Here's hoping

According to a Guardian newspaper article from September the 1st, we might be in for a snowy, cold winter.
In the piece entitled ‘Is summer really over?’ a long-range forecaster named Harry Kershaw, using a technique known as simililarity forecasting, has said that 2008’s weather patterns are following those of 1962, which entailed a wet September and a briefly fine October, before descending into a bitter cold winter throughout the start of 1963. So cold in fact, that it became known as The Big Freeze of 1963, and according to the national CET records - which record temperatures going back to 1659 - was only beaten by the winter of 1739-40.

In 1963 the thermometre dropped to -16C, which led to the sea freezing to a distance of 1 mile from Herne Bay, the Thames was briefly turned into a skating rink, and snow settled on much of the country from January until March, with many parts of the country reporting drifts of up to 6 metres.

Cam't be bad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/01/weather

A magical morning

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?

J.B. Priestley

Oh! the snow

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow, Filling the sky and earth below, Over the housetops, over the street, Over the heads of the people you meet.

J. Watson

Taken this morning at 1120mtrs

Avoriaz snowiest resort in France - fact

Recently trying to persuade an old friend of mine to do a season here in Morzine, I again found myself defending the area. He has lived in Deux Alps for a number of years and depsite many an occasion of me gloating to him about having more snow over here, he can't get passed the missconception that a low resort won't have any snow.

Knowing the fact of it and understanding there have to be other factors that effect snowfall, other than altitude, I started to research.

among many other things I discovered that according to the Daily Mail ski magazine, with an average just shy of 8m snow a year, Avoriaz is the snowiest resort in France and 5th from across Europe. November 08 issue.

There is a very good entry on the all Mountain Holidays web which discusses this very topic and gives a good number of reasons.

http://www.allmountainholidays.com/weblog/

Also worth a read on this subject: http://www.white-peak.com/weblog/?p=7

and just to ice my argument, it is snowing in Avoriaz as I write this.

Work is never ending

Were still cracking on trying to get things finished before the fast approaching winter. This week we have recarpeted all the bedrooms and the tv room, as well new wood flooring through the upstairs lounge. Could find decent carpet out here so persuaded Carl and his team to bring it all out form the UK and install it, ooh it's lovely.

Ooh he makes us proud

Those of you that came to stay with us last year, will probably remember us karting little Luc around as we came to visit the chalets of an evening and how he would happily sleep in his carry thing like the little cute baby that he was. Well he had his first birthday yesterday and he's still just as cute but not nearlly as quiet or still as he used to be, but were still just as proud of him.

Here he is playing pirates with his friends.

Winter has started

The trees have only just started to turn colour, a couple of weeks ago we were still in shorts, but already we have snow. It is only just into October and we don't expect it to stay for long but it bodes well for the future. There may not look like much down here at the chalet, about an inch. But we are only at 1100mtrs our nextdoor neighbour was on top of Pleney this morning (at 1600mtrs) where there was nearly 10 cms. Definitely time to break out the winter woolies and wax the board (just in case).

Note to self

Blogs are funny things, certainly when you have one for the first time. Never too sure if anyone is reading what you write or not, it's sometimes hard to know how much energy to apply and how much information people will be interested in. But the other day I met some one who admitted to reading our blog on a regular basis. This simple act of recognition has given me a renewed passion, so I would like to start with saying hello to Chris and then make a promise to keep my posts regular and keep anyone who wishes to be upto date on conditions and goings on in Morzine.
Please feel free to ridicule me if you feel I am slacking in my endevours.