moved out.....

next stop - Berlin where we would spend a few days doing more exploring.

here's a typically touristy photograph which proves we were there:



we stayed in Will and Ilka's flat (although unfortunately they were away for work) and it was very nice to have a base to explore from - thanks for your home guys!

one day we walked around a bunch of places for a few hours before meeting up with Amadeus (a friend from Malawi) and his girlfriend.

they took us on a tour of all things underground in Berlin which suited us much more than the usual touristy nonsense.

we went to a large artists squat where a huge old building has been taken over with cafe's, exhibitions, shops etc... very interesting.

over the next 3-4 hours we pretty much covered everywhere in Berlin on foot (ok, it felt like it by the end) visiting some really interesting places.

we saw the wall, took in a lot of street art, saw where the illegal raves are held in the summer and went past/through a few squats (places run not unlike Christiania in Copenhagen - it's amazing that they too openly sell weed).

here's some anti-corporate graffiti on a squatted building that amused us:



and here's the eastern side of 'the wall' where it's still remaining:



on the other side of the same stretch (we couldn't get over to see a lot of it - oh, the irony) they get famous street artists to do social/political art to decorate the wall - here's an example:



and some more huge graffiti:



and this one's particularly interesting:



all-in-all Berlin felt a lot like London to me - good bits, shit bits, poor bits, rich bits, interesting bits, dull business bits etc... but with a lot less development and money than London.

due to the large amount of buildings and land made available after the wall came down Berlin is one of the cheapest places to live in Germany (very unlike London).

anyways - we ate good, had some fun and then moved on.....

next up was a stay at Teresa's in Frieburg near the German/French/Swiss border.

apologies Teresa but the photographs of you were all taken whilst you were pulling your best "please don't take a photo of me" faces and so i can't imagine you want them shown and the other shots of your lovely home haven't come out so well either but here's a nice shot of the mountains from the top of the hill we walked up:



many many thanks for having us, the tour of the town and most importantly for the kartoffelpuffers!!!

ok, moving on (i know i'm not covering things in enough depth now but it's got to end).....

after leaving Germany we drove down through Switzerland to Chamonix to see Jane.

here's a nice shot of lake Geneva:



and here's one of the peaks peeking through the cloud on the mountain road up and over to Chamonix:



Jane had plans for the evening we were there and so i gatecrashed and joined in.

the plan was to walk (or skin in everyone else's case) up the mountain at night for a little while before skiing (boarding in my case) back down (enjoying the moon rise at the top).

as i had no equipment with me a friend of Jane's (apologies but i can't remember his name) very generously let me borrow a powerful head-torch, some snow-shoes, snowboard and boots - which was greatly appreciated.

it was hard work (especially trying to keep up with the skinners) and i was pathetically rusty on a snowboard but i really enjoyed it all the same - brilliant!

here's a shot of Jane sat underneath her favourite (and massive) old cycling photograph in her flat:



the next day we were up and on the road again just as far as Meribel to unwind for a little while before finally heading back home.

here's the view from the flat:



as you can see it's not too shabby a place to kick-back, relax and enjoy doing nothing but eat, sleep and take long baths!!!

finally the day came to do the final leg of the trip back to Simple HQ and we said our farewell to the Alps and headed home.

here's some nice silhouetted mountains on the road near Valence on our journey back:



late that evening we made it back and concluded our grand tour of all places cold and white in northern Europe.

as you may imagine (from all of the photographs and explanations of things we saw/did on our trip) we had an amazing, once in a lifetime, Honey-Bob!!!

now it's back to work with a million and one things to get done here at home.

but more about that another time.....

hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip.

cheers (or skol in Swedish).

Honey-Bob - Week 3

right then, moving on.....

after leaving Urban and the dogs behind we headed WAAAAAY up North inside the Arctic Circle to stay at an organic farm/guest house.

the place is called Aurora Retreat - check out their website here.

it's run my Mikael and Maya who cooked us some really amazing food which you know we enjoyed!

here's a shot of the area from near the house:



that's the river which runs along the road in the village.

as it was the beginning of January the sun only just made it over the horizon and so it was weird light (for the short while it was light).

it got light at about 09:00 and then dark again by 14:00 - not much time to get stuff done but we managed.

here's the midday sun:



when we saw this it was the first time Mikael has seen the sun in over a month!

it was also COLD!!!!!

at one point it reached -31°C which is seriously cold (but not as cold as it can get there).

i walked outside for about 50m and the snot in my nose froze in that short walk - seriously cold!

after a good night's sleep it was time for our first outing - a visit to a Sami reindeer herd.

we realise now that we had an overly romanticised idea of the indigenous Sami folks as most of them now live almost entirely western lifestyles (cars, snowmobiles, mobile phones etc...) but it was still nice to talk to the guy about the things that do remain and how things were before we westerners came along and ruined everything.

