A Winter Walk

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We didn’t walk outside for five days in the past week because of rain/snow/ice/teen temps. Mostly we avoided falling rain and black ice. The lowest temperature was 4F/-15.5C. Brrr! Half a walk was our limit today, because it was 14F/-10C. The road was clear in only a few places and rather crunchy underfoot in others.

011918 Road at 14 degrees F.JPG

We are neighbor Joyce’s Road Testers. Our walk begins shortly before she drives to work, so we will alert her if there are dangerous conditions.

I texted, “On duty. Road snowy at bend. Not particularly icy.”

Her reply: “Okay you crazies! March on! But be careful.”

She was glad I texted her again when we were home safely. Joyce, having lived in Georgia many years, has an internal temperature that plummets in cold weather. She freezes until there is danger of sun stroke outside. I’ve told people here that we still have our heavy winter coats from New York, and that’s the secret to keeping warm. My coat really is heavy. It weighs 2.6 pounds! (1.179 kilograms) Even if it gets shabby, there is no way I’ll get rid of it. John would call that job security, for the coat, anyway.

Our feet made beautiful crunching sounds on the snowy road. Two cars passed us, when there would be seven or eight on a normal day. The weight of the cars did not melt or compress the snow, just left perfectly-formed tire tracks. We turned around at the stop sign, because John’s toes were rapidly cooling and my hands were cold. A hearty breakfast came next. With son John $, we had bacon, livermush, cheese melted on eggs, English muffins, and all the coffee we wanted. Would you say we earned it?

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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59 thoughts on “A Winter Walk”

  2. Except for livermush, breakfast sounds wonderful and necessary after exerting all the effort. Kudos to you. I haven’t walked outside in a long time. Weather, snow and a nearby indoor walking place all worked into that decision but I will return outside when it gets mild. (Mild is definitely above 60 degrees!)

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  3. what is livermush? We do have cornmeal mush sometimes…I lovee the stuff, but it takes so much shortening the way I cook it that I hesitate. I slice it off the block very thin, dip it in flour and fry it until its browned and crispy. The woman at the corner store and I talked about inventing away to maybe get the same result in the oven without frying it in the shortening or oil (shudder, I don’t like using oil.) So I’m thinking to put the slices of mush on a hot, very lightly greased cooky sheet. Ideas?

    Crunchy snow is good, it means to me that it isn’t likely to be slippery unless it has a layer of sneaky ice underneath. It’s the darn slush in the parking lots that worry me. grumble grumble

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    1. Livermush is a NC food. It is in the refrigerated section sealed in plastic. Fully cooked, all you have to do is slice it and heat it up. My son and I like it sauteed until the outside is crunchy. No one else in the family will eat it.

      I think your idea about baking cornmeal mush sounds great.

      Sneaky ice — made me giggle.

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        1. It has been so long since I’ve had chicken livers that I couldn’t answer your question. I cooked beef liver once. There was a reason it was not repeated. I thought it was inedible. I’m sure the fault was mine, but once was enough.

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          1. When my kids were young we had beef liver with bacon quite often. Onions too. The secret to cook it is just brown/sear it in hot fat…unless one is trying to make some leather substitute.

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              1. I haven’t made liver in a long time, because it is so gross in its precooked form. 🙂 I order it in restaurants sometimes, but they usually cook it too long, and don’t supply onions, let alone bacon. My kids all liked it when they were growing up, and it was one of the foods that I could afford.

                I have developed an adversion to fried foods, can’t stand oil and any but Crisco never tastes right. Maybe its because of my cholesterol.

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                1. Didn’t your children get the unspoken message that kids are supposed to throw tantrums about eating liver??? Just kidding. That’s great that they liked it. My mother had an aversion to liver, so I didn’t taste it until I was 21 years old. What a surprise! I was eating chicken livers and couldn’t believe I had missed such a tasty treat all those years.

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          2. We were at Bob Evans this morning and I asked my daughter if she had heard of “livermush.” She had, probably down in Tennessee. She said she thinks it involves Braunschweiger…goose liver… yes?

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            1. I don’t have any livermush in the house, having eaten the last of it with my son yesterday. Google assistant says livermush is made from pig liver, head parts, and cornmeal. It is commonly found in Western North Carolina. I grew up in Tennessee and never saw it there. I learned of livermush in the novels by Jan Karon.

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      1. Scrapple is a big deal around here in southern OH. That I’ve had, but never heard it called livermush. I like it fried crisp, but the half-cooked version of it leaves me cold [so to speak].

