Fall has been busy for any number of reasons. This is a favorite time of year for visitors here because of the fall color you will note in the photos that accompany this post. I don't think my guests particularly come for that, but what they do encounter besides the color in the hills all around us, is crowded restaurants, shops and galleries during the month of October. Things are a little quieter around town during the middle of the week but on the weekends, there are still big crowds. My understanding is that the tourist season doesn't really end here until New Years Day. Then, for three or four months it is quiet before it starts all over again in the spring.

I have gotten to where I really don't mind it. I avoid the really crowded places on the weekends and shop during the week as well. Hiking at this time of year is a real joy because Abner is quite energized by cooler weather, and the long range views have once again opened up due to the lack of leaves on the trees.

My life has been a little crazed lately even after the departure of John Ballenger, my last guest of October. I have my house on the market as a for-sale-by-owner and have had a surprisingly large response. I have a few live ones who might make offers, but if not, I am not particularly concerned. I don't have to sell or move. I'm not uncomfortable where I am and feel no compulsion to do this quickly. If I get a good price for my house and can get the place I would like to move to, then I'll do it. Otherwise, I can wait. It is a lot different from the stress of selling my Curtis Park house.

Abner and I are headed off on our Thanksgiving Vacation on Friday. This year we are spending about 10 days touring the Outer Banks. We will start by driving to Nags Head where we will base ourselves to check out Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and environs. These areas are in the northern half of the OBX and have a Wright Brothers monument at the site of their first successful powered flight. I gather there are also lots of shops and galleries to check out and of course, miles of beaches and some of the most celebrated light houses in the United States. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this area, the Outer Banks are a chain of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. Unlike hundreds and hundreds of other barrier islands which line the Atlantic coast from South Florida to Cape Cod, these islands are considerably further away from the mainland. Ocracoke Island, where we will spend a week at a rented beach house, is so remote that it takes almost 2-1/2 hours to get there by ferry.

Ocracoke is very quiet at this time of year. In summer the population is around 8,000 people but after the end of October it drops to around 800. It is an island that is mostly beach and dune grass, but is famous for a herd of wild ponies that have been there for a few centuries. It was also the home base of Blackbeard, the famous 17th century pirate. Close by is Portsmouth Island which is now a National Park. It is home to the only ghost town in America east of the Mississippi. I am hoping to get there for a day to check it out. Mostly though, we will enjoy walking (sniffing and peeing as well, I suspect) on the miles of pristine beaches and reading the stack of books I am taking.

Last week, Abner and I finally officially made the acquaintance of Asheville's principal national celeb. Andie Macdowel (whose name is actually Rose Macdowel) has lived here for many years and I have seen her from time to time, but last week Abner and I encountered her with her 1 year old female Anatolian named Layla. The first time we met, they were out jogging with another woman and her dog when Abner and I were heading home from a play session at the park in Biltmore Forest. Abner's head was, as usual, out the window and Layla was very interested. She jumped up on my car (which I was not entirely pleased about) and they got nose to nose. Rose asked me a couple questions about him and I reciprocated about Layla. It wasn't a very long conversation and I continued on my way.

The next day, though, Abner and I stopped into the salon at which I get my hair cut to say hi to Regina (the owner and manicurist) and Veda (who cuts my hair). Rose was there getting her nails done and this time was fairly chatty. She wanted to know my name and where I lived and had a number of questions about dog play at the off leash area where Regie and I take Abner and Spencer. She doesn't have a reputation for being particularly friendly but she seemed to be pretty taken with Abner (who isn't?) and actually was quite pleasant. She might bring Layla for a play date one of these days.

John's visit was great fun for me. Since he stayed longer than most of my guests have, we had a chance to do more things. He got to meet several of my friends here at a series of dinners. They are a widely varied group but I think he liked them all. We also headed down to Charleston for a quick trip that wasn't entirely successful. We hit two major traffic snags in South Carolina on the way down that resulted in more than 1-1/2 extra hours on the road. Then, when we finally got there, it was too late to get into the place we had chosen for lunch and, while sunny, was a little cold. We strolled around historic downtown for a couple hours and then went back to the hotel and changed for dinner.

The next day we toured the Nathaniel Russell house which is one of the more famous of the historic houses available for touring in Charleston. What I realized is that Charleston is interesting for people who are into old architecture and historic military sites. Otherwise, it is actually a fairly quiet small city. I love the old residential areas but I can see that they don't necessarily keep everyone's attention.

The drive back to Asheville was uneventful. I realized though, as we climbed back up into the Blue Ridge mountains, that I really like it here and consider this home now. After all those years of living in low lying flat land, I think I really like all these hills and trees.

Late in John's visit we drove up to Graveyard Fields for a little day hike and stopped at one of the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks on the way. While we were there we saw a group of hunters and their dogs who had apparently been doing some pretty serious backcountry hunting. One of them asked me if "That daog of yern 'd go after a bear". I explained that Pyrenees are predator control dogs so he probably would pursue a bear if given the opportunity but we had never tried it out. With that, he shuffled off to his truck and returned a minute later with a disembodied bear paw that was still bloody to offer a nice scent treat to Abner. It appeared that Abner was a little curious about it but mostly he seemed to think it was weird. So did I. These guys had radio communications between their trucks and all the dogs had transmitters on their backs. Serious hunters I guess. The accents were pretty thick hill country accents so John got a good taste of what it is like in the mountainous parts of the south once you get away from the cities.

Well, the sun is shining and Abner is acting like he is in the mood for a stroll so I think I will take him. Enjoy the pictures and drop me a line if you are inclined to. I'll post again after the Outer Banks trip.

The boathouse at the Bass Pond is a particular jewel when the wind is still and the pond becomes a mirror. 

Even as it becomes late in the season, color is still pretty vivid. The rest of these shots are from recents walks on the estate.


 

One day, John and I took Abner up the Blue Ridge Parkway for some hiking. On the way, we stopped at one of the overlooks and encountered not only great views, but a group of high-tech hunters who sounded like they were straight out of the cast of "Deliverence". I'm certain this reinforced any fears John had harbored about my moving to this part of the country.


 

Last year the weather in the fall was very warm and mild so we didn't get nearly the vibrant display that a colder October gave us this year. We seemed to alternate between surprisingly cold nights and days that occasionally hit 80. Even now, we have had 3 days in the 70s and one in the 80s in the last week. The color is not for the feint hearted.


John Ballenger came for a week and seemed to be cold the whole time but had a good time anyway. In spite of his reputation for buying real estate when he visits, he bypassed making an offer on this house. 

This year has proven that Asheville is no place to spend the autumn if you don't like reds and golds and lots of them. This is a collection of photos I took over about 5 weeks this fall.

In the walled garden at Biltmore, they featured thousands of mums. On billboards around town, they had photos of the house with the caption "mum's the word". Subtle but clever and the subtlety certainly didn't reduce the size of the crowds.