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It started snowing at breakfast time this morning, and it hasn’t stopped since. We had no need to go to the shops, so we were happy to stay indoors all day. It’s Sunday, so we don’t expect to see the council workers out clearing the snow, but late this afternoon the plough turned up. I diligently sweep the balcony about once an hour, until I realise that it’s snowing faster than I can sweep. OK, maybe once every half hour then.

It’s been very windy, with blizzard conditions at times, and almost all the ski lifts have been closed all day. Right now (11pm) the wind is whistling down the chimney and the storm shows no sign of abating. The forecast is for the storm to continue tomorrow, but we’ll have to venture out for bread in the morning, and later on Colin is playing in Rocks. It promises to be quite an adventure, and I suspect the snowshoes will soon be liberated from their summer confinement in the cellar.

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This evening was the official start to the winter season. Along the street are lots of stalls supplying gluhwein and other warming drinks. It’s very popular, and the street is packed.

Kids toasting marshmallows and sausages by the tourist office.

To get the free drinks you have to buy a mug for 5 francs. It’s a good deal. The problem is always the cold – it’s usually not long before I need to seek refuge in a cosy bar.

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The snow that started yesterday finally petered out at lunchtime today. We trudged up to the village to get shopping and to dispose of our recycling. This afternoon the clouds finally cleared and the sun peeked out.

I grabbed this photo of it just before it disappeared behind the mountain. This evening it’s very cold and clear. There’s a huge storm forecast for the next few days, so we’ll head up to the village for shopping tomorrow morning, before we batten down the hatches for the bad weather.

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We’ve had a couple of days of mild, gloomy weather, but this evening the temperature dropped from +10 to zero. It’s time to get Chalet Iltis ready for Christmas.

This afternoon we went to the butcher in Lauterbrunnen and picked up a lovely looking joint of pork. Our friend Beanie gave us a super fruit cake – we’d brought an eBay package from the UK for her. Outside it’s snowing, and it looks like we’ll have a white Christmas here in Wengen.

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The spring-like weather continues, so we’re up early and off up to Scheidegg for a ski. Nice view from the Eigernordwand restaurant where we stopped for coffee this morning.

It’s still quiet on the mountain and in the village. Christmas holidays will soon be here though, so we need to enjoy this nice weather while it lasts.

The sun also provides another distraction, as we can keep an eye on our solar electricity production. This becomes something of an obsession. The system produces pages and pages of statistics showing us how much power we’ve produced, used or sold to the electricity company.

Val did a load of laundry this afternoon, and it was completely free! There was even a bit left over to export to the electricity grid.

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Val is still trying lots of different settings on the ski boots that she’s looking to buy, so this morning we’re off up to Männlichen. We met Ali at the cable car station and headed up the hill. It’s a beautiful morning.

Männlichen was very quiet, with a few groups doing instructor training and hardly anyone else.

Ali got a rare shot of Val and me.

We popped back down to the village for lunch, then headed back up to Scheidegg for Val to do more testing. Eventually she was happy with the adjustments that had been made to her boots, so she went back to the shop and parted with her money. Hooray!

The weather has turned very mild, and the air is really clear. I got this shot from our balcony this evening.

The forecast is good for tomorrow, so more skiing looks likely. It’s not a bit like a typical December.

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We had a Wengen community meeting in the Victoria Lauberhorn last night. It was nice to see everyone all together, and the food and wine were good. Colin provided the entertainment in the bar later.

While we were enjoying ourselves it was snowing outside, so we trudged home through ankle deep snow.

This afternoon, just after lunch, there was a loud crash outside and a big heap of snow landed on the terrace.

The snow must have fallen from the roof. I couldn’t see fallen snow anywhere else, so we figured there must be more to come. Sure enough, an hour later, another much bigger fall came down on the steps and the garden.

It was really noisy, and I had to dig the steps out so that Val could get up to the village. Here’s the culprit – our shiny and very slippery new roof.

The roof has some defences against sliding snow, but they’re clearly not up to the job. Another problem to tackle.

This evening we popped up to Rocks to meet Val’s ski school colleagues. There was a nice view of the Jungfrau on the way up the hill.