Vanoise Summer 2016

The Alps were as magic as always this summer.

Some great walks, a few runs, and a solitary ski. My knee held up OK.

We had great weather and even managed to forage a huge meal of morels. A bit early for chanterelles.

Charlotte and I climbed Rechasse with Roland, but unfortunately we just missed the last of the skiable snow for Paradiso.

Wedding anniversary at Chabichou, and the usual walks to Champagny-de-haut, Prioux and Lacs Merlet with some nice lunches. Got to see the north face of Le Grande Casse for the first time - wow, can't believe anyone has ever skied it, let alone Roland skiing it 2 weeks ago!

Planted another dozen snow gums. My bioterrorism by stealth continues as I claim the Alps for Oz... 

Opening weekend 2016

We had a dusting of snow for opening weekend this year, but not enough for any skiing (save a few turns for the kids on the Dinner Plain nursery slope). 

This year marked 30 years since Dinner Plain became Victoria's youngest town, and fireworks were followed by a black tie gala at Rundles. All the usual suspects were there, as well as Peter McIntyre who was the architect of our house.

Stu Wood won the raffle for the wine and distributed it amongst his friends which was good of him, and I bought a dog which will sit guard outside our house for the season. 

We had walks down to the Victoria River where Lucie got a very fine sized fish and Balti a tiddler, as well as out towards Tabletop Mountain. 

Some nice meals, including a stellar gratin by Marie-Laure and a bit of smoking by myself.

The weekend was sunny and very crisp, and I just love the sound of cracking ice beneath the wheels of my mountain bike - it always means that snow can't be too far away...

Family

The last couple of weeks have been a bit nuts.

I tore a meniscus on the Monday before Marie-Laure returned from Bali, after which she promptly came down with ghastly fevers, rigors and meningism which knocked her flat.

This was swiftly followed on Tuesday by a call from a distressed ultrasonographer who was with mum. She'd just found some disturbing pictures suggestive of ovarian cancer and thought it best that I get the ball rolling with an oncology/surgical review.

Marie-Laure's illness wasn't improving by the weekend which meant that she wouldn't be able to fly to Adelaide with us for Em's birthday/Mother's Day.

Although we were all a little glum, we at least had some superb autumn weather in Radelaide and got to watch Sam play a stellar game of footy before a lovely afternoon in McLaren Vale, followed by a lovely meal at Em's. The kids had a great time catching up with cousins, and despite sore knees there was lots of leather kicked. Balti (when not cross-dressing) is improving his footy skills, and even managed to nab his first goal at Auskick last weekend.

When we got back to Melbourne Marie-Laure was still crook, and had developed a rash fairly pathognomic for Dengue, which was later confirmed on serology. With platelets in her boots and a couple weeks off work, she was one sick chicken. She's subsequently made a good recovery, aided by an awesome hot date staying and eating overnight at Brae last Friday.

Fortunately mum's problem hadn't spread on scan, and she had a major laparotomy last Monday from which she made a fairly good recovery allowing her to get home for the weekend.

Em flew over on the Thursday to take over the nursing reigns, and we had some nice family gatherings over the weekend before bad weather caused her flight to be delayed.

Mum will do as well as possible through a special family and network of friends who all love her dearly. We will all continue to cherish our time together for many years yet!

Troutmania

Daniel and Edgar joined the wombats and I for our annual surf and turf, only we decided against the turf side of the equation once again this year because even though euthanasia might sometimes be kinder for the parents, kids and guns are generally a hazardous blend.

We stopped for pizza (and Geelong smashing Adelaide!) in Myrtleford on Friday evening, and then a pleasant glass of red in front of the fire at DP. 

The next day the kids prepared a picnic and we charted a new and very satisfactory bushbash down to the mid-Victoria which successfully avoids private property and which gets you down to a better and more beautiful section of river where other punters seldom tread and the trout are plentiful and naive.

We were soon all landing fish aplenty, and visiting sections of the river previously not seen. There was lots of deer-signs including an antler found by Charlotte.

All of the kids managed to nab a fish, with the prize for the biggest going to Luce. We'd left one of the cars up at our usual access, and fished all the way up the river until twilight.

Dinner was at High Plains Hotel, and then back to watch the footy.

Daniel and I headed back down the river early the following morning and bagged another dozen fish, discovering some beautiful new pools further down in pretty stunning country. Sometimes I feel like it's my own back yard.

Then we headed back for some smoking. The previous evening's catch had been cured overnight in a sugar and salt brine, so I could compare with today's catch which were uncured. Whilst they all tasted fantastic smoked for an hour or so in alder, the cured fish were vastly superior. I vacc-packed enough for nearly a month.

It also seemed a waste to be throwing away so much roe, so I sourced a method for trout caviar and ended up with a huge tub of the stuff - on rye with a bit of butter and sour cream, it's actually really good!