Bennington, VT

This past Sunday we decided to get out of the house and go somewhere new. Bennington, Vermont is less than an hour northeast of here so we figured, why not! It was a nice drive, even without most of the leaves on the trees! And for the first time we drove across the Hudson in Albany.

 Stop one was downtown where we got maple walnut and rum truffles from the little chocolate shop and followed it up with lunch at the local brewery. The beer was delicious and so was the food. I had a veggie burger, which may sound boring, but it had tabbouleh and hummus on it which just tasted so good! Matt said his sauerkraut with the brats he got was the best he had ever had, so not too shabby.

It was pretty quiet downtown and a lot of things were shut, party because it's not tourist season anymore and because it was Sunday so we went over to the Bennington monument. The giant obelisk seems so out of place in this little town surrounded by the green mountains! It was erected to commemorate the battle of Bennington in 1777 where they beat the British. The best part was it covered in lady birds!

We ventured East out of town and stopped where the Long/Appalachian trial crossed over the road. We followed the trail a little, but we weren't really planning on a full hike - but we will definitely be back next summer.

Saturday was fun too - should have a post about that adventure soon.

Snowtober: Denver vs Albany

The past two weeks have consisted of work and snow. I went to the WCRP open science conference in Denver last week which was great in numerous ways. Not only did I get to speak to a lot of work people and get some great ideas for my current research (and my previous research actually) but I saw a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a very long time (including my undergraduate dissertation advisor). It also reminder me of how much I missed Colorado. Sunday and Monday were beautiful clear blue skies and 80F days. Tuesday and Wednesday it snowed! Here are the pre and post snow pictures of the state capital building that I had a great view of from my 21st floor hotel room:

I was fortunate to leave Denver on Friday - post Denver snow and pre northeast snow. The first snow for Albany was actually on the Thursday but the "big" storm (big for October) was overnight Saturday into Sunday. We got about 4 inches of snow and were lucky not to lose any power (unlike so many people in the NE). It was the most snow the Matt had seen (apart from a ski trip to Colorado)! We took the cat in the snow and I think she quite liked it - she definitely enjoyed watching it fall from the window. It hadn't been snowing too long when we took these pictures on Saturday:

We had a nice walk to the diner on Sunday for brunch (the roads were fine to drive but it was fun to walk). I had pancakes with nutella and bananas and it was so good. On Monday I came home to a lovely surprise package (thanks parents) and a cat who was just hanging out with her tongue out. All in all, a great two weeks of work and snow!!

It's chili time

I owe a blog, in fact, I owe several. I got back from my conference in Denver on Friday night (blog soon) and due to being super tired and and getting snow on Saturday/Sunday (blog soon - we had power and it wasn't bad here) I didn't have the desire to stare at my computer.

However, because we seem to have entered winter, Saturday seemed to be the perfect time to make chili. My (semi) vegetarian ways (no land meat) make chili quite different to most peoples chili but it is still super delicious, really filing and warms you up nicely!

Some people might be surprised that I like such a dish considering when I was younger I wouldn't eat the following ingredients: kidney beans, corn, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, hot peppers and I would only eat raw carrots and onions if they were cut up really small. So essentially, out of all of the ingredients, the only things I would have eaten were celery and tomatoes. Good job I'm not quite as fussy any more!!


Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic (the more the better)
1 cup onion
3/4 cup carrots
3/4 cup celery
2 bell peppers
2 hot peppers (we've used Anaheim and jalapenos but you can do whatever you like)
1.5 cups mushrooms
2 cans (~28 oz) fire roasted tomatoes
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can corn
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (if you have them)
1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
1.5 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoon olive oil

Recipe:

1. Heat oil and cook garlic, onion and carrots until tender (about 5 minutes, depending on size of carrots)
2. Add celery, bell peppers, hot peppers and chili powder and cook for 6-7 minutes
3. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes more
4. Add beans, corn and tomatoes (with all the juices) and cumin, oregano and basil. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for around 25 minutes.
5. Enjoy with some shredded cheese on top :-)

TRY IT - maybe you won't even miss the meat!! Plus it's very healthy (especially if you get low-sodium cans).

Music

I am alone in my office most of the time (my office mate lives 2.5 hours away in Connecticut so isn't here much) and for the most part it is pretty quiet in here. In the mornings I without fail listen to the "listen again" Chris Moyles show (BBC Radio 1) on listen again. It makes me laugh and sometimes it's the only way I know about British things!! It does distract me sometimes though when it's particularly good and I realise I have been sitting here listening and not doing anything for quite a long time.

