Frozen Cascades

Over the weekend Cait and I decided to go to the Cascades, hoping the waterfall had frozen. Thankfully Sunday was a nice day and perfect for a walk/hike. 

I should point out I still had a nasty cold at this point so it may have not been the most sensible idea to go for a 4 mile hike in the snow. But you only live once! And it was probably going to be my last chance. And I was glad I did. It was really pretty.

The weather warmed up a bit on Sunday so the snow/ice was starting to melt but it was still really pretty and the snow was still deep! There are two trails up to the waterfall, the lower (difficult) trail and (easier) upper trail. We decided it was crazy to try the harder one as it is tricky enough and slippery enough when you can see the trail. (That was where I managed to badly strain my ankle the last time I was here.)

creek.

Bridge to the lower trail.

As you can see the trail was more of an indentation in the snow. We were glad other people had been out before us.

Cait on the trail

Just before the half way point, someone had made the creepiest snowman I have ever seen!

Creepy!

For all of the trail, I was far behind Cait. She is way fitter than me and I was sick too! But it was really peaceful out there so neither of us minded.

Hiking into the distance.

I was completely exhausted (and questioning my sanity) by the time we got near the falls. But it was worth it.

First frozen falls.

Lots of icicles.

Part of the cascades

Frozen Cascades

Cait at the Cascades

We sat and had a little picnic (my first in the snow) but got chilling quickly. So after some photos, headed back. Which started with a climb up snow and ice covered stairs. (I will admit to muttering "This is not a good idea!" many times.)

Climbing the stairs.

Some bits were quite steep and it was only when I looked back at the photos I realized how close we were to a snow covered shear drop. I have no idea where the edge of the trail is!

Dicing with death!

I didn't take many photos on the way down. As it warmed up, the path got very slushy and super slippery! We ended up going off the path (away from the shear drop side of course) and hiking it though the snow. It was an adventure. You never know if you were going in up to your ankle or knee! :-)
And I managed not to end up on my butt. Though it was a close call a number of times and I did do some impressive gymnastic moves to stay on my feet (at least I thought so!).
The melting of the snow was most apparent on the snowman on the way down. Not sure if he looks more or less creepy. He had a voodoo shrunken head thing going on.

Still creepy.

We were both very happy to be back at the parking lot. However Cait's car is a Prius. Not known for its ability in snow and ice. And we got stuck trying to get out! :-( However 2 very sweet college kids helped us and pushed the car back onto the track. I have no idea how long it would have taken us otherwise to dig it out. We were super lucky! Then Cait had to reverse the car all the way back to the road (including the wrong way down a one way road) but seriously it was the only way. 

I am very glad I went. Even though it has been 2 days since and my legs still ache! 

Crazy weather week.

The weather this week in Blacksburg has been fun. We had snow days Monday and Tuesday thanks to a snow storm, which I happily spent working at home on the sofa with my duvet. Good days! And as I have had a horrible cold all week, a few days in were good. (They didn't get rid of the cold but at least I was curled up with lots of hot drinks.)

Wednesday I went into work and Cait and I decided to go for our usual walk at lunch despite the snow. It was actually quite fun and not as cold as I expected. (I think I am getting used to those temperatures.)

A Robeson Hall snowman

Some people don't think it is cold at all.

Campus is very pretty

It stopped snowing by the time I got home and I even saw some blue sky. (I was very excited!)

Home

Some people just didn't move their cars

The snow was no where near as much as in Boston, but still it was enough for me. So pretty but a pain. 

Thursday, things really got interesting. The temperature plummeted. (Thursday night it was even colder, going down to -4F which is -20C and that is without wind chill.) All the temperatures below are in Fahrenheit. And the wind is the killer! -20F is -29C. The very air hurts. These temperatures I am not happy with. They are ridiculous! 

Insanity!

Friday night I went out for dinner and drinks with a few people from work. This doesn't happen often so we obviously wait until the coldest time of the year to do it! Anyway, it meant I had to walk home. Blacksburg is great at clearing the roads. The sidewalks are a different story. Some they clear. Some they just dump all the snow from the road on to them., especially when you are trying to cross a road. Most are awkward to get over, and require treks through knee high snow and ice. (I am so out of shape - that was seriously hard work!) Some however ... well there was just no way I was going  over that! In the photo below, I am standing up straight next to the snow. Behind me is the snow on the sidewalk. Needless to say I walk the long way around this one!

Not impressed.

Thankfully half way back, I managed to get the bus. They are only once an hour so it was a small miracle. I barely made it and ended up jumping on through the back door, which they really don't like you doing, but I begged and was shivering so the lovely bus driver let me stay on. It was 9F (-13C) and it just too cold! I have crossed "polar explorer' of my list of future job options.
And my little birds are back on my balcony. How they are surviving is a mystery. I am keeping food and unfrozen water out for them. Poor little things.

Little visitors.