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        1. At least you know scrapple! Livermush is different. I don’t know scrapple well enough to contrast the two. I don’t think we have scrapple in our supermarket, but maybe I just haven’t looked closely. It was available in NY.

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        2. We were driving through PA some years ago, and I ordered scrapple. It was AWFUL. I took it home and fed it to our cat. I’ve always assumed that restaurant was at fault, not that the generic dish was inedible.

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          1. Scrapple can be tasty. Around here there are family recipes for the stuff. Co-workers used to discuss the “secrets” of their particular recipe. I’ve never made the stuff, instead eating it in local restaurants. I think that you just got some at the wrong place.

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  6. As a Montrealer, dare I weigh in re surviving the cold in (relative) comfort? Layers are best, say the experts. Sweaters and a not-so-heavy coat are probably warmer than one heavy one. Also, nothing beats a down-filled jacket or coat, if you can afford it. Re walking on the snowy road, do be careful of that sneaky black ice underneath!! Don’t want you guys falling and breaking anything! ❤

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    1. The other day I let neighbor Joyce know that the road was a bit icy. As she drove by me a few feet from her house, she opened the window and suggested I take my own advice and go home. For once, I listened to a word of warning and turned back. John and I are trying to be sensible.

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  7. Anne,
    Your icy spirit is commendable.
    Keep the wintry coat with you even though you don’t live in NY any more.
    The breakfast sounds so wholesome for a day of exercise.
    Walk safe, Anne and John.
    Susie

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  8. Please be safe out there Anne. I know you both like your walking exercise, but I’d rather have an unbruised or unbashed about Anne, than an Anne who’s broken something because of a fall in that snow.
    Be safe. ~ Cobs. xxx

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    1. I think we’d consider ourselves brave if we had something bad happen and then went out to walk again. Silly, huh? I will admit that I walked in NY when no one else braved the wintry weather. That probably makes me crazy rather than brave.

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  12. It’s so great that you both walk, together. Sharing the adventure on such a cold day. It brought to mind, something I’d written years ago, regarding Michelle and I taking our walks.

    Stay safe, stay warm.

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  14. You definitely need a good pair of non slip boots for traversing those conditions… and not just any boots will work as I’m sure you know.
    I had scrapple in PA once and didn’t really care much for it, I’ve never heard of livermush though. Interesting. The rest sounded very good though.
    I know what you mean about having a good coat. My mother had worked at a coat factory once and brought home this coat one day when I was a teen. It was ugly and outdated, but so toasty, I wore it for years. At the time she brought it home, it was a bit large, but it carried me through two pregnancies and it was finally given up when it was tattering. It wasn’t wool, but had a fake lambswool lining and an ugly faded olive green color, but whatever it was, it was great in cold weather. Now, it’s just down jackets or fleece, but then I’m in sunny California now. I have one long wool coat for when I visit the girls in SLC or Colorado.

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    1. We were careful. The moment we relax our guard is when it’s bound to happen. I have an excellent imagination when it comes to disasters, so I must stop now. I’ll bet I could get from a fall to the grave in ten seconds.

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  17. Anne, I’m impressed with your dedication to walking out in such temperatures and glad you have each other to keep company! That is COLD and you definitely need that warm coat and yes, you both earned the breakfast. I love the photo, it’s as if I can sense the spiky frosty air, feel the silence of snow. Lovely … from the warmth of my study! 😀

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      1. Well, I was getting worried for you! 😀 On one of snowy frosty days I tried to set out for a walk but it was like an ice-rink and retreated to the safety of home! Be careful but enjoy the wondrous landscape!

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  18. I’ve been searching for other bloggers who write about walking – perhaps it is just to see if they are in four-season states and someone to commiserate with about walking, or the lack thereof, when it has snowed continuously like we have had in SE Michigan. Now it finally stopped snowing after being walloped last Friday with 9.2 inches after a week of snowing every day, and there is ice galore. One blogger I follow (not a walker) was traveling down the path to her mail box two weeks ago today, and there was a thin covering of snow over a patch of ice and she took a bad tumble. She broke her arm in three places, had surgery and new hardware in her arm now. That scares me and as much as I enjoy my walking, I won’t go out and walk in the snow or icy conditions. Looking forward to following you.

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  19. How great to hear from another walker! Thanks for your comment. John and I walk two miles a day, six days a week. We don’t flirt with ice, though. If we see or feel ice, we turn back. We’re wimps in rain, too, not having proper rain gear. What caused you to start walking?

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