In the afternoons I usually listen to Pandora. I think for most people their choice of music is quite personal - I'm sure some people would be horrified at some of the music on my iPod! This is my Pandora station list right now. I never know what kind of mood I'll be in and what I'll need to listen too. Judge me all you like :-)

All For You Radio

Biffy Clyro Radio

Closer Radio

Disney (Children's) Radio

Everlong (Live) Radio 

Keane Radio 

Kings Of Leon Radio

KT Tunstall Radio

Mumford & Sons Radio

Noah And The Whale Radio

Oasis Radio

Patience Radio

Scouting For Girls Radio

Set Fire To The Rain Radio

Take That Radio 

The Kooks Radio

 

Try them out if you haven't heard of them. You might find something you like!

 

On a side note, I'm off to Denver next week for the World Climate Research Program open science conference. It'll be my first time back in Colorado since I moved in December 2007!

Changing Glaciers

I came upon this really interesting  audio/video slide show on the BBC news website today. It shows photos of various glaciers from the Himalayas. Cool pictures but who cares right? Well the photographer was taking pictures from the exact spots that previous explorers had taken pictures from on some of the first expeditions up Mount Everest and other Himalayan mountains. The contrasts between the glaciers today and 80ish years ago are astonishing.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in climate, glaciers, hydrology, photography, mountaineering, climate change, water supply.....

BBC News - Rivers of Ice

Prospect and Peebles

Forecast highs in the upper 70s and clear blue skies for the weekend. In October. In New York. It would have been criminal to not go outside!!

We headed North on Saturday to Lake George Village (about 60 miles North of Albany). Neither of us had been past Saratoga Springs before so it was good to go somewhere new. We found a trail up Prospect Mountain which essentially went straight West from the lake. You could drive up to the top but who wants to do that on such a great day!

The trail was 3 miles round trip, mainly in nice shady trees. It was a little rocky though. We successfully managed to go off trail for a while and ended up scrambling through some pretty thick trees, scrub and rocks and approached the top from the West rather than the East. My calves are still sore today!!

The views of the Lake, the Adirondacks and the high peaks were perfect. The trees have started to turn to fall colours, although I'm told it only gets better. It seems so long since I've seen real autumn colours.

The hike back down was pretty tough on the knees but we made it. We then went to the Adirondack pub and brewery for a late lunch/early dinner. I had the bobcat blonde and the apple ale, both were delicious! Beers and food were followed by a enjoyable round of mini golf at Pirates Cove - flashbacks to Orlando holidays!!! I am glad to say that I won, but only just.

Sunday we went out to Cohoes and Peebles Island for a long (well long for me - 40 minutes) run. I jogged around the island twice and it felt good. I was planning to go around again if Matt wasn't back at our meeting point. Those new shoes must have been working. I even found a snake on our walk after the run. It was an eastern garter snake we think.

We stopped at Cohoes Falls on the way home. When Henry Hudson was sailing up the now Hudson River, this is where he stopped. He thought that he would find his way to another ocean as the river is tidal even in Albany but the Cohoes Falls scuppered those plans!

All in all, a great weekend, capped off with red velvet cupcakes and Matt's first day at work today.

Howe Caverns

On this rainy first day of October we ventured underground. We headed to Howe Caverns near Cobbleskill, NY (about 30 miles from Albany). I think the last time I went to some caves was in Colorado Springs so it had been a while. These caves were pretty well constructed for the tourists. An elevator took us down 156 feet to the caves and paved walkways and lights had been put through the whole cave, which made it a little less "cavey" but it was still fun.

We got to follow the underground river Sticks about half a mile through the caverns, seeing all kinds of stalactites and stalagmites and over rock formations.

 At the end of the cave we got to go on a little boat ride along the narrow underground lake and back again. They turned out all the lights at the end of the lake and yes, it was very very dark. Definitely made me want to do the real caving adventure that they offer.

We also got to see where they stored all the cheese. Yes, I said cheese! They get cheese from a local creamery and they age it for a year down in the caves. We brought some in the shop and had some very delicious fresh bread and cheese for dinner once we got home. It was really good sharp cheddar cheese which is my favourite.

Anyhow, the caves were fun. Worth a visit - maybe the views would have been better without all the cloud and rain. We stopped at Rubbin' Butts BBQ in Cobbleskill for a late lunch (well Matt had pulled pork and I had mac and cheese) - he was a big fan of the pork. They randomly had the end of the Texas A&M vs Arkansas game on the TV so we got to see A&M lose from NY. Not that either of us were particularly bothered though!

It was a fun Saturday. Made even better by Matt getting offered a job at an engineering consultancy firm on Friday!! Hopefully it all works out. It's very exciting news :-)