As a skier, it is hard not to get excited when clouds lift and you can see snow on mountains that were green just the day before. Even at this time of the year when it has little or no influence on the season ahead it gets you thinking about the Winter and what it has in store.

That was the treat we had yesterday. In the afternoon I was busy with some small maintenance jobs in Chalet Martin , Aiden our 3 year old son(part human/part monster) was downstairs with Anne as the children don't go to school on a Wednesday. Sometime in the late afternoon Anne shouted out 'take a look oot the windae' (not really, she said 'take a look out the window'). Outside it had been a miserable day up to that point so I had an idea of what was in store. I stopped doing whatever it was that I was doing at the time and went to the window in the family room to look outside.

It was stunning, a hole had formed in the clouds and I had a perfectly framed view of Saulire, the peak that sits above Meribel  and Courchevel. I have seen it with snow on thousands of time before but as I have already said it is nice to see white slopes that were green just the previous day.

This is our second covering of snow in the last couple of weeks but as with the previous fall, we do not expect it to lie on the ground for long at this time of year. That's a good thing really as I have cyclists coming in to Chalet Grange a Charlotte on the weekend and they may not share my enthusiasm.