Thanksgiving 2014

I had planned to post photos of the Cranberry Festival that we attended yesterday, but we ended up getting caught in a downpour to end all downpours. Fortunately this happened after we'd had our pancake breakfast and we had a giant golf umbrella. I felt bad for all the vendors who were frantically trying to keep their stalls dry as buckets of water poured down from the tops of their tents. It was unreal. Anyway, in lieu of new photos, I give you an old favourite.

I wish my fellow Canadians a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

We are having our feast today and our house will be fully of family, friends & dogs. We jokingly refer to this day as the Festival of PIE-we tend to have several pie choices, come dessert time!

As is my tradition, I am posting this harvest prayer. I am not religious, but I do love the sentiment.

Harvest Prayer 

(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon) 

 Please be gentle with yourself and others. 

We are all children of chance, 

And none can say why some fields blossom 

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun. 

Take hope that your season will come. 

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand. 

Care for those around you. 

Look past your differences. 

Their dreams are no less than yours, 

Their choices in life no more easily made. 

And give-

 Give in any way you can. 

Give in every way you can. 

Give whatever you possess. 

Give from your heart. 

To give is to love. 

To withhold is to wither. 

Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared, 

And your life will have meaning 

And your heart will have peace

A Thanksgiving Weekend Tradition

Fort Langley Cranberry Festival 2012

Yesterday was the Fort Langley Cranberry Festival. Our whole family drove out to enjoy a lovely pancake brekki al fresco, put on by the local Lion's club. (The proceeds of which went directly to the Xmas bureau and the food bank, so it was a win-win.) They always have this delicious cranberry sausage that Freybe's (a local BC meat company) makes once a year, especially for the festival. My husband bought some for us to take home. We'll have them for breakfast tomorrow. MMM!

As always, there were tons of booths set up, selling everything from local produce, cheeses, honey, crafts and flowers to rubber stamps, clothing and pottery. If you can imagine it, it was probably there. There were also numerous food vendors set up, offering things like chocolate, mini-donuts, pulled pork on a bun, candy, bannock, perogies and so on. You could eat your way from one end of the village to the other, if you wanted to.

We were having a really great day until I dropped my nephew off at work after the festival and my car lost all it's antifreeze, overheated and stranded me on the far side of town, with Indy. We ended up having to have it towed home. It was hugely stressful. It's now sitting on the drive until one of us can muster up the wherewithal to deal with it. Tomorrow's a holiday, so who knows what if anything can be done.

Anyway, today we're having our turkey dinner with friends and family, so I am in the process of prepping everything. The pumpkin pie just came out of the oven, so the house smells yummy. Birdzilla is going in the oven around noon. It's beautifully sunny here again today. We're having Indian summer so the weather has been gorgeous.

Okay! Back to the kitchen!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving is especially poignant for our family this year, as we face some unexpected and devastating news. We are deeply grateful for our friends near and far who have circled the wagons for us during this difficult time. Your love keeps us strong.

In what has become a Thanksgiving tradition here on my blog, I am sharing this beautiful ancient piece of writing. I am not a religious person but this speaks to my values and my vision for how to live my life.  Some anonymous soul in the 1600's recorded these thoughts for posterity so that someday we could read them on this, the most special of days.

Harvest Prayer

(17th Century Anonymous Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others. 

We are all children of chance 

And none can say why some fields blossom 

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun. 

Take hope that your season will come. 

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand. 

Care for those around you. 

Look past your differences. 

Their dreams are no less than yours, 

Their choices in life no more easily made. 

And give. 

Give in any way you can. 

Give in every way you can. 

Give whatever you possess. 

Give from your heart. 

To give is to love,

To withhold is to wither. 

Care less for the size of your harvest

 than for how it is shared, 

And your life will have meaning 

And your heart will have peace.

***

Happy Thanksgiving Canadian Friends!

Farewell September!

October is here! My most favourite month of the whole year! I celebrated the last day of September by donning jeans, a sweater and my hiking boots and heading for the woods.

Truly. I always feel myself relax when I am hiking. It soothes the soul.

Indy was happy because he got to play in the ocean. He's got his water Kong in his mouth in this photo. You can't really tell, but the rope is badly frayed. It's almost time to retire it for a new one. He goes through two a year, which if you saw how hard he plays with them, you'd know they stand up to alot of abuse. Sometimes he has two or three dogs playing tug with it. The rope is really meant so that the humans can wind up and lob it waaaay out into the water. It's really not meant as a tug toy. Someone forgot to mention this to Indy.

I came across these really cool sculptures. This one is an Eagle. There are eagles in the area, but we didn't see any yesterday.

