Grindstaff Rd.

Hmm, I guess nobody believed this.

Boy are you dumb!

Careful observers of the Micaville woodlot would have noticed that just before Halloween, this guy appeared holding a bloody chainsaw and a bloody head. He was headless, so I presume the head he was holding was his own. On his body was a sign that said, "This is the last person I caught stealing wood." Apparently, the woodlot owner is so ferocious that he was able to get this guy to take a chainsaw and cut off his own head.

A few weeks later the head and chainsaw disappeared and the old sign was replaced with this one. I shudder to think what happened to the dumb person he got on camera stealing head and saw.

Co-op Workday

We had another great workday at Ten Thousand Things on Saturday. We got a ton of stuff done including some things that weren't on the list. Here we have Jeff Goodman and Ron Rollett, pacing like hungry tigers in a cage (OK, they were just walking around on the deck).



Here is Gib Barrus, getting ready to cut a board (isn't this fascinating?)

Penguin Santa

Lower Brown's Creek Road

FTN!

Well, Miles has gone back to Hawaii. I can tell you that two months is enough time to get used to having someone around. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go visit.

Tiny flamingo with spoons

Sunday morning.

The Great Pumpkin is pleased again

For the seventh year in a row, Philip Mitchell organized mass pumpkin carving and then displayed them all on the Seven Mile Ridge Road bridge. This is the third year there have been 100 pumpkins, which seems like the perfect number for the bridge. It's quite a spectacle. Below are a selection of individuals.



My favorite. Absolutely great in every way.



This one has a mountain landscape--pretty original.



Vampire meets neck--amazing.



Beautiful. This one says "Happy Halloween" but it's a bit hard to see here.




Genius.



Dramatic!



Aw, that's real nice.



The Pumpkin Pi is now a required part of the tradition.



Thanks, Philip. What a great thing.

Bread & Puppet at Penland

Many of you know that Vermont's Bread & Puppet Circus performed--on very short notice--at Penland this week. My apologies to anyone who didn't get the word; we only had one day's notice. Anyway, there was a great crowd and it was a wonderful performance--it's like they've invented their own kind of theater and they are geniuses at it. There are more photos at www.penland.org.

They don't get better

They don't really get better than this.

Ineffective communication

What does it mean? And how are you supposed to read the Web address at the bottom without stopping your car?

Celo at the beach

Paul Feldman and the Times


Contemplation


Jeff, Paul, Schell...and Margot head into the raucous surf.

Big-ass yellow spider

Literally.

We're 29!

Yeah, we've been married 29 years. Cool, huh?

Margot and Becky are 110!

Margot Atuk is 50; Becky Grey is 60.
Who knew? Happy Birthday, y'all.

















Randy and Jeff lit 110 candles (in honor of the combined ages) and floated them on the pond.


Paulo paddled around with them...


...until after dark.

Restaurant

Chorizo at the Grove Arcade makes a great breakfast.

Pig snouts...

...are really pretty strange.

Jody Pred is 50!

Happy Birthday, Jody. That was barn-burner of a party.

Bocce

Cairns

The Celo Inn guests have been building again.

Snag

The best

This is the best sign on Hannah Branch road. No contest.

80 North

Horse love

Luca's face

Someone e-mailed and asked if I would post a picture of Luca that showed his face (that's him from the back, making a splash down below). I'm not turning this into an "ask me about my grandson" website, but here's the answer to that request. (Luca Dreyer, son of Julian and Jenny, in case you're scratching your head.)

Granny's Beach architecture