Wintertime readings...

I love having time in winter to settle in with books. Here are a couple I've enjoyed over the cold evenings...

Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund is a lyrical book. I had seen it for years, and finally bought it this winter. 

"I have ever feared the weathervane in me. Sometimes I point toward Independence, isolation. Sometimes I rotate - my back to Independence - and I need and want my friends, my family, with a force like a gale. I have in me a spinnaker sail that finds the breeze and leads all my sails in that direction. I do not count myself fickle, for I have much loyalty in me, but I am changeable."

There is also A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. It was revealing to read something autobiographical from "Papa." It brought to life the people and the times of Paris in the 1920s. 

"I've seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil...wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

MORE SNOW!! And sledding in three stages...

Always music...

I love having a house that is so often filled with music.

December hike

Just a few days past Christmas, one of my friends called to go for a hike. My niece had a friend up as well, so we cooked breakfast at the mountain cabin before starting out. We walked past the ruins of the old commissary of the Peavine RR where glass that was melted 100 years ago is still on the ground.

There is also the remains of the settlers' old walkway to the spring.

Then we reached the falls. They were majestic with water! We had to wade through the creeks to cross them, but the weather was mild enough to do so. See our wet jeans?

We befriended another family's bulldog on the hike, and it posed charmingly for photos.

Sara's friend brought his banjo and carried it through the woods like the pied piper. It was a charming and blue-grassy sound coming through the woods.

Come see...

I have created a new blog about my travels...

Remembering...

John Lennon
October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980

Fun day in Asheville

This past week, we went to Asheville with two sets of friends and family. It was a cold, wintry, wonderful day of exploration at the Mast General Store, lunch at the Bistro, shopping at Ten Thousand Villages, and finding delectable desserts at the Chocolate Fetish...mmmm.