here's a photo of Stefan's reindeer fur boots which Nikki absolutely loved:



and here's the fire in the Sami hut which stopped us from freezing to death:



the Sami are the only ones in Sweden allowed to 'own' reindeer and they still herd them in a somewhat semi-traditional way (albeit with snowmobiles).

they were very cool and we walked around the herd (the ones which tended to roam too far and so were corralled in the winter) and gave them some food (pellets of natural lichen).

here's a photograph which Nikki took which is out of focus but has a really nice eerie diffused feel to it:



the next day we went snow-shoeing in the morning and then spent the afternoon learning how to make felt.

again it was COLD.

here i am wrapped up stood on a little lake:



we walked up the river that fed this lake and studied some animal tracks and generally enjoyed the scenery.

to give you an idea of just how cold it was - Nikki's hair froze!



and Anita (another guest at the place) had frozen eyelashes - looks cool no?



after lunch we went across to the arts and crafts centre to learn the basics of felt-making.

not content to do the standard little projects they normal get guests to do me and nikki wanted to get a little more involved.

i wanted to learn not just how to make something from pre-carded felt but also how to card the wool as well and so i did that and then made us some nice little coasters which you can see below:



this means that we now know how to make our own felt fresh from the raw wool that we get from our sheep (we need to shear them twice a year - look forward to us blogging learning to do that in a month or so - should be fun!).

Nikki went a few steps further and wanted to make some felt boots for any small feet that might enter our lives any time in the future.

the woman said that this was entirely possible but that it would take a little longer than one afternoon.

so.....she got to work!

here's the big pile of wool to start with:



this is then layered into a very rough shape (not entirely un-shoe like but very rough):



this is then wet with warm soapy water:



and rubbed on a wash-board which blends the wool fibres together:



the shape is then repeatedly rubbed, rubbed and then rubbed some more to gain definition and shape (the more it's rubbed the tighter the fibres become and you shape it via focused directed rubbing):



eventually you end up with a more shoe-like shape:



this is then washed to shrink it further before being trimmed and laced to give the finished booties:



how cute are they?

damn good for a first timer - no???

that night we had a little extra treat with dinner.

i'd heard that a certain number of bears are culled each year to keep the population down and that despite the fact that the meat is perfectly edible no one eats it - so i aksed if it'd be possible to get hold of some.

so.....after dinner Mikael brought out some fried bear meat!

everyone expect me hated it but i thought it was bloody lovely. it had a real nice flavour (and i didn't get the feety after taste that put the others off) - not something you get to eat every day.

ok, the next day we went cross-country skiing.

not the high-tech version but on old wooden Swedish army skis.

it was more like walking on skis than actual skiing with us constantly going up through the woods and across lakes - very nice indeed!



you can see just how frozen everything is:



we got lost a couple of times (but not seriously) and it's easy to see why when everything looks like this:



the following day we went to spend a couple of days in a wilderness cabin (not content with how remote and wild things were already).

we had a 40 minute ride to the cabin (Nikki on the back of the snowmobile and me in the little trailer you can see below):



it's basically a Reliant Robin on skis!

the wilderness cabin is basic - no water and a fire to cook on and that's about it.

it had an outdoor loo and we had to drill a hole in the ice on the lake for drinking water.

we had some very nice Arctic Char for dinner and then had one of the warmest nights sleep EVER (as we heated the cabin up and didn't realise that as the bed was on the mezzanine it would be WAY hotter than down below.

at abut 01:00 Nikki had the window open and it was below -20°C outside it was that hot up there!

here's the cabin from the front:



and inside (taken from the mezzanine):



and here's our cooking stove:



one other thing the cabin had was a Sauna!!!

Nikki couldn't partake due to her being up the duff but i certainly could.

here's a view of the Sauna hut in front of the lake a little way from the cabin:



and here's me on my way to the Sauna (it was cold i can tell thee!):



nothing but a pair of boots, a towel and a head-torch - hardcore!

the next day we went snowmobiling.

it's an evil fuel-hungry sport but we had to give it a try.

FUN!!!!!

fast, powerful and frightening all at the same time - very very cool indeed!

we spent another night at the wilderness cabin before returning the next day.

we were leaving after lunch but we had just enough time to try our hand at some Ice-fishing before we left.

it's pretty simple really - you drill a hole in the ice and drop in a hook with some bait - and wait.

this is the lake we were on - really beautiful:



here's my first hole:



and here's me looking like a frozen gnome:



after about 10 minutes Nikki got her first fish which was a really good start!

then she got another and another.....

after a couple of hours (much complaining and many excuses) the final score was:

Nikki 6 - Gairy 0

not my finest performance but we were very pleased that Nikki had done so well as it meant we had some mighty fine Perch to eat for lunch.

here's Nikki's haul:



and mighty tasty they were too - genuinely the tastiest fish i've ever eaten!

after lunch we packed up and headed off but i think this post has been long enough and so tune in next time for more.....

adios!