Happy Thanksgiving!

Garden Meditations

by Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.

For children who are our second planting, and though they

grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may

they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where

their roots are.

Let us give thanks:

For generous friends...with hearts...and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,

keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and

as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as

potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and
as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle

as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as

dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be

counted on to see you through the winter;

 

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time,

and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold

us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past

that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that

we might have life thereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

I'm thankful for all my dear blogging friends, and appreciate each and every comment you leave. Thanks so much for stopping by. I love hearing from you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photos are of my Zygo Cacti, aka Christmas or Thanksgiving Cactus.
 
Thanks to Susan of Patchwork Reflections for sending me this lovely poem.

Snowy Thanksgiving

Winter seems to have settled in on this Thanksgiving.

No new snow fell for our holiday, but we've had quite enough during the past week to paint the landscape a peaceful, snowy white.

On Tuesday morning the tree branches were decorated with a frosty covering of snow, making the drive to work a magical experience. Our school was on a one-hour delay because of the icy and snowy roads.

During the short trip I saw 3 vehicles that had slid off the road. I doubt they were appreciating the beauty of the snow.

Just a few leaves still cling bravely to the big maple.

This little Junco is one of many birds filling their tummies against the winter chill.

Mourning Doves clean up the seed under the feeders. Good little housekeepers!

The outdoor wood furnace is a workaholic!

The pink garden's spirea bush is a mound of snowy white, it's bright fall colors just a lingering memory.

Jasmine sits on my husband's desk and watches the birds through the window, whiskers twitching.

Goldfinches busily eat the seeds of Rudbeckia triloba...a good thing because it spreads seeds alarmingly, and I have yet to deadhead it. I'll have plenty of seedlings to weed out in the spring, so eat lots little birds! (Click to enlarge for detail. There are 3 birds in the picture)

Yesterday I baked cranberry-orange nut bread.

Yum!

And a pumpkin pie for my dear husband.

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;

All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.

God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;

Come to God's own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

Happy Thanksgiving

to all my American blog friends.

And grateful thanks to all my blog friends the world over, for your sweet gift of friendship.

Turkey Leftovers and a Surprise!

I haven't managed to post for a while due to a nasty cold which zapped all my energy (but I'm better now), and then Thanksgiving preparations kept me busy.

We had a wonderful day with most of the family here.

I hope all our American friends had a blessed Thanksgiving Day too.

This is 'Riley' gnawing on the turkey carcass after the meat had been taken off and stored in the refridgerator for those lovely leftovers. (Don't you love turkey and stuffing sandwiches with mayo!?) The carcass did eventually make it to the barn for the rest of the kitties to share, but 'Riley' had first dibs. I'm not sure where Jasmine was while this was taking place!!

Yes, this kitty has become a house cat, and there's an amusing story to tell about that :)

************

Our oldest daughter, Kylie and husband, Ko have moved to NY City, and they decided their kitty, Ilsa needed a companion to keep her company now that she's living in a 14th floor highrise apartment.

Riley became the chosen cat, being the bigger twin, and a bit more robust than his brother, Max.

we agreed to have him neutered, vaccinated, defleaed, etc. and get him used to being in the house. With this intention we took him to our local vet on the Monday before Thanksgiving. During the pre-op check the vet checked the...er...gender, paused a moment, then looking up with a small smile on her face, she announced, "This is a little girl!"

Oh dear!

The kids had wanted a male....

Well, not to worry, there was still Max at home, and we could bring him back the same day they said.

So....we had "Ms." Riley medicated and vaccinated, since she was there, and made plans to check Max's gender as soon as we arrived home.

You can probably guess what's coming, right?....

Yep, Max turned out to be a girl too!

They had a good chuckle at the vet's when I called to tell them :)

But now I had to break the news to Kylie......

She laughed uproariously when I told her the story and assured me that Riley being a girl would be just fine with them. Whew!

She'll have her 'op' in a couple of weeks and we'll take her to them at Christmas time.

They're still trying to decide on a name, and meanwhile we call her Ginger...or Miss Kitty, or Little One, or whatever comes to mind :)

I'm happy to report that Jasmine seems very happy to have a playmate.

After she's finished roughing 'her kitten' up.....

She gives her a wash......

And then they take a nap.

Jazzy even shares 'her' chair with Ginger (not so much her food!). She'll miss her when she's gone and so will we!

We may have to bring "Maxine" into the house!

You can imagine how much the little grandsons enjoyed having another kitty to play with. Here she was batting the ball back and forth with 'K', whilst being rough-housed by Jazz. She's a very patient girl :)

I hope you're all having a great week!

We have a very cold wind and snow here tonight!!

Time to hibernate....

Smiles! Subtited "A Hayride to Remember"

The Thanksgiving four (as they have dubbed themselves) - Kylie, Nan, Jennie and Ko

As I reflect on this Thanksgiving celebration just past, the thing that pops into my mind first and foremost is the smiles :) It does my heart good to think of all those laughing faces and the fun we had.

