We are used to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We still have a traditional meal. We don't have a turkey as it's about 5 times too much for us. We've found that turkey breasts are marketed and are about the right size. So I'll show you my plate and you can see what we had for the Thanksgiving feast.
Now I know I wouldn't get much for presentation on this plate, but it was really tasty! I didn't go back for seconds because at this age I don't have that kind of appetite anymore.
I know that many people do not have a special dinner and if they do have a dinner it's far from the traditional. If it's still nice, many people will barbecue. I've had alternate dinners and although they are good, I prefer the traditional foods.
How about you? Do you skip the traditional dinner? Do you have your dinner at a restaurant? Do you have an alternative kind of dinner or do you have the standard dinner?
I hope all Canadians have had a very good Thanksgiving weekend.
I wish to say Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadian followers, but I also want to say more than that.
So , not wanting to show my tremendous ignorance about Thanksgiving, I decided to do some research. Wow! Did I learn a few things.
Thanksgiving has a very long history. It's gone through many changes, but the basic sentiments are still there.
Our Thanksgiving originates from European harvest festivals. Since most of the population at that time were farmers, they were very thankful for a good crop and once it was harvested they celebrated. I would guess that the harvest festival goes much further than Europeans.
The first North American Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Arctic explorer, Martin Frobisher somewhere around Baffin Island.
Canadians drew upon their European roots for Thanksgiving celebrations. Dates of celebration were different in each region. The dates also change. In 1957 the Canadian government set Thanksgiving to be noted on the second Monday of October. Since that time Thanksgiving has become commercialized and has very little to do with being thankful for a good crop. We are making an effort to stop and note what we are thankful for. Churches do celebrate Thanksgiving.
Why the difference in dates between Canadian and American dates? Probably our harvest is complete before the American harvest. Our weather deteriorates earlier so we set the date earlier so that we have better weather for activities.
Today we had a high of 20 C (69 F) so it's very pleasant. So yes, I'm thankful for very pleasant weather. Many times it can be very unpleasant with cold and snow.
I am thankful for many things on a personal level. However, I would like to be thankful for many changes around the world but that doesn't seem to be happening. We have a major refugee problem which only seems to be getting worse.
So folks, have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, somebody asked if I saw any birds at the Michael Obrien Wetland. Some readers realized that this was a