Teacherheart here, blogging from Charlottesville...

I have not told you how much I love it here.  I don't think I can adequately express it!  At this very moment I am looking out at partly clouded skies over the Blue Ridge skyline, with the gold, orange and scarlet covered tree limbs gently waving at me in their friendly greeting, "Welcome back!"  The photo that now greets you at the top of this blog comes complimentary from the artist...  he's my new friend, because I find my heart in the photos he has taken of beautiful places all over this earth.  I hope you really will take a moment to check out Jack McCabe's gallery. He also gave me permission to use this one, which he calls "An Old and Splendid Tree."  Isn't that just the most splendid name for the photo?  It is what I am seeing everywhere I look!  Fall is glorious, and I fell in love with it when I lived here the first time, sixteen years ago.  Sixteen years ago, however, I did not make it to Monticello.  I have always regretted that... so the first place we visited when we came to town this time was... Monticello.  And like a sweet "I-love-you" postscript from Heaven, I woke up to the opposite view from the one at the top...  from my large bedroom window I can see the sun rising over Monticello, eight miles (we mapped it) from our window.  Each day I think, 'How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.'  Have I told you how much I love it here?