Greetings and salutations,

It’s the week before Christmas and we’ve had our third significant snowfall of the winter season already, about 5 inches fell Friday afternoon and evening with more on the way for today, they say. After a couple of errands this morning and clearing the snow, I’m staying put for the rest of the day. We have enough beer, wine, and food and the furnace keeps us warm. The high tomorrow (Sunday December 18) is forecast to be -3 F or about -19 C, boy o boy that sounds cold!

On to more pleasant thoughts and my post and photos for this week. As I was addressing one of the envelopes for our annual Christmas letter, I was reminded about a Thanksgiving  a few years back we spent in the hills of northwest North Carolina close to the border with Tennessee and Virginia. We were invited to Thanksgiving by our son-in-law Daniel’s aunt and uncle who had recently retired and built beautiful country home in this area. During our stay, I had the opportunity to take some photos of the beautiful countryside in this part of the world. All the photos below were taken within walking or a short driving distance from their home.

I was intrigued by some of the barns in the area, all were weathered and some in disrepair but one could still see the bones of what must have been a hard working building for the farmer.

One morning was I walking along the road, I saw this guy fly fishing for trout in the nearby river. I watched and photographed him for at least a half hour observing his technique. While I didn’t talk with him that water must have been really cold! And he didn’t catch any fish while I was watching him.

And there were animal photos too! I especially like the photo of the mule keeping an eye on its feed bucket!

On our last day in the area, our host John Heard took us on a driving tour through the Blue Ridge Mountains and part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The drive and scenery was beautiful. We stopped at a number of overlooks for viewing and photographing the Mountains. The following photograph helps one to understand why they are called the Blue Ridge Mountains, there’s often a bluish, dusty hue to the horizon line.

And of course we had a Thanksgiving Dinner that couldn’t be beat with family and friends.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our brief but spectacular visit to North Carolina. Makes me want to return and explore even further.

Take care and until next week,

Tom