We did see a Blue Heron, though. (A real one.) There was one sitting out on a piling near the dog beach. It always amazes me how such large birds are so graceful in flight. There's a place near Stanley Park where they nest in large colonies. The nests are pretty impressive. I've tried photographing them there, but alas, I need a zoom lense to do it properly. They are too high up to get good photos with the lense I have.

On our way back to our car, we crossed a set of train tracks. They are very active ones and I just happened to look down and notice that there were a bunch of small metal disks scattered around one of the tracks. I knew instantly what they were and bent down to pick them all up. Someone had left coins on the tracks to be flattened. There were 5 and they came home with me. I can't believe no one else noticed them!

It was good getting out with my camera yesterday. I am looking forward to my most favourite holiday, Thanksgiving which is coming up this weekend. It always seems to sneak up on us! But first, I have to get through a busy week. I have a City Council Advisory meeting tomorrow night and then an orientation for the UBC Health Mentor's Program on Wednesday night. I am excited to meet my students! I'll share more about that, soon. It's an amazing opportunity!

Cranberryfest 2011

Hello again! Well, another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. It was pretty busy! Saturday, my husband, Indy and I went to Fort Langley's annual Cranberryfest. This is my 5th year and I think that judging from the crush of people present, folks have finally caught on that the best little Autumn festival is happening there. Seriously, I have never seen so many people in attendance! I think it helped that the weather was perfect too.

We had a wonderful brekki-pancakes, cranberry sausage, breakfast sausage, juice and coffee for $5-can't beat that! The sausages, which were made by Freybe were so yummy! One of the cooks even gave us a spare sausage (for free!) for Indy. Indy was super happy about that!

After brekki, we toured around town looking at all the vendor's booths. Everyone comes from far and wide to get fresh cranberries for their holiday dinners. Langley is one of the largest exporters of cranberries in the world. A couple years ago, I actually took a tour of the bogs. It's incredible to see acres and acres of land turned scarlet with berries. These guys were scooping and filling bags for sale just as fast as they could. The lines were 10 people deep!

These are the sweet ladies who have a booth in front of the little white church every year. They have buckets galore filled with dahlias. You can pick 6 stems for $5. There are florists who have vendor's booths at the festival, but I always hike up the street to the church to buy my Thanksgiving bouquet. I'd much rather give my money to these to gals. They are just so lovely and their flowers are gorgeous. I love dahlias and they looked very cheery on our dinner table.

All around town are these huge pumpkins. I couldn't resist snapping pics to play with when I got home. I love how this one turned out. The pumpkins are really big and they bring them in on skiffs because they are so heavy. They have to move them with a forklift.

I also came across these gorgeous mushrooms, which were waiting for me like a gift, just as I stepped out of the car. They are 100% real, I promise you! This is the season when you see them and these ones were huge! You can't tell their scale from this photo, but they stood 7 inches high and the caps were as big as my palm.The only other time I've seen them this large was hiking the wilds of BC last autumn on Vancouver Island. I love photographing them.

In case you missed it the other day, Manual Dexterity #3 is now available. It's chock full of Autumn and Hallowe'en art, inspiration & goodies! There is also the second mini house zine in the Rue du Maison series, which I had so much fun making.You can find these two zines (and more!) here.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Copyright Lelainia Lloyd/Tattered Edge 2011

This weekend is one of my most favourite of the whole year:

it's Thanksgiving!

It's going to be a busy weekend, as we observe our family's holiday traditions and I work to print and assemble the 3rd issue of Manual Dexterity. It's going to be a bit of a whirlwind!

Amidst all the holiday goodness, I am also acutely aware of all the things I have to be grateful for in my life:

-The love of a good man

-The love of a good dog. *grins*

-Our son who makes me laugh

-Work that feeds my soul

-The opportunity to learn new things

-Friends far and wide who make my life better simply by being in it

-Opportunities to make a difference on other people's lives

-Laughter

and so much more.

It's become a tradition here on my blog for me to post this harvest prayer. It's a personal favourite of mine because it pretty much sums up my life's philosophy and its message is timeless.

Harvest Prayer

(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others.

We are all children of chance,

And none can say why some fields blossom

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.

Take hope that your season will come.

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.

Care for those around you.

Look past your differences.

Their dreams are no less than yours,

Their choices in life no more easily made.

And give.

Give in any way you can.

Give in every way you can.

Give whatever you possess.

Give from your heart.

To give is to love.

To withhold is to wither.

Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared,

And your life will have meaning

And your heart will have peace.

 

***

 

To my fellow Canadians, whether at home or abroad, I wish you a beautiful harvest celebration with your family and friends and a safe journey if you are travelling this weekend.

It's Turkey Day!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

to my fellow Canadians, wherever you are!!

