Decked out for the Thanksgiving Day Hunt

Tally Ho
Happy Turkey Day :)
via

No commentsRead more

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

It's a little too nippy to have an outdoor Thanksgiving feast here at the cottage. Hope yours is lovely, inside or out. via Country Home

Martha Stewart

No commentsRead more

Be Safe if You Travel Today and Tomorrow

We have rain on the east coast. Be careful on the wet roads if you are traveling home for Thanksgiving. Think pleasant thoughts about those anxiously waiting for you to arrive safely -- humans and pets alike. via

No commentsRead more

Happy Thanksgiving

I scanned this graphic from my antiquarian book of crests and added the type. This is my Thanksgiving card to all of you.

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. ~ Aesop

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.~Erma Bombeck

image #3 here and #2 here

No commentsRead more

A Return To Loveliness

Giving Thanks

Count your blessings…we are told

If you begin to list your blessings

beginning with the most expansive

to the smallest detail, your heart

can be filled to overflowing with

joy.

Each breaking dawn, is a fulfilled

promise of hope, of renewed chances

and of possibilities.

Each breath we take – is a divine gift.

Each thing we see – a work of a master.

Each sound we hear – a symphony.

Each thing we touch – a precious memory.

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving.

For you, for your time, for your encouragement

And participation…I am most grateful.

I wish you all the most Delightsome

week of Giving Thanks.

Please join me, as I join with

the Delightsome Sandi

in  celebrating
Embrace the Season

Christmas Tea

With

Christmas with Victoria.

You can share your Christmas decorating,

Crafts, cooking ideas, teatime or your musings

on Christmas.

Tuesday, December 6

(Linky will open December 5 at 6:30 p.m.)

Thank you once again for your visit!

A Return To Loveliness

Is a weekly blog party I host

celebrating bringing Loveliness

into our lives and into our homes

To Join

simply create a post

Publish this post

apply the URL specific to your post

to the Linky provided below.

Please link back to this blog.

And

visit as many participants as you are able.

No commentsRead more

A Return to Loveliness

When Thoughts Turn Toward

Home

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.



“Come Ye Thankful People Come”, by Henry Alford

In the November issues of Victoria, we are encouraged to recall hearth and home as well as to reflect and to be thankful.

"And let the Peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful" (Colossians 3:15).

In the 1991 issue of Victoria, the first verse to Henry Alford’s song, Come, Ye Thankful People, Come is shared with sentiments of joining in thankful praise for family and friends and to appreciate the true gifts of life.

There is a comfort in the thought of home – a place of warmth, laughter and love, where one is welcomed and anticipated with open arms.

Preparations for family gatherings are generally well thought out and include favorite dishes for the Thanksgiving meal and warm, cozy rooms for one to lay and to rest.

For some, Thanksgiving will be a time apart – we have so many serving our country and several other countries in the military.

Though they may not be physically present – 

they are cherished in their family’s hearts.

Whether you are providing the ‘home’ to gather or are traveling to see loved ones – I hope you reflect upon the many and varied blessings of this past year – God’s provision as this hymn so wonderfully proclaims.

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" 

(Psalm 84:11).

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come 

Hymn

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.



All the world is God's own field,


Fruit unto His praise to yield;


Wheat and tares together sown


Unto joy or sorrow grown.


First the blade and then the ear,


Then the full corn shall appear;


Lord of harvest, grant that we


Wholesome grain and pure may be.



For the Lord our God shall come,


And shall take His harvest home;


From His field shall in that day


All offenses purge away,


Giving angels charge at last


In the fire the tares to cast;


But the fruitful ears to store


In His garner evermore.




Even so, Lord, quickly come,


Bring Thy final harvest home;


Gather Thou Thy people in,


Free from sorrow, free from sin,


There, forever purified,


In Thy garner to abide;


Come, with all Thine angels come,


Raise the glorious harvest home.

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD" (Hebrews 12:14).

A Return to Loveliness

is a weekly blog party I host celebrating bringing 

Loveliness into our lives and into our homes

To Join,

simply create a post, publish this post and apply

the URL specific to this post to the Linky provided below.

Please link back to this blog post and visit as many 

other participants as you are able.

I truly appreciate your visits and your comments.