It is once again snowing and doesn't seem to want to stop. Though it is forecast for freezing rain later. Oh the joy! So another weekend in with my duvet again I think. Can't say that's a bad thing! :-) 

Birthday Celebrations and blackouts

It was my birthday over the weekend and I spent most of the day doing nothing. So a pretty good day!
I finally got to open my birthday present form my parents: my ring! I had one for my birthday 2 years ago but lost it in Huntsville. :-( So a Christmas I picked out a new one for my birthday. (Which was a mission as it was as they lost the first choice, only one like it int he country of course, so we had to make a last minute trip, during crazy Christmas shopping time, to pick another one). I love it!

My beautiful new ring.

I also got some macro extension tubes for my camera and some lovely little bits. Including some dried herbs. (I love my family!) I skyped home and Mom and Dad had a cake with candles for me! They same happy birthday and I got to (virtually) blow out the candles. Very sweet.

I want to thank all the friends and family who sent presents, cards and messages on my birthday! I didn't really do a lot so I really appreciate it and being remembered. It means a lot! Thank you!

I spent most of the day chilling and baking. I found a recipe for an amazing sounding chocolate cake and figured well, I want to cake so why not just make it?

On the evening, I went out with Steve and Eva for a meal (we managed to find somewhere not packed for Valentines day) and had a nice meal. Though there was a scary moment coming out of the drive of the Tap House, which is a slope and had iced. The car wouldn't stop and sort of ran into the main road. Luckily everyone was going very slow and we didn't hit anything.

I spent Sunday working (had to be done) unit the evening, when I cooked an amazing Thai curry (if I do say so myself) and sat down with some wine and a Bruce Willis marathon. Halfway through the second film, at about 7.30pm, the power went out. It's been a while since the last blackout but given the cold, I was not surprised. Luckily I had candles lit already (though I did manage to knock a whole glass of iced tea over the floor).

By candle light.

It was actually quite cozy and pretty for a while. So I figured perfect time for my cake! (More candles.)

Birthday cake.

It was so good. Extra chocolate of course. I have also been saving a bottle of 2006 Sauternes desert wine for this birthday for the past 2 years. Worth it.

Special birthday desert wine

Though it was very pretty with all the candles, it was also about 9F (-13C) outside and I have central heating, i.e, electric. I don't even have a gas oven. I decided to brave it as they said it was going to be back by about 11pm.  So I declined an offer of a sofa elsewhere. Then later they revised that estimate. A lot! 

So I ended up camped out on the living room floor (I risk frostbite in my bedroom on days when I do have heating - it's always colder in there). It was actually very cozy, though not the most comfortable. I was even too hot a few times (I went crazy with the blankets!). The power didn't came back until 5.30am. And I did not feel good waking up this morning. 

Today, it has been snowing all day and is only going to get worse so the Uni is closed at noon just in case. I did manage to get some more milk and basics from the 7/11 as most people in Blacksburg have a different idea to basics than me. There was plenty of milk left. Everyone in the (very long) queue in front and behind me had packs of beer instead. Good to get your priorities right.

Anyway I am going to spend the rest of the day curled up with my duvet and hoping the power stays on! Well I wanted snow.

Snowing and just the beginning.

Floyd Mardi Gras

On Friday night, Steve convinced me to go to a fundraiser for a school in Floyd.

Honestly to start with, I was not keen. It is so cold around here at the moment (I mean seriously freezing, barely getting above freezing most days) and once I got home I did not want to go out again. Plus it was fancy dress, and I had a few hours notice. So we had to go to Marty's house to get costumes together. (She sells vintage clothes so had tones of things to choose from we could borrow- it took a while to choose.)

But it was fun. We got some Jambalaya and wine and headed for the pavilion where the bands were. Unfortunately like I said, it was really cold (around 17F/-8C) and I could see my breathe for most of the time. Plus I had (stupidly) dressed in a dress and lace flat shoes. They had patio heaters around so a lot of people (us included) stayed very close to them, even danced around them. (Later in the night I ended up putting my shoes up the heaters to get heat to my feet - I got some funny looks but I had warm feet so the laughs on them!)

Back of the room.

Crazy costume and a smoke machine

Near the stage

They had a costume competition so some people went to great lengths with their costumes.

Marie Antoinette. 

They also had a belly dance display which I seriously hope was tongue in cheek. It was not good! Though fair play, they must have been freezing in those outfits and 3 of them didn't even have shoes on.

Belly dancers

The music was actually really good (light rock) and much better to dance to (in my opinion) than the house music last weekend. So we had a lot of fun dancing. Steve really got his groove on. He said his 70s/80s shirt made him dance like that. But I'm thinking it was just an excuse. :-)

Dancing away.

The last band were really good so we carried on dancing despite the crazy cold, though we had to fight for a place on the floor then. Apparently Spoon Feed are a very popular band.

Dance floor.

Spoon Feed

However it jet got to the point where I was just too cold so we found a spot in the restaurant next to a big heater. Heaven! It took while to defrost. And we ran back to the car and blasted the heater all the way home. 

Happy Valentines!