I hope you are having a relaxing weekend. Indy and I went to Cranberryfest out in Fort Langley yesterday and had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and I met some lovely people. It reminded me how much I enjoy being in a crowd of strangers and meeting people. I know that might sound kind of odd, but it's something those of us raised in Winnipeg (the heart of the Canadian prairies) understand. Winnipeggers can walk into a crowd of people they don't know and make instant friends. It's just what we do. Ask any of my friends -they'll tell you that's one of my secret powers. *wink*

The only thing that would have made the day more perfect would have been if my guys could have joined me, but they had to work. It was a 52 hour work week for them. (Yikes!) They're off for the next two days though, so today is turkey day and then tomorrow will be leftovers. I always think turkey tastes better the second day, don't you? I made the pies earlier in the week, so there's less to deal with in the kitchen today. I made both pumpkin and apple because my husband doesn't like pumpkin. (What kind of a person doesn't like pumpkin?!?!)

We got up early this morning and took Indy to the park for some off leash time and then headed over to our local Farmer's market. I love shopping there. We really have a fabulous market. I picked up some farm fresh parsnips and some beautiful rolls from the bakery truck to go with dinner. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be putting my food dollars into the pockets of local Canadian farmers, rather than the big chain grocery stores. I try to shop local as much as humanly possible. Not only does it help keep those farms (and farm families!) in business, but it also ensures that our family is eating the very best of fresh, healthy food. It's win-win.

Anyway, it's almost time to get busy in the kitchen, so I will leave you with this beautiful piece of writing, which has become my favourite of the season.

Harvest Prayer

(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others.
We are all children of chance,
And none can say why some fields blossom
While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.
Take hope that your season will come.
Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.
Care for those around you.
Look past your differences.
Their dreams are no less than yours,
Their choices in life no more easily made.
And give.
Give in any way you can.
Give in every way you can.
Give whatever you possess.
Give from your heart.
To give is to love.
To withhold is to wither.
Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared,
And your life will have meaning
And your heart will have peace.

Thanksgiving 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my fellow Canadians!

Yesterday we went to Fort Langley to the annual Cranberry Festival. It meant a very early wake up call to make it out there for 8:30 a.m. for the pancake brekki, but it was well worth it.

For $5 we got a large cranberry sausage, two regular sausages, 2 large pancakes, juice and coffee. We also get to dine al fresco, which was bracing, as there was a wind coming in off the river, but the sun was shining and the food was delicious so no one was complaining. We took Indy with us, which was fun-lots of folks stopped to pet him and comment on how beautiful he is. (We think so too!)

We did some shopping. There was this woman who had buckets filled with dahlia stems-every colour and petal configuration you could imagine and the flowers were huge. They were $1 a stem so I bought $5 worth and my son bought some for his girlfriend as well.




Aren't they gorgeous?!




We also bought some delicious apples, fresh from a farm to make apple pie.

When we got home, we made 2 impossible pumpkin pies (one for my son to take to his girlfriend's house to share last night)

and an apple pie.

I also made 2 roasters of cabbage rolls with cabbage from our garden. MMM!

It was really nice being out in the fresh air and seeing the leaves changing colour and blowing on the wind. There was a spot where we walked that cracked me up. In front of the cemetery, there is a block long stretch that has huge trees along the boulevard. When the wind blew, horse chestnuts would come pelting down from above. Some of them were bigger than a golf ball! We managed to avoid them, but I warned people coming up the street to be aware that they might get bonked in the head as they made their way along. It was pretty comical.

On an artistic note, I came across this book "Good Mail Day" and had a quick flip through in the store. It was chock full of eye candy, so I bought it. It's got me excited about making (and sending!) some mail art again.

I also wanted to share with you that I got an email from Jeanette telling me that my bra for the breast cancer fundraiser went for $60! The fundraiser was a rousing success. The final tally of all the money raised has yet to come in, but there were 50 bras and they all sold. YAY! I can't wait to share this with the person who inspired the bra I created. I know it will make her very happy.

You can read more about the auction and see some great photos of the event here.

Tomorrow I will kick off a week of special blog posts. You'll have to check back and see what that's all about!

Okay, I am off to stuff the turkey and get it into the oven!

Have a great day everyone!

For You!

As a friend suggested, this is perfect for listening to while doing the post Thanksgiving dinner dishes. I hope you enjoy this little mix. If you like what you hear, you can follow me on Mixwit and receive notifications when I create a new mix. Free fun!

Thanksgiving

Copyright Tattered Edge 2008

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in Canada. (Thus one more pic from the cranberry bogs!) It's one of my favourite holidays, along with Hallowe'en. As I have said often, Autumn is my favourite time of year. There's just something so uplifting about the natural beauty here at this time of year in addition to the weather and the celebrations that take place in October.

