Wanderings and wonderings

This month I've actually been meaning to post before the month runs out :). Several blog-worthy things seem to have been happening, books, travels, weather weirdness. Nonetheless it's been a nice and busy month, and here I am posting a recap. Better late than never though!

I guess the biggest thing would be the snow! Yup! It actually snowed in October. Yes, it was also 'snow' only as long as it stayed in the air and hit the ground with the splat of raindrops :). But still! Snow! And just in time, as I'd switched to winter tyres that very day! But this was a week ago and since then it's gone slightly warmer, although not so much that you forget that winter is very close :).

Then there was the trip to the US of A. A first in almost two years, and spent in its entirety at my aunt's in Asheville. We had hoped to catch some of the famed fall colours, but as it turned out, we had showed up just a week or so too soon. Nonetheless, there were quite a few trees changing from green to yellow or red, and the weather was practically like the summer in Norway :).

We had a pretty active time actually! Seeing how there were loads of hills in the vicinity, we went climbing some of them. Mostly it was a case of driving up to within an inch of the top and then walking up some steps the rest of the way ;). Chimney rock, for instance, was a wonderful maze of wooden staircases build up the rock faces. And the views from the top were amazing!

The hurricane had left in its wake a week of brilliant sunshine and clear skies, so we made the most of it :). We even went for a more traditional hike, walking up to the top of Mount Mitchell (the tallest peak in America east of the Mississippi) all the way from the Black Mountain camping area! Another lovely day, and unlike on a similar day in Norway out in the woods, we practically had the whole trail to ourselves! The same couldn't be said of the summit though, seeing how there was a car park within a few steps of it :D.

One of the things I should of course mention was meandering along the Blue Ridge Parkway! On our first trip down from Boston to Asheville, my cousin and I had taken the northern part of the Parkway and enjoyed the slow winding road very much! So it was quite nice to see that the southern end of it is no less picturesque!

Another thing that's worth talking about is the return to Gaiman, but with new books :). I managed to get a copy of The View from the Cheap Seats a little while ago, and decided that would be a nice book to take along on the trip. It's a series of articles etc, some of which I had read previously. It is an amazing thing to read one of your favourite authors describing his feelings about books that you know rather well (and feel strongly about!!)!

So of course, the next logical thing to do was to go find a few of the Gaiman books that I didn't have, or hadn't read before. I decided The Graveyard Book would be first to read :). And it was perfect! What better way to end a holiday!

I realise that I should acquire a book case. The table in my living room that the TV sits on is beginning to look rather overgrown...