I am very Thankful for you!

Wishing you a most Delightsome week,

images form the 1991 November issue of Victoria Magazine

No commentsRead more

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of those lovely, relaxed holidays that revolves around family, friends, and food - and we've been having a good dose of each of those.   


I added some autumn decorations to help us all get in the Thanksgiving mood.  You've got to love decorations you can eat - aren't these the most interesting squash.

We've also been enjoying the incredibly warm weather,

and the gorgeous fall colours.  We went for hikes on both Saturday and Sunday.

We also enjoyed our turkey dinner!  I love that it is the same meal - the exact same menu - every year.   You know that the turkey with gravy is going to be amazing, the mashed potatoes yummy, the dressing will be fantastic - love the dressing - all followed by pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  The best!

There is so much to be grateful for.  This year we are especially thankful that my father (you can see him at the end of the table) is recovering so well from his recent surgery.  

We missed having Kate home for the weekend as she is at university in Halifax and William flew down for the weekend to visit her.  Yep, we missed them both!  We are, however, grateful that Kate is enjoying her program, has met some good friends, and did well on her first paper.  William misses Kate a lot so they are having some good sibling time this weekend.

This year we had a couple of guests join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  Christie, our daughter-in-laws' sister came home with her for the weekend.  We've enjoyed getting to know her more and she was a huge help in the kitchen with the vegetable chopping and pumpkin pie making and drying the dishes - thanks Valerie!  

We also had a new friend from India join us (you can see him sitting at the left side of the table in the photo above).  I know it is going to sound strange, but I met him on the airplane coming back from India.   Trust me, I don't usually start talking to strangers and then invite them home to dinner, but this guy seemed like our kind of fellow.   He is on a four month work contract here in Toronto.  It is his first time in Canada and he is keen to see as much as he can of the rocks and trees and wild-lands.  It was fun seeing a Canadian Thanksgiving through a visitor's eyes.  He seemed to particularly like the colourful fall leaves and the pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends.

No commentsRead more

Happy Thanksgiving and a Beaver Up-date

One of the things I love about Thanksgiving dinner is the pumpkin pie.  I forgot to take a photo of the pie before dinner - I mean, really, who can concentrate on taking photos at a time like that - so this is what was left of the second pie.  There were 8 of us for dinner so we consumed a lot of pie.

Pumpkin pies can vary a lot, but this is the recipe we have made for years and is definitely tried and true (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens).

Ingredients:

3 cups (796 ml tin) pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

6 eggs

2 1/2 cups skim milk

12 oz (385 ml tin) evaporated low-fat milk

Method:

1.  Blend all ingredients together 

2.  Pour into unbaked pie shells (makes 2 pies) and bake at 400F for 50 minutes 

3.  Pies are done when a knife comes out clean and when the centre is not liquid when gently shaken

4.  Let cool and serve with whipped cream

If there is any leftover filling we make pumpkin pudding, which is just as yummy as the pumpkin pie and, in actual fact, better for you since there is no fattening crust.  Apart from sugar, pumpkin pudding is chock full of good things like milk, eggs, and beta-carotene laden pumpkin.

My mom put together a centerpiece for Thanksgiving weekend with mini gourds on two mats she made a few years ago using pine needles and rushes.  

I'm sure you are all waiting with baited breath for an up-date on the beaver situation.  On Saturday, I was helping my mother get dinner ready and she said I had better get my camera as the beaver always come by at this time of night.  Apparently, every evening at 6:40-6:45 they swim from their lodge in the marsh to the south of our cottage to the bay just north of us.  I grabbed my camera and just as I stepped outside there they were.   

Here is Beaver #1

Then I noticed Beaver #2

Yep, the cheeky little chap was sitting on our rocks (the blue in the foreground is our canoe) chewing on sticks.  Here's a close-up (although the photo isn't the best with the low light conditions).

And finally after a few minutes, Beaver #3 swam by:

I'm not sure why 3 beavers are living together, but far be it from me to ask.  Couldn't you almost hear them singing - Heigh Ho!  Heigh Ho! It's off to work we go!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadian readers.  Did you all enjoy a big turkey dinner? 

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

Just a reminder to put your name in for my giveaway to win two Anthropologie mugs.  See details here.

No commentsRead more