September 2012

We've covered a lot of ground in the last few days, my husband and I. Three mornings ago we left Roanoke, Va., where the fall is just beginning to announce itself in spills of leaves on the roads in our neighborhood, the sharp shadows on the mountain

Floyd, Va. is a musicians' town. Not in the same way Nashville is, or New York City, or Vienna, Austria, but in a quiet, neighborly sort of way, in my experience.

Out the windows: trees, farmland, small-town downtowns, dirt roads, overcast sky. A hollow, long-reaching whistle signals our coming and our passing.

The first of the three major chocolate seasons is over...