Early spring/late winter photos

A roundup of various photos from around Radford and Boone, taken as winter holds on and spring tries to assert itself.

This first is taken on the Radford campus, where the construction fence and sculpture in front of the Covington Fine Arts Center add a Christo-esque touch to the campus:

I was in Boone, NC for the Appalachian Studies Association Conference last weekend, and took a very frigid walk around Bass Lake before ASA.  The next three photos are from Bass Lake.

Snow dusted bench, or prototypical skateboard?

Icy lake edge

Lake and sky

One of ASA's mini-excursions was a side trip to Appalachian State University's Fermentation Sciences lab, AKA the Ivory Tower Brewery (slogan: "It's all academic") We had a tour of the facilities and a very nice tasting. It's an impressive program that's training brewmeisters for the burgeoning western North Carolina beer industry. And their beer is pretty tasty, too.

Dr. Shea Tuberty of the ASU Biology and Fermentation Sciences departments give a tour.

Dr. Tuberty describes the different beers in the tasting room.

Brewing = Science + Art. Here's a sample of the scientific end, a custom built program than monitors the wort.

Meanwhile, back home in Blacksburg, winter still holds on.  Here's our backyard last weekend:

Asta watches Bou scampering in the snow

 And a few random photos: 

Sun poking through the clouds above Blacksburg

Blue bottle, blue ball, yard detritus, snow.

Clouds shroud the full moon early in the evening

Morning sunlight on several weavings.

A clever way to steal a lot of money. Heist an entire ATM machine.