The Skinners in 2011 – a photo album.

There’s always snow – we started the year in Kandersteg in Switzerland with a week cross-country skiing. We think we’ve finally mastered it! We visited the International Scout Centre there, then spent a (very expensive) night in Zurich.

We had a go at curling, and this was Julie’s first stone ever. Obviously a natural.

Now here’s something you don’t see every day – Mick vacuuming, and Mick wearing black tie. Let’s explain: we hold a “Soup and Crusty” once a month at church during January, February and March, where we provide homemade soup, bread, dessert and drink for £3 as fundraisers for our charities. Mick played the role of waiter to the best of his abilities, as you would expect.

Mick won an award from the Barton Churches Cricket Team (an informal team that plays random matches during the summer). It was actually for last year, but the person who won it the previous year never gave it to him, so he only held the trophy for about ten minutes. He’s not sure what the award was for, but suspects it was for being a jolly good chap.

We travelled to Paris for the European Indoor Athletics championships. Here we’re about to board one of the Bateaux-Mouches for a lovely dinner trip up the river, with all our usual friends who support British athletes with Track and Field Tours. We didn’t go to Daegu for the athletics World Championships as Mick needed his holiday time for his sailing exploits this year.

The garden looked its best in spring. Here is the “wild area” where Mick is cultivating the cowslips and oxlips.

The wisteria on the back of the house didn’t look too bad either.

We took the caravan to Pendle Hill and did some fabulous walking. We also went to Uttoxeter Race Course for the Camping and Caravanning Club National Folk Dance and Song Festival, and to Malvern for another weekend of walking and dancing.

Mick had another good year of sailing, including the Round the Island Race – here’s the crew looking tired and emotional at the end of the day. He also did some long weekends skippering for his Coastal Skipper qualification, and ended the year with five days in the Solent, being tested for (and passing) his Coastal Skipper.

He also persuaded Julie to have one more go at sailing. She spent the same five days as Mick in the Solent gaining her Competent Crew qualification, and then declared that she never wants to do it again (except perhaps in nice warm waters, with a gin and tonic on the poop deck). Here she is doing the “show you can paddle a dinghy” section. If you look closely, you’ll see Ben Ainslie in the background giving an approving look. He was doing a photo shoot in the same marina at the time!

We were planning to take the caravan up to Northumberland for a week in September, but Mick’s Mum had a stroke and we ended up looking after his Dad and visiting while she was in hospital. The good news is that she is nearly 100% recovered, and the incident finally persuaded his Dad to get a hearing aid.

Julie has taken up patchwork and done many projects through the year, including an entry for the National Quilt Festival at the NEC in August. The entry was a miniature quilt entitled “In-Tents” and is meant as a souvenir of 25 years as a Cub leader.

The village bonfire organised by the Scout Group was successful again. Here’s the rather fine bonfire.

Nearly forgot to mention the 2 Cub camps we did this summer. No photos for some reason.

Would you believe it? We found ourselves in Paris again in November with a group of eight friends. This time we went to watch some world class table tennis. We were planning to go up the Eiffel Tower in the dark, but the top was enshrouded in cloud. It looked really spooky.

We’ve gone green and had solar panels put on the house. We’re not making much electricity at the moment, but can’t wait for the summer. We had coffee on the scaffolding and admired a view of the garden we shall probably never see again!

We’d like to wish you a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012.

What are we looking forward to? It’s a while since we’ve had a ski holiday in the USA, so we’re going to Breckenridge in January and the Olympics will finally be upon us. Can’t wait!

Lots of love,

Julie and Michael xx