The holidays are upon us!

 The week of Halloween it starts.  Holy days and nights.  People thinking about what to give each other for Christmas.  Shopping gallore.

The trees are on their last hurrah (at least 2 weeks ago when this was taken).  Downtown Black Mountain is busier on weekends than it's been since the big summer retreat weekends.

 Something is happening at a local restaurant, which we think will eventually be a new pub.  The mountains dwarf the workers as they put this porch roof together.

Sunshines through the oaks which were stupendous in their colors this year.  Not the staid browns but variegated with all kinds of colors.

Well, drab will be with us for the next few months.  No wonder we want to dress up our homes with lights, put reds and greens around us and embrace the darker times of the year by stretching hands and toes to the warmth of a fire (if we have one).  I have only candles, and they don't exactly warm my toes.

The thing that warms me most this time of year is friendship.  Gathering for whatever reason and talking, eating a little or nothing, singing if it pleases us, drinking little or nothing, it's all making for holidays.  Holy days...and nights.