Ladybugs swarm my leg on a sunny afternoon. You could see them flying in swarms across the sky in the breeze. 

Back of house - upstairs deck, and cemented downstairs patio. On roof - our beloved, satellite internet. 

Front yard and sidewalk - late October 

Late October - oak leaves 

Vivid... 

Our driveway and shed in color 

Mid-October - the view off our front porch - very colorful 

Mid-October - the strong winter winds come early, and blow down a 10-year old tree - too sad. It also blew down one in the woods behind our house. 

At the bottom of our driveway, looking out at one of the mountains - the fog! Smoky mountains, ya know! We had lots of fog in the mornings all fall. 

Our front yard - sourwood trees turn bright red 

Early October fall leaves 

Timmy loves Verdell 

Karen and my new nephew - Verdell the Pug puppy 

At Dave's 20th high school class reunion 

Ninja Tim 

Halloween princess 

Timmy and Dusty 

Family Fall Picture - our front yard in our rocking chairs 

Our backyard campfire pit - famous for its hot dogs and s'mores! 

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.... 

Wolly Bear Caterpillar - the short black ends on the catepillar tell us the winter will be mild this year. Did you know they hibernate in winter and build their cocoon in the sping? 

The twins are back! The spots are gone. They look like small deer now. We often see them in our yard, munching on the grass. 

Praying mantis on our screen 

When ladybugs attack!! We were "swarmed" with asian ladybugs on sunny days. They would cover the house - hundreds! Trying to get into the house for winter. 

cold and wind

We have had about 2 days of below freezing so far this fall. We had a nice frost. Timmy is getting excited for snow!! Last week, there were really strong winds, and 2 of our trees blew down. One was planted, another in the forest. When I was here in April by myself, I had heard really strong winds while I was sleeping - it really shook the house. But when I came back with everyone, there hasn't been strong winds since. But now that it is late fall - the winds have come back for winter. Brrrr.....

leaves are gone

Well - 2nd week of November and the leaves are about 2/3 off the trees. The color left now is brown. But, wow - what a great 6 weeks!! We can now sit on our porch and listen to leaves fall - very cool!

Livermush!

A real delicacy in North Carolina is livermush. A preferred method of eating it is a "fried livermush sandwich". Our town actually has a little plant that makes this. They sell it in all the stores by the lunch meats. Dave and I heard about this and laughed - thinking it was a joke (how could you make liver worse, make it mushed)! But no, it is a very real treat. Sorry, never tried it.

appalachian

Due to the climate of political correctness now pervading America,
those of us in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina will no longer be referred to as
"HILLBILLIES."

You must now refer to us as

APPALACHIAN-AMERICANS.
!Thank you!

Now if you'll excuse me, I got possums to fry.

leaves

The kids just made their first huge pile of leaves - and jumped in! They had a great time! We have lots of leaves - about 50% off the trees now. Pictures soon....

The Colors

Well, it is definitely autumn. We had the first frost last week - 28 degrees was pretty hard to handle at 7 am!! I think we better get used to it. We had to dig through bags of clothes (yet to be unpacked) to find sweaters and sweatshirts for a few days.

The leaves are gorgeous. The beginning of October had some changes - mostly yellows. Mid-October had some brilliant, bright reds that were breath-taking. End of October is now an orangy hue to all the leaves - very pretty. About 25% of the leaves have fallen. Pictures to sent soon!