Hobbits In Rivendell

Largely useless modes of transportation.

Oy. Vey. We THOUGHT that the Met Office was wrong about the two weeks of snow – they’re so rarely right about anything at all that we were prepared to blithely ignore them as usual. We had two days of brilliant sun over the weekend in which the temps soared — soared, we say — to the low thirties/-3°C, and we thought surely that the snow would begin to melt. And it didn’t. It sat there. And looked smug.

Slowly, people begin to venture from their homes, armed with metal dust pans, and began scraping the snow from steps and walks… and last night, when we went to bed, the sky was clear. We expected more of the same this morning. Or, you know, rain. This IS Glasgow, after all.

Surprise. It’s snowing so hard everyone got sent home from D’s office today at ten to noon, the buses are not really running (we saw one towed downtown, and another slid into the curb right in front of the chiropractic office), and rather than waiting for elusive buses or cabs we walked home from downtown (T. slipped twice, but fortunately, just post-chiropractic appointment, managed to simply do the splits twice and keep walking. This freaks D. out to watch, for some odd reason, and there is much muttering about stubborn people who walk too fast.) with our umbrellas up, and still arrived home soaked to skin. It was a SLOG. Our appointment was at 10:30, and both of us get a fifteen minute adjustement. We left at ten ’til eleven, and though it was only two miles home or so, we got there after noon.

The most common sound in the otherwise silent city are car alarms, as the heavy snow shifts and slides, and the vROOOOOOOOOm, vROOOOOOOOOOOM! as vehicles spin their wheels, trying to back out of parking places and get up hills. It’s not happening. We saw a poor bride dressed in full champagne-colored finery WALKING UP THE HILL IN HEELS, together with her bridal party, all in scarlet sheath dresses, the four of them protected only by the flimsiest of umbrellas. We cannot frankly believe that they didn’t at least have boots in the car. (Or a coat, hello!? The gowns were sleeveless.) Their little satin shoes were utterly ruined within two steps from the car, and we’re pretty sure the bride was leaking sequins.

What a day to get married.

What a day, period. New snow factoid no one ever tells you: after a point, the stuff gets heavy. Also, it is possible to sweat and freeze at the same time without having the ‘flu.

Speaking of the ‘flu and all other creeping cruds, we’ve remained remarkably well so far, still making it to the pool most days. Aside from D’s bum-bruising fall last week, nothing much too bad has happened to us, so we made applesauce cake to celebrate that. As far as T. remembers, the cake contained: 3 c. AP flour, 1 c. brown sugar, packed, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. each freshly ground cinnamon, cloves, ginger; 1/4 c. plain yogurt, 3 Tbsp. oil, 2 c. chunky homemade applesauce (Ours is made with one Granny Smith and a bunch of Braeburns, so it tends toward tart).

She combined the dry ingredients, whipped together the yogurt and oil and added them to the flour mix, then turned in the chunky applesauce. We baked ours in a springform pan, but any 9″ round baking pan will do, or even a loaf pan.

Bake at 350°F/175ºC for forty-five minutes, and you’ll have a moist, dense spice cake that has all the best flavors of autumn. It is REALLY tasty. If you’re taking it somewhere and not simply devouring it at home, cut out an intricate paper snowflake, set it on the cake and sift powdered sugar on top. Instant company food.

Today’s soup is butternut coconut curry, or it will be, as soon as the squash is slaughtered. What are you making?

We woke up to Day 2 of the snow:

(Okay, some of us sound a little over-excited about the snow. It’ll pass.)

Yeah, that shopping trip? Simply not going to happen, not with cabs sliding precariously through the ice and people slithering along on inappropriate shoes on sidewalks all over the city. For the most part, the snow is still powdery, and the slush is gray and nasty — largely drivable, if one is careful. Cabbies aren’t always careful — and if we can’t get to where we want to go on foot, we’re just not going. Lots of books to read, lots of work to do, so there’s not much need yet to go out. Fortunately.

Lauriston Castle

We enjoyed our little castle-ing (really, it was more of a stately home, not much of a castle) trip this weekend with so many Malaysian classmates — many of whom had never seen snow. It was a hoot to watch them as they shivered and squealed — and many of the kids got so wet they’re probably home sick right now — but they seemed to have so much fun. One little daredevil was leapfrogging rocks over a frozen pond in the Japanese garden. We were positive THAT wouldn’t end well – but it did.

Japanese Gardens, Lauriston Castle

We did a little hiking through a graveyard — one of the sillier things we’ve done, as it was up steep stairs that aren’t well-maintained, and it was icy in Edinburgh this weekend. We carefully picked our way through the gates, up the hill and onto the grounds of the Old Calton Burial Grounds, gripping railings and walls and handholds. We found the grave of philosopher David Hume, which was a coup for D. with his recent Master’s in Philosophy. We also found a large statue of Abraham Lincoln. And no, he’s not buried there, so we weren’t sure what was up with that, but the plaque (what we could read of it beneath the caked snow) claimed that the memorial was raised in honor of Scottish soldiers fighting in the Civil War… and on the stairs sprawled beneath Lincoln’s upstanding form was the image of a slave. Hm. The Emancipation Monument was erected in 1893. We’ll have to get a different shot of it on a day when we’re not risking life and limb to get closer.

