Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving

"Over the river and through the woods"

I'm thankful our Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, and not merely the precursor of Commercial Christmas with hardly time to digest the Thanksgiving meal before beginning to cook the Christmas one, as is the case in the Excited States.

With Thanksgiving in October, we have the perfect timing for a true harvest meal with the last of the fresh-from-the-garden produce to fill the plates and the first of the crispy autumn apples to fill the pies.

With Thanksgiving in October, we have the perfect setting, with fall colours at their prime  - happy trees bedecked in reds and yellows not from artificial Christmas lights but from nature herself.

With Thanksgiving in October, the day is bright and sunny, yet the sun is low enough in the sky by mid afternoon to capture the magic of a spider's web.

Spider's web in sunlight

With Thanksgiving in October, we have fall flowers sending sunny smiles from each pot and plot.

Two years ago, someone gave my mom a wee little potted chrysanthemum when they visited her at her care facility.  When I visited a few weeks later, she gave me the little pot, blossoms dead but roots alive.  I planted it in my garden.  Today it is over two feet high and three feet across and makes me smile everytime I look at it.  Mums from my mum. So fitting.

Mums from my mum

With Thanksgiving in October, the morning sun hits the cold night air and the mists rise from the waters creating scenes that take my breath away.

Morning Mist rising over Osborne Bay

I'm thankful for so many things - the beauty of the world around me, the friends and family that are always here for me and especially during these past difficult weeks, the critters with whom I share my life.

I'm thankful that Allie is back to being a Naughty Tortie, scattering my papers, opening my kitchen cupboards in the dark of night, hollering "me first, me first" when it's time to feed the four legged crew.

I'm thankful that Mitzi, who has been very under the weather the past ten days, seems to be almost back to normal.  I'm thankful that Eddie, whose seasonal allergies have been driving him and me crazy and whose ear became infected, is no longer spitting out the benadryl and is gradually tolerating his daily ear treatments.

I'm thankful that life is slowly getting back to normal for a while.

And I'm thankful for you, my readers.  Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Autumn.

Autumn Sunset