Flakes

Big Haley flakes

Flakes

I had promised to bring home a genuine Stanley, Idaho icicle

earlier this year. On the way home from snow shoeing with a friend in Stanley we had to stop in Haley, because the flakes were out of this world….

I don't know if that size flake is normal up there, but at 6 mm in diameter they were some of the biggest flakes I had ever seen (Not including people) and deserved me crawling around on hands and knees in hopes of a decent photograph as evidence.

It's not that only over sized things get our attention, but as we were driving through town the other day we were trying to decide which house en route (10th E) had the coolest and most impressive looking icicles hanging from their rooftops and the winner up to date is the old house across from Maverick and Carl Miller Park. Since the first real snow has fallen this December and after anticipating the type of snow best for building things, I'm glad that Saturday's snow is finally wet enough to make big fat snowballs. Unfortunately it is piling on top of melted and refrozen powder snow, which makes building snow orbs too arduous of a task, but at least puts a nice sting in the snowballs and ideally falls apart upon impact and trickles down the unsuspecting victim's back…after the gloves have soaked up all the snow they can hold and my attention has drifted to the contents of the cupboard I justify consuming more chocolate by considering the historic and nutritional information about Chocolate from

Mrs. Grieve's "A Modern Herbal":

"Cacao was named Theobroma by Linnaeus, the word meaning 'food of the gods,' so called from the goodness of its seeds. Mexicans named the pounded seeds 'Chocolate.' In Mexico during the time of the Aztec kings the small seeds .were utilized as coins, twelve approximating to the value of id. the smallest actual coin in use then being worth about 6d. The seeds were necessary for small transactions.

Theobromine, the alkaloid contained in the beans, resembles caffeine in its action, but its effect on the central nervous system is less powerful.

Cocoa is prepared by grinding the beans into a paste between hot rollers and mixing it with sugar and starch, part of the fat being removed. Chocolate is prepared in much the same way, but the fat is retained. Oil of Theobroma or cacao butter is a yellowish white solid, with an odour resembling that of cocoa, taste bland and agreeable; generally extracted by expression."

As far as chocolate goes I would recommend the Swiss "Cailler" and the American "Dove" bars; And why are good chocolate bars divided into uneven numbers? It makes it hard to share or easy to be selfish or justify buying chocolate in quantity.

I found an interesting site for learning about snowflakes and ice:

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm