Blogtober Thirteen: Happy Thanksgiving!

 

There be three gentle and goodlie things

To be here

 To be together

And to think well of one another

L.M. Montgomery (from Pat of Silver Bush)

We put all the leaves in the dining room table to make room for 13 of us to sit down to dinner. Often, we have a children's table in the kitchen. It's nice to have everyone together from time to time. Everyone was very well behaved, even the adults! Lots of laughter and chatter.

It's become usual to eat our main meal, then clean up the dishes before dessert. Today was so warm and sunny that we all drifted outdoors to eat dessert. My eldest daughter made two luscious Cranberry Curd Pies, and my youngest daughter brought fruit with a chocolate dip and a caramel peanut dip. I contributed Pumpkin Pie. There is LOTS of pie leftover. 

Everyone goes home with enough leftovers for another meal of turkey with all the trimmings. Now the house is quiet again. Turkey broth is simmering on the stove.

 "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; 

and that happiness is gratitude doubled by wonder." 

G. K. Chesterton

A quiet evening is ahead. We'll maybe nibble on some leftovers. I'll settle in with a new book. The evening is cooling off and we'll close the windows as dusk settles in. 

Thank you to those who read my blog, and to those who comment. I'm grateful for each one of you. 

October Daily 10

 

How luxurious life feels when a holiday falls on a Monday, particularly after a lovely family get together on Sunday. This morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and I tidied up the last bits from our Thanksgiving feast before going for a walk. 

 

Living on an island, albeit a large one, and on a peninsula on that island, means that the ocean is never very far away. There are a multitude of places to walk along the water where the gulls bank steeply in the sunlight, crying as they turn, white feathers glinting gold. Or where cormorants perch on abandoned pilings, each intent on fixing their plumage just so. 

In Sidney by the Sea, huge boxes of petunias still bloom in October in this year of long lingering summer. The sea air rises and fills our senses with invigorating scents of salt water, the soft lap of waves against the rocks, and the view of islets big and small shrouded in cloud.

Later, we met friends for lunch at the Stonehouse Pub, located near the water in a quiet forest setting. We ate on the patio - fish tacos for me, and a burger and fries for Tim. Everything tastes better eaten outdoors. 

Later, we walked the docks in a nearby marina and saw one of our ferries slip by between the rocks and islands that dot this coastline. Although we had planned to take our boat out and go to another island for lunch, wind warnings caused us to change our plans and stay ashore on our own island. 

Tomorrow is back to a more regular schedule, with the refreshment that comes from having an out-of-the-ordinary day in which we focus on gratitude and simple pleasures. Wishing you a lovely week.

October Daily 9: Thanksgiving Sunday

 

Thanksgiving Sunday. In Canada the holiday falls on the second Monday of October, but our tradition is to have turkey dinner on Sunday, leaving Monday for relaxation. 

I was up early to put the turkey in the oven and puttered around setting the table and making things look pretty. I wandered out into the garden in bare feet to see what I could find, and ended up with dahlias, grapes, and marigolds to play with. It's still so very warm, although the morning dew was chilly on my feet. 

After morning church everyone converged here, and there was lots of chatting, playing, and helping out until dinner was served around 12:45. By then little Cora was napping upstairs, so she's missing from these quick snapshots taken around the table. 

When I was a child and visiting grandparents for special occasions, there was always one end of the table where we cousins sat, supervised by one of the aunties, I'm sure. There was likely a lot of silliness and fun back then just as there was today where the cousins sat together. 

Ashley brought brussels sprouts, picked fresh from her garden this morning, and how fresh they tasted. Katie brought a beautiful and delicious apple pie cake.

Cristal provided a family favourite - two Chocolate Pecan pies. How delicious everything was. We rolled away from the table. For a big meal such as this, we usually stop at the main course, clean up the kitchen, load the dishes, and wash up what's left (thanks Gerry and Cristal!), before making coffee and tea, and serving dessert in the living room. A little time to digest suits us all well. 

Before sitting down to dinner I had each grandchild choose a mini pumpkin and we went outdoors for a very quick photo shoot. What fun they are! How I love them! 

G. K. Chesterton once said, "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that happiness is gratitude doubled by wonder." 

I sit here now in the quiet and watch the pink sunset steal across the sky. A white contrail catches the light as it moves westward. Two pine trees stand silhouetted against the horizon. The air coming in through the open doors and windows is cooling dramatically. This moment, this day. I am filled with thanksgiving to God for the people in my life. 

October Daily 10: And there was feasting and happiness

 

I set the table the night before, and then added a couple of places in the morning when our youngest called to say that the little girls were much better and the whole family would come. Hooray! And so we all gathered around the table, so thankful that we could be together.

After dinner the five grands played on the living room floor and my heart swelled to see them all engaged - the older ones interacting so sweetly with the younger. 

I caught this little moment when Cora put her hand into Felix's. 

There was turkey and all the trimmings, and for dessert, pumpkin pie (brought by our daughter), traditional apple pie, and Apple Frangipane tart. Almost everyone had a little bit of each one, with whipped cream. 

We give thanks to God

 for family and love,

for jobs that we enjoy,

for delicious food and warm clothes to wear,

for friends to share laughter and tears,

for our country of Canada

where we enjoy freedom to worship and celebrate.

Give us hearts that are open to sharing and listening,

Help us to encourage others,

to build up and not tear down.

Give us wisdom to walk each day with purpose and intention.

Now to relax. Happy Thanksgiving!

October Daily 8: Thanksgiving Preparations

 

Harvest celebrations have been marked for many many years. First Nations peoples, European villages and towns, and cultures around the world have celebrated the harvest for many years, giving thanks for good yields and food that would see them through the winter. 

The first Thanksgiving celebrated by Europeans in Canada was initiated by the English explorer Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1578, with a meal of salt beef, biscuit, and mushy peas, in gratitude for having safely arrived at what is now Nunavut. 

We'll be enjoying turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and all the trimmings, and giving thanks for God's goodness throughout this past year. 

The family is gathering here - 13 of us, we hope, as one family may not be able to make it because of colds and congestion in the children. 

Today I polished the brass and ironed the linen napkins. As I worked, I thought of Riobamba, Ecuador, where we bought the brass many years ago, and of the linen napkins that once belonged to my mother-in-law and are well over 65 years old. She didn't use them often, but I do, so I doubt they will be in any condition to pass down to my children, should they want them. 

Pie crusts will soon be chilling in the refrigerator, and I made a couple dozen pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls. They are in the freezer and will be warmed before serving them. 

Although the holiday is Monday, we almost always have our dinner on Sunday and Monday is delicious and easy leftovers. 

I love Thanksgiving as it's a wonderful and relaxed time to get together with family. From my experience living the USA for a short time, and living with American ex-pats in Ecuador, I think the US Thanksgiving is imbued with greater significance, more like our Christmas, it seems. Canadians celebrate more during the Christmas season. 

Sir Martin Frobisher's chaplain preached a sermon back in 1578, "exhorting them especially to be thankefull to God for theyre strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places (sic)."

Certainly, we have all been through much these past 18 months, and can give thanks for so much abundance and protection. 

Tomorrow will be more cooking and a bit of cleaning before everyone arrives on Sunday. 

What's your favourite holiday / feast day?

A Rain-washed Garden and a Thankful Heart

 

Sunday evening of Thanksgiving weekend. We traditionally celebrate together as a family on Sunday, leaving Monday for relaxing. This year, because of the pandemic, we planned an outdoor event with appropriate food. Alas, the rains poured down and we moved the celebration indoors, taking precautions. 

We met everyone at the door with a squirt of hand sanitizer. It struck me how quickly the children have become used to this new reality - they automatically held out their hands and rubbed in the sanitizer. We assigned bathrooms to various families and rather than towels, paper towel was available for drying. 

We stuck with our original outdoor menu. There was crab dip and crusty bread, chips and seven-layer dip, and individual bags of chips for starters. The main course consisted of a wonderful roasted sweet potato, roasted brussels sprouts, and spinach salad, and hot dogs. Grilled, not roasted on sticks over a fire. Served on china plates with linen napkins. It was quite the dinner, unlike any Thanksgiving I can remember. For dessert there were pumpkin pie tarts with dollops of whipped cream, and individual jars of cranberry cheesecake. A strange menu for strange times.

I snapped photos of each family group, and then a few impromptu ones. All of the grandchildren are delightful, but Iris is the star of the show, beloved by all. Here she is being read to by her mother. 

At school we are encouraged to have the windows of classrooms open for good air flow (and to wear sweaters). I recently came across the German practice of Luften where windows are opened, even in winter, to air out the house. So midway through our get together I opened doors and windows and let the rain-washed air blow through the house for about 15 minutes. How fresh and lovely it was. 

Later, after everyone had gone home and the house was quiet, I looked out the window. All the rain intensified the green shades in the garden and the quickly ebbing light seemed to call me outdoors. I pulled on some shoes, grabbed my camera and took a few shots of lingering roses, zinnias, and hydrangeas. 

Once indoors again I lit a candle and watched the light slowly fade outside, dulling those brilliant greens. The blurriness of the photo indicates the lack of light. I was reluctant to turn on an indoor light, preferring to stand and watch until darkness fell. It didn't take long.

I have no plans for tomorrow and that's a delightful feeling. Perhaps a walk, perhaps some stitching and reading. A little cooking? We'll see. There's nothing like the blissful satisfaction of a Sunday evening with a Monday holiday.

I'll close with a prayer that my daughter found in her Simply in Season cookbook - it's most appropriate for Thanksgiving.

Delicious Creator God,

I taste your glory in the tangy crunch of a crisp apple,

I taste your glory in salty tears of emotion.

I taste your glory in cool, clear, life-giving water.

I taste your glory in the heavy sweetness of dark chocolate.

Your glory flavors the early peas and new lettuce of spring,

the raspberries and sour cherries of my backyard,

the mealy goodness of new potatoes and butternut squash,

it steeps in my tea and bakes in my peach cobbler. 

For the nibbles and feasts of your glory and for my taste buds,

I give you thanks.

A Cozy and Thankful Weekend Ahead

Today marks the halfway point for my most intense Spanish class. In one month my workload will drop in half. It's been so very busy, compounded by the new reality we live in, and I've tried to just take it one day at a time. Now, ahead of me is a three-day weekend, with Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday. 

I stopped off for groceries on the way home today, and then dashed out to the garden to clip flowers before dark, and before the rain begins this evening. A few dahlias, some zinnias, a couple of roses, hydrangeas, and feverfew combined to make pretty bouquets for several rooms. 

I bought a simple crewel stitchery kit a couple of years ago and decided this was the time to begin stitching it. It won't take very long and I'm so enjoying pulling wool through linen. A cup of tea to hand makes for a relaxing respite. 

I pulled a good amount of beets and some carrots from the garden and roasted them in a covered dish until tender. After peeling the beets the vegetables sat in the fridge for a day or two until I decided what to do with them. In the end I just tipped them into a flat casserole dish, crumbled blue cheese over top, and heated everything through in the oven along with a chicken I roasted. The sweet vegetables were deliciously offset by the sharp blue cheese. I'll be making this again. 

 More of the flowers I clipped, along with some current reading material - the UK Country Living for October that I've been saving for this weekend, and a collection of stories by Stella Gibbons who authored Cold Comfort Farm. I've not read the novel and I intend to as soon as it comes available in the library. 

We're holding plans loosely for a Thanksgiving celebration. Our original thought was an outdoor hot dog roast, but the rain might just change that idea. Whatever we do will be unconventional in these strange times - and not a sit down turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Still, we have much to be thankful for, family, food, homes, and lots of love. 

Wishing all of my fellow Canadians a very Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Five on Friday

1. October has shown herself quite changeable, but pleasantly so. A day or two of cloud and rain is followed by several days of clear skies where night time temperatures dip to several degrees above freezing and the sun warms the afternoons with golden light. Who can complain about that? 

In my garden, the dahlias, zinnias, roses, and marigolds continue to bloom prolifically. The fig tree leaves are paling, and drop yellow to the ground to soon curl and shrink into crispy brown clumps.  

Every few days I pick a couple of handfuls of fresh raspberries, so good with our morning yogurt. Kale and Swiss Chard are flourishing. 

2. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a family dinner on Sunday afternoon. Here the three littles are getting ready to eat their pie. When I appeared with the camera, they said, "Happy Thanksgiving" instead of "cheese." For some indecipherable reason, one said it with his eyes closed. 

3. Monday was drizzly and grey. We pulled on our rain gear and drove out to East Sooke Park for a hike along the coast trail. Sea blended mutely into sky. There were a number of fishing boats out on the water, and a few other hikers on the trail, but the peace was palpable.

4. We sat at Beechey Head to eat our lunch of cheese, crackers, vegetables, apples, and chocolate. It feels so luxurious to pour a steaming mug of hot tea in that setting, and it tastes so good. 

While we munched and sipped on our perch high above the water, gulls glided silently below us. A trio of sleek sea lions swam purposefully across our field of vision, intent on some goal. Later, a pair of snub-nosed seals followed them. In the distance a tug pulled along an enormous barge. A whale blew and breached in the distance and then disappeared with a flick of her tail. Waves rushed noisily upon the rocks below, flinging up white spray before dying back into calm.

5. This miniature scene grew in a damaged arbutus tree - three tiny fungi, a bit of moss, and some curls of red bark. Do you think that perhaps the fairies had a party here? 

Like Anne of Green Gables, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." 

How is your October shaping up? 

Linking with Friday Bliss, hosted by Riitta of Floral Passions. 

Thanksgiving in October

Eleven of us sat down to a turkey dinner with all the trimmings yesterday. Although the holiday is technically Monday (the second Monday in October), we, like many families, have our big dinner on Sunday, followed by a relaxed Monday. 

I look at this photos and see the faces of some of the people I love so very much. For now, the little ones enjoy sitting at their own small table while the adults sit at the big table. I remember sitting at the children's table at family gatherings when I was growing up. Do you?

