Many Happy Returns!

Today is the celebration of Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, or, as the vulgar have it these days, Hobbit Day. It is also the first day of Fall, so we doubly celebrate it around here.
I have been very busy for the past two weeks, first with a beloved niece's wedding and then with my brother and his family's visit that was a happy consequence of the same. I apologize for my unexplained absence, but there it is. As Sam would say, "Well, I'm back."