Next weekend we will celebrate my husband's birthday and the week after that, our 18th wedding anniversary. We purposely chose to get married in my favourite month so we could have yet another reason to celebrate and feel happy in October.

October ends now with just a tinge of sadness, as Hallowe'en was also my Gramps' birthday and now that he's gone, I can't help but miss him especially on that day. *breathe*

Anyway, I have alot to be thankful for this year. I am reposting the Harvest Prayer from last Thanksgiving, simply because it's an eloquent reminder of how we can create a beautiful life for ourselves. On our best days, this is who we are.

Harvest Prayer
(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others.

We are all children of chance,

And none can say why some fields blossom

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.

Take hope that your season will come.

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.

Care for those around you.

Look past your differences.

Their dreams are no less than yours,

Their choices in life no more easily made.

And give.

Give in any way you can.

Give in every way you can.

Give whatever you possess.

Give from your heart.

To give is to love.

To withhold is to wither.

Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared,

And your life will have meaning

And your heart will have peace.

Happy Thanksgiving!

All Hail The Mighty Cranberry!

All photos Copyright Tattered Edge 2008

So this morning, my son and I drove out to Ft. Langley, BC to the annual Cranberry Festival. We've been a couple times before as a family and had planned to all go today, however my husband tweaked his knee yesterday and we spent 4 hours in the ER last night, so no festival for him. We left him at home with Indy for company.

The morning always starts off with the pancake breakfast. I had to take a pic of this guy stirring pancake batter using an attachment on a power drill. It's all very Red Green, but it gets the job done! No sissy whisk for him!

Doesn't this look yummy? The large sausage is cranberry sausage and it's delicious. The smaller ones are regular breakfast sausages. That power drill made some pretty fluffy pancake batter. They were the best pancakes I've ever had.

My son spotted a stand that said "Ukrainian Kitchen" and went to investigate. He came back to tell me he was having perogies for breakfast. He may not have been born and raised in Winnipeg like I was, but he knows perogies make a good brekki. He'll eat them just about any time of the day really. They are his favourite.

After brekki and wandering around all the various booths where everything under the sun was for sale-food, crafts, jewellery, produce, honey, you name it, we hopped on the free shuttle trolley bus and took a ride out to The Fort Wine Co. to tour the cranberry bogs. I have always wanted to do this and decided this was a must do this time.

In the past we've missed going to the farm because we were racing in Voyageur canoes on the river. (Another popular festival activity.) The year we did it, there was a small boy sitting in front of me. He was far too young to be a paddler. He insisted in resting his paddle on the gunwale and so every stroke he took, he alternated between wacking me across the knuckles or paddling the river into my lap. It was overcast and windy that year and so I had bruised hands and was freezing cold and soaked by the end of the race. Our canoe won, but I swore off Voyageur racing with strangers after that.

This building houses the wine store of the operation. There was wine tasting, but I didn't stop to try any. It looked like people were enjoying the wines though-lots of folks were buying bottles, probably for their holiday dinners on Monday.

So this is what a cranberry bog looks like at harvest time, which is usually late September/early October. Some people think the fields are flooded like this all the time, but in reality, it's only like this during the harvest.

The cranberry bushes grow low to the ground and they have evergreen- like leaves. Once the berries are their signature crimson colour, the fields are flooded with six to eight inches of water above the vines. A harvester is driven through the beds to remove the fruit from the vines. The harvester kind of looks like a small columbine with rotating combs.

Harvested cranberries float in the water.

Then they can be corralled into a corner of the bed (or in this case the rubber circles) and conveyed or pumped from the bed.

This is one of my favourite pics of the berries-aren't they just beautiful?

After touring the cranberry bogs, we hopped back on the trolley bus and went back into Ft. Langley. (It was only a 10 minute drive. Hooray for the free shuttle bus though!)

And here are those cranberries, ready for sale! Fresh from the field and $3/lb. I bought a pound and my friend Lance is going to make his amazing cranberry sauce for our dinner on Monday.




As you can see, they had tons for sale. Over 10,000 lbs! The berries grown in BC are the ones used in many, many Ocean Spray products. I always love to see where food comes from and how it gets from the farm to the table. Most people just don't seem to care anymore, but I think it's important to know (and see) these things. We are so far removed from the food we put in our mouths!

This truck was parked near where we had breakfast.

Check these babies out!

Are these not amazing? I would be curious to know just how much they weighed.

So that was the lion's share of my day-fresh air, good company, good food and new experiences. The autumn is just so beautiful here on the coast. Tomorrow we will be baking pies for Monday's Thanksgiving dinner. This is my favourite time of year.