I got into work yesterday and a group of undergrads had been busy. They put sweets and little cards on the doors of everyone who worked in the Physics department. (Some of the ones on our door had already been tasted.) Proof that some students can be very sweet! :-)

Hope everyone has a nice Valentines day!

Chocolate making class

This weekend I treated myself to a pre-birthday gift and something I have been wanting to do for ages! A chocolate making class! The class was held at my favorite restaurant, the Palisades in Eggleston. The food is amazing and they have their own pastry chief and chocolatier, Devon, who ran the class. We started off with caramels. We didn't make these as they take a while (~6 hours!) but we did benefit from Devon's hard work and got to take these home! (The plan was to dip them in chocolate but we didn't get time in the end.)

Caramels (2 different recipes give the different colors - both super tasty!)

Caramel goodies!

Then we moved onto the best bit: the chocolate. She had a huge tub of it, melted and ready to go. It smelt amazing!

Deliciousness!

There were 8 of us in total in the class, on 2 different tables/workstations. We all got on well and had great fun.

Hard at work

It was all really nerve-wracking! We all wanted to make amazing chocolates. We put glitter at the bottoms and them painted the molds with chocolate. We were all being so careful and exact. (This was actually the easy step.)

Painted molds

After that we had to put in a shell which is where it really started to get messy! The chocolate has to be tempered (between 31.5C and 32C) so was thick. 

First you pour it over, hit the mold to get out the air bubbles, and scrap off the excess.

Pouring onto the molds.

 And then turn it upside and hit it to get the excess out.

Removing the excess form the shells.

This is where is got really messy!!!

After we had all taken turns, we had to wait for them to set so had lunch which was provided by the restaurant, so therefore amazing! The only weird bit was the view from the window. There are  loads of vultures on the trees outside. Apparently they figured out where the dumpsters for the restaurant where a few years ago. Now they have made it their home!

Vultures. 

After lunch, we got to pipe in the ganache. We had pomegranate, passion fruit and a small amount of maple and brown sugar. 

Ganache bags

Piping demo

I really enjoying this bit. It felt so fancy! And we all had to take a taste of the different sorts at the end. Sooooooo good! 

The last step is putting the bottom on. Again, messy!

Adding the shell bottom.

They were flashed in the freezer for a few minutes before being removed from the molds. I was so happy mine came out first time (as they should). And I was amazed how awesome they looked! I love the blue glitter.

My chocolates - pomegranate ganache. 

We spilt up all the chocolates between us so we all got some of each to take home. (Another reason for being so nervous - I didn't want to screw up if someone else was getting them!) I know have a lot of chocolate to eat. :-) Now I want to buy all the stuff to make more!

My chocolates 

After the class I got changed (it was very messy) and headed into Salem and Roanoke with Steve. I found a wine and beer shop called Barrel Chest in Salem which do tasting samples of different wines. I wanted to try different price wines next to each other. Is it really worth spending more money on a really good bottle?

My wines

I had wines between $20 and $60 a bottle. And honestly, the $60 was the best but I wouldn't spend the money (on that one anyway). It was really nice (a Californian) but the others were also good (very drinkable) and much nicer on my bank account! I guess if you have the money, but at least in the case of these, you aren't missing much. (Buy the $20 on half price!)

Champagne tasting

They also did a side-by-side sparkling tasting, a rose champagne and a USA rose. I preferred the Champagne as the USA one was too bubbly. But really shouldn't have anything with bubbles (alcoholic or not). I get bad hiccups.
After the tasting, we found an awesome Brazilian restaurant, one of the top 5 in Roanoke. We spilt a carafe (the bottles were crazy expensive) of white wine. I had lobster and Steve got scrim/prawns. I have never had really good lobster and didn't know what all the fuss was about. But this was really good! I still prefer crab, but I get all the fuss now.

Dinner.

Then we headed into Roanoke town centre to a bar Steve had read about. He wanted to dance. But nothing gets going at that time (~9pm) So we went to a Hookah bar first. Steve had never been to one so as a bit nervous but he got into it. I think.

With my Hookah

Steve started talking to the group next to us. Which was fine. Until we moved and talked to the girl at the end. Leaving me with the guy sitting closest to me. Who started talking about how his dad was in the Hell's Angels and he was in the legacy. (There was no way this guy was even close to Hell's Angels - complete hipster - they would have kicked his ass!) And then how he sold drugs for them, but wasn't into the whole "voom-voom thing". (Again kicked his ass!) He most likely sold drugs. And took more than his share. At that point I paid the bill and indicated (probably not very subtly) to Steve that we were leaving. Now!

We headed to the bar he had read about and got some drinks and he started dancing. Unfortunately this is when the Champagne bubbles really hit! I got serious hiccups! So I people watched. It was a fascinating crowd! 

I got home at about 1.30am. I am so too old for this! I spent today working (and taking naps) and doing a little baking, as I have been reminded that the baking production has been very low recently. So I made cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting. And felt silly so decorated them. (There were 18 but one didn't make it to this stage. I had to taste test!)

Cupcakes 

Happy weekend!!!