We were so happy to have the family all gathered together and a few friends as well, to share our day. Our son Andrew and his wife arrived on Wednesday night, bringing our little grandsons. Ko came with close friends of his and Kylie's, Nan and Jennie, on Thursday. Kathy and Akio also came on Thursday and brought Akio's mom, Reiko. This was our first meeting with Reiko and what a sweet lady she is! we had a wonderful time getting to know each other.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Kylie came on Wednesday to help, and it seemed to me she did most of the cooking. The Thanksgiving meal is her "thing" and she loves to prepare it. I was happy to let her plan and delegate. She's much better at it than I am! The turkey was melt-in-your-mouth delicious and all the trimming were scrumptious too.



Kathy & Akio being posh (I had just jokingly given instructions to hold shoulders back and tummies in)



Reiko

I'm sad to say I didn't take very many photos in the hustle and bustle of getting the meal on the table and visiting with everyone through the course of the day. It's hard for me to believe, but the camera was actually forgotten for a while in the midst of all the activity! I ended up with only one picture of our oldest grandson, and none of our son, his wife and their youngest! I'm hoping someone else managed to get a few shots of the ones that I missed.



Apple pie is one of my favorite desserts!

My DIL did a wonderful job of peeling and slicing the apples for me, which made the pie so much easier. I'm not one of those clever people who can produce 7 pies in one sitting without breaking a sweat. To me making pie crust is not an easy task! I suppose the secret is to make it often, which I don't.

Kylie's creation - an Orange Mocha cake, and my pumkin cream cheese pie.

The cake will forever live in our memories as "The Cake Of Shame" (Kylie's name for it) and has a funny story attached to it, which you can read on Kylie's blog if you want to. Suffice it to say, the chocolate mocha ganache was delicious, but the cake itself was just a wee bit heavy :)



Reiko brought us an assortment of wonderful cheeses and crackers. She and others brought some delicious wines too. We had quite a feast!



Hayride group

My husband, Ross, had surprised me earlier in the week, telling me he was planning to take us all on a hayride after the meal. "OK, I thought, that should be fun". A pleasant little jaunt around our 300 acres, right? Little did I know what was in store.....


Here we are getting ready to go. That's the one picture I got of our grandson! His little brother stayed behind with his mom and dad because he needed to rest.

We've been enjoying some lovely mild temperatures since last Wednesday, with sunshine and dry days! What a blessing that's been.

So off we went, and I discovered I didn't know my husband as well as I'd thought! He turned out to be quite the adventurer....



High on the hill overlooking our farm

First he took us up a very steep hill. Granted, the view from the top was spectacular, but my heart was in my throat all the way up and down. He's taken me up here in our old jeep in the past with me protesting all the way. If I must be on this hill I want my feet planted firmly on the ground and not in any vehicle.

Next we drove up to our long meadow which is the eastern boundry of the farm, and from there proceeded towards the woods and the old logging road. Now I'm thinking, "He's not planning to take us down that old logging road, is he?" But, that's precisely what he had in mind!

So through the woods we went, bumping and sliding, dodging branches and commenting that we should've written wills before embarking on this journey. When we emerged in the meadow above the barn we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

And so back home we came, laughing and joking after a very memorable ride. That was one way for our guests to see our acreage I guess, but when I asked Kathy the next day what Reiko had thought of it she said, "She had a wonderful time but she told Akio she is never going on another hayride!"

I wish I'd taken more photos on the hayride, but I was too busy hanging on!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm posting just a few random photos tonight. I took this photo of the mums and gourds on a very rainy day a couple of weeks ago. The rain has finally stopped but we've had a dusting of morning snow and cold temperatures for the past two days. If the roads stay clear for the holiday travel we'll be very thankful.


Thanksgiving is just 2 days away and we're eagerly anticipating having all the family together. Expecting a houseful of company is great incentive for me to give the house a good cleaning. Believe me, I can think of a million things I'd rather do than housework, but once I get in the mood I rather enjoy it. So that's all done, leaving me free to do the fun part....cooking!

Our menu will be the traditional turkey with all the trimmings.

Kylie is coming tomorrow to help me prepare desserts. She has requested that I bake an apple pie, and has found a delicious cake recipe with mocha filling that she wants to try. I might make a cream cheese pumpkin pie too if there's time.

I can't wait to see those 2 little grandsons again!

Pepper was feeling very playful the day I took this photo back in late September. This is just one of about 6 shots I took of him. Cats can be such good subjects...sometimes....when they stop still for a few seconds.

Abigail was an easy subject that morning...she seemed to be in a pensive mood, enjoying watching the other cats play.

Here are Tink and Fiona in early October, enjoying the late afternoon sun while waiting for dinner. Those lovely days of warm sunshine were few and far between this fall, so were much appreciated when we were blessed with them.

Sheba and Zoey sat in the barn window soaking up the sun after they'd eaten. Sheba spends a lot of time washing herself. She's one of the cleanest cats I know! Pepper, Abigail and Tink are Zoey's kittens. Someday I must show you a picture of them when they were tiny back in May. Sadly, one afternoon not long after I took this photo I found Zoey dead on the front lawn. I think she must've been hit by a car and just managed to get off the road, poor kitty. She was one of the sweetest, most affectionate cats we've ever had. We were so sad to lose her.



Here are Max and Fiona, cute as can be....



....and Annabelle, Tink and Fiona.

I threw in this one of Kathy with a nice crop of pumpkins in 1987 just because it seemed appropriate for this time of year.

We have so much to be thankful for!

I hope all my American blog friends have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving holiday. To all my other blog friends in distant lands, I wish you a week filled with blessings.