hut in the gatineau (2) & skiing

Yesterday we skied into a hut in the Gatineau for Joel's birthday dinner. Here are some of the highlights: the woods deserted except for our group of friends skiing in at twilight, the sense of darkness literally falling and filling up the spaces between the trees, the light of the half moon, the shadows of the trees and branches on the snow, the crisp, deliberate sound of the skies. And then getting to the hut nestled in a dip at the bottom of a hill: the surprise (it's always this way) when one leaves the quiet of the woods and walks inside to find the hut filled with people, candles flickering, the warmth of the woodburning stove, making cheese fondue, eating a rich and dense chooclate cake Michal made for Joel's birthday, taking Ben to the outhouse (really! this was fun and magical), Farley delighted by this unexpected bonus of a long winter walk. Skiing home: the flicker of lights from headlamps in the distance, and the philosophic stillness of the woods all around us.

(And then driving home and being jarred back into a reality more serious than usual: the fallout of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.)

I consulted the five-favourite-things list and discovered that 8 (8!) people listed cross-country skiing or downhill skiing as one of their five favourite things. That might be the highest degree of overlap I've found thus far. Two of Brenda's favourite things (minus "cold" and "January") were combined for us last night: "cross-country skiing on a bright cold day in January" and "the night sky in the country."