Did you notice the top right hand photo? That's Katie, our daughter-in-law. For this particular dinner, I set the food out in the kitchen and we served our plates from their and brought them to the table to eat. After dinner was mostly done, Katie was up checking on the little ones and stopped by the stuffing casserole on the way back to the dining room. She mentioned how much she enjoyed it. She ate it from the pan.  She was there long enough that I suggested she bring the whole thing to the table and sit down to enjoy it. So she did. And she posed very nicely for a photo. Much laughter ensued.   

On Friday evening, Owen and Ashley told us stories of their recent trip to Scotland, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. One thing they mentioned were the Cardamom Buns eaten with coffee in Stockholm. I had just read the How to Hygge book and remembered a recipe for the buns. Ashley suggested we make some, so we did. We used another recipe found on the internet. Baking time was tricky; some were slightly overbaked, but still delicious. Forming the dough was also tricky. 

My children wonder what has happened to their mother. I have never liked the colour orange. I tolerate it in marigolds, planted among the vegetables, never in the flower beds. Pumpkins are okay. So there was great teasing when they noticed two orange velvet cushions on the couches. What can I say? They suit the season and I'm okay with them, for now, although I get a little twitchy if I really look at them. I stitched the covers and they can easily be zipped off and replaced. 

Lovely October. Crisp nights, a bit of rain, lots of sunshine. Plenty of laughter. My favourite month.

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life.  

Just Before Thanksgiving

Sometimes, weeks don't turn out as planned. Each year, on the two school days before Canadian Thanksgiving, our school gives the students time off while the teachers go to a conference. It's a great time of learning (for the teachers) and having fun together. 

On Monday night, I came down with a sore throat that turned into a cold. So, no conference for me. I stayed home. By Friday I was feeling much better and rather wished I had gone. My colleagues were happy for me to NOT share my germs, however. 

I rescued some flowers from the garden from an impending rain and windstorm. Those white roses, Winchester Cathedral, have wicked thorns and I plunked them down onto the table without much fuss. 

I gingerly separated this one bloom from the bunch and posed it for its portrait. Such a pretty, fragrant flower. 

This basket of tomatoes and squash were also rescued. We've been eating the little Millionaire tomatoes like candy, for they are so sweet. The bigger tomatoes were cut in half, sprinkled with chopped onion, fresh thyme and oregano, drizzled with olive oil, and roasted until the house smelled like an Italian restaurant, redolent with flavour. 

Our Vancouver kids arrived last night for the holiday weekend, and I made the effort to prepare a special breakfast. A fresh corn tortilla, lightly crisped, topped with sauteed onions and sweet peppers, topped with guacamole, one of those luscious roasted tomatoes, and a fried egg. A few sprinkles of Cheddar cheese finished it all off. Very filling and very delicious (patting myself on the back just a little).  

On the mantel a cheery vase of hydrangeas and sunflowers seem apropos to the season. 

Dinner preparations are what's happening around here today - turkey, savoury stuffing, crumb-topped sweet potatoes, and more. We'll gather tomorrow with our children and grandchildren. Truly, we have much to be thankful for. 

Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving. One of my favourite celebrations. October is the perfect month. The harvest is mostly finished, autumn has arrived, and it's good to gather with loved ones and acknowledge our many blessings. Although all of our dreams and hopes may be fulfilled, there is always, always something for which we can thank God.

We celebrated with our children and grandchildren yesterday, Saturday, so that they could be with other family today. 

This afternoon Tim and I went for a ramble around Rithet's Bog. There is colour if one looks for it, and that I did, finding golden trees that glowed in the sunlight, red leaves that swung gently back and forth, and plenty of pale brown stalks of grass and fat, ready-to-explode cattails.  

Recent rains have begun filling the bog that was dry and bereft of ducks for the summer. The ducks have returned to splash and swim, not minding the debris and pollen in the air. 

A crow cawed from behind a curtain of yellow leaves shimmered and caught the light. He was a shy bird, not a show-off at all.

Our three little grand darlings. The girl cousins play together so well, and Mister F. follows them around saying, "me, too," "me, too." How I love them. 

After our walk, I took my basket to the garden and discovered a few ripe figs, one zucchini, bunches of grapes and cherry tomatoes, and lots of lettuce. The kale and carrots I left for another day.

Tomorrow is the actual holiday, but we've always had the tradition of having our dinner on Saturday or Sunday to leave Monday as the day for doing little or nothing.  Wishing all my fellow Canadians a very Happy Thanksgiving. 

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life.

PS. I added a bit of information to my previous post about the memorial stone for Lucy Partington at Hailes Chapel, with thanks to Rosemary of Where Five Valleys Meet.