Jan 27 2009
Nuts on Ice
My adventures with snow and ice sculpting continued with an attempt in creating an ice bowl. This time I went straight to work mixing red and yellow food coloring into a thick slurry of slush. The slush was tough to stir and mold. The colors came out mottled, almost a tie-dye effect and the end result is comparable to pink salt rock.
I had to use my fist and knuckles to mold the slush around the sides of the bowl. I did put a plastic bag on my hand for protection. Of course, I still felt the cold but I didn’t end up with an orange hand. Some water had settled at the bottom of the bowl and really expanded with the freezing. Yes, yes, basic science!
For fun, I put the frozen bowl out with some nuts inside. These were cashews meant for human consumption but unfortunately ended up on the floor for longer than 10 seconds. Who came by to check out my handy work? (I mean the nuts) A few chickadees and a red squirrel. There were also juncos, cardinals and black squirrels around but I didn’t see them stop and snack.
At dinner, I brought the ice bowl inside to the table for a festive centre piece. I think it looked great.
