Frickin' dawn

sunrise

marshmallow snow and bunny prints

my snazzy snowshoes

GP working

that tiny dot on the left is GP still working

I have created a monster.  My dear, dear husband awoke me before the birdies this morning to go snowshoeing.  Some years ago in Maine I gave him equipment for Christmas as his only exercise is walking and I thought this would be an easy transition into a winter sport.  We went a few times every year but didn't exaggerate.  Since we've come back to Italy, GP's love of the Alps has turned him into an enthusiast, (I am by nature not an enthusiast of anything.  Takes too much effort).  This is probably brought on by aging health and weight issues plus the fact that we are an hour away and it's free.  But being my slightly OC hubby, we have to go early to beat the traffic and have time to get back in the afternoon and "do" things so as not to "waste time".  God Forbid.  It was so early this morning that the sun hadn't even come up over the mountains when we got up there and it was freaking freezing!  After a half an hour of tromping up hill I warmed up enough to stop and look around.  Gorgeous.  It ain't the ocean but it's mighty fine.  The temps were in the 20's in the morning, went up to mid 30's by the time we headed back at 1pm but were up in the 60's here in the burbs.  Winter may be holding on up there but it's spring down here.

Now the unfortunate thing about Europe is that one is never far away from a good sized city.  There is little wilderness and you can't "escape from it all".  While up there this morning, seemly miles above the real world, there was cellphone coverage.  Where there is cellphone coverage there is always going to be one of GP's colleagues calling about work.   And there was.  Three or more times.  I hate cellphones.  xxoo me