That familiar profile you see on your pennies…

Emancipation Memorial, Calton Hill Burial Grounds

We’ll close our brief picture post with the most gorgeous tree in Edinburgh. Since it wasn’t snowing as heavily in Edinburgh, this tree took the opportunity to continue having autumn. As of this post writing, it’s snowing again, so the trees in Glasgow don’t have this choice, but the colors against the backdrop of that washed-out blue sky were a treat to see, and made our walk through the park even better. It reminds us that no matter how cold it is, or how many carols we hear, it’s still autumn, and we don’t have to rush to the next Big Thing unless we want to!

That Awesome Tree, Princes Street Gardens

O, the weather outside is frightful…

Odd, isn’t it, how those who extol the virtues of snow never make reference to how it strips the moisture from your skin, your sinuses, and your hair, nor do they discuss the painful ache in your fingers when they are SO. COLD., nor the unattractive shades of puce, blue, and lobster your face will turn after a few hours in -5°C (23°F) with a bit of a wind driving you on. They never mention how badly cold leaches you of energy or the ability to take a full breath, and how your muscles get a bit more tired than usual. Nope. They never say a thing about that. It’s all about the pretty. ::sigh::

We wakened yesterday with the first snow of the season laid down and pristine. It was gorgeous, and we saw both fox and goose prints in the two inches or so. (We also saw Mr. Fox, but all our photos of him were blurry. And the geese! Who knew they walked around so much on foot? Either that, or it’s really big crows, but they have more than three toes…) We were dubious about our trip, but we figured that since it was only a light snow, it was no longer snowing actively, and the salt trucks and all were out, things would be good. And we were fine. The bus had a few brief skidding moments before we hit the freeway, and we saw a few more accidents than usual, but all was well.

We arrived in Edinburgh with our group and just walked the city, ducking into doorways to photograph the Christmas Market fair, full of flashing lights and what must have been the coldest slide known to man (the workers were sweeping the snow off of it — I doubt they got many takers). The Ferris wheel rose above the city and from down below, the castle looked like a brooding white fortress. (As opposed to the brooding black fortress it normally looks.)

We walked for five hours in Edinburgh yesterday, chugging through the big city park, rambling through a graveyard, St. John’s Cathedral and then a castle outside of the city. While it was beautiful — and we have tons of lovely photographs to share with you soon — with the breezes blowing, it was ridiculous out. We hate it when we get housebound and don’t do anything in the dark gray days, but after heading toward Edinburgh and realizing it was snowing HARDER in Glasgow than it was there, and that clouds were building in Edinburgh … we realized we might have made a mistake in leaving the house.

That was T’s opinion before we even got started, of course. D. was hoping to do tons of photography, but T. knew it would be both cold and crowded in Edinburgh (her two FAVORITE things), and threatened to whine all day and call for copious mugs of hot chocolate as bribes (she surprised herself by doing neither) for having to be on a bus at 8:30 a.m. on a weekend morning. When we made it home at six o’clock, exhausted and tracking snow on our soaking wet cuffs and boots, we both groaned as the heat needled our cheeks. T. remarked, “I don’t mind the cold, but I just HATE being cold!”

There’s a fine line of distinction, you see. As long as it’s just snowing prettily through the window, see, it’s all good. When you’re foolish enough to be slogging through it (and in Edinburgh, as always, everyone and his dog are shopping, and it’s even worse with the Christmas Market going — thus the park and the graveyard, which were more lightly [live] peopled) dodging road traffic, foot traffic and just sheer aggravation — it’s miles worse.

And today is Day 2 of The Great Snow. It was snowing when we wakened. It has been snowing all day, off and on, and promises to continue to snow off and on, according to the Met Office, for two weeks. We are at eight inches now, and counting. Glasgow, a city where one can always find someone running down the street bellowing, singing tunelessly in front of the pub, puking behind the garbage cans, or pelting something at the seagulls, is remarkably, eerily quiet. We figure the partiers will come out when they run out of booze or get cabin fever. We expect that any hour now.

Meanwhile, we’re contemplating taking out the trash and making a dash across the street to pick up emergency rations from the gas station market (hopefully there’s anything left — although we doubt people really are in dire need of vegetables, so we’ll be fine). We were supposed to run to the Asian market this morning, but … thought we’d wait until the sun came out and the snow melted a bit. Yeah. Still waiting for that.

But we’re so grateful that the boiler is holding out. It’s wimpy, but it’s on, and, together with lighting all of the candles in the living room, we can get whole rooms warm!

Ah, the fourteen-foot ceiling. It seemed a good idea, at the time…

Pictures to come. Stay warm!

… it IS called Thanksgiving for a reason, too. Hope you find your family and friends – and a day off, if you have one — something for which to be truly thankful.