(Belated) Happy Equinox!

I meant to post that yesterday, really! But... well, things got off to a busy start yesterday. L's caught the local cold that's going around and didn't sleep well, so I did some of the chicken care (all but water, which he did before we left), put a couple of bags of feed down the chute and offloaded the grain from the minivan into the barn. Also boiled eggs for the grove's gathering and loaded clothing into the car for the celebration. Oh, and I even remembered to water the plants :D

Equinox/Alban Eiler went well enough -- good weather, our regular the blackbird was in attendance, and then there were the raptors overhead.

Spent a few hours at the grove gathering and then off to the FL meeting at the kung fu school. Then a few shopping errands and then off to choir practice. Ellid reviewed some things with me and I'll be working on that today. All in all, a busy day.

Mid-spring already, but likely won't be working on gardening stuff in earnest until we get back from Florida. I'd thought about starting my onions this month but decided it would be just one thing too many. And this way I only have to have my MIL take care of the rosemary and maybe the aloe. The ginger plants will be well watered this week and can make do without watering for several days -- too many and too heavy to move downstairs for just a week. Although..... well, I might ask niece S to come up and water them once when she's here cleaning downstairs... we'll see how the week goes.

Didn't have time to try out the skis this past weekend, but at least I'll have them for next year, and it was very nice getting them at 40% off!

Cross Country Skiing

So, it snowed quite a bit up here today, and there's more forecast for this week. Since there's nothing to be done about that, and since I did just get new skis, I went skiing this afternoon. Only for half an hour, and _after_ lying down for an hour because yes, I have finally caught a cold.

I bundled up pretty well, although without taking away from mobility - even wore a ski mask. I did _not_ cut a stylish figure, as I don't have "ski" clothing, but silk thermals, two wool tops, vest, jeans, mittens and ski mask did the trick.

I got an Alpina set, back country skis but not trail breakers in case we decide to go try out a track for practice at some point (width limit on skis). Metal edge on the skis to help protect them.

X-ctry skis are narrow, so you have to balance your foot evenly. That's probably the hardest part for me so far; being flat-footed I tend to lean on the outer edges of my feet. I might try to see if my orthotics will fit into the boots. Either way, I expect I'll be developing leg muscles a bit more evenly when doing this. Of course, I'll only be able to ski until Thursday, since we leave for FL on Friday morning and I expect all the ski-able snow to be gone by the time we get back.

So, half an hour, fell down once, learned the basics of how to move and how to stop. Avoided steep slopes, and haven't actually tried to do a snowplow yet.

Snow shoeing definitely has its place, but in general, I already prefer skiing. L thinks it would be a good way to get to town if ever we need to and the roads aren't plowed.

No kung fu tonight - the skiing and taking care of the chickens was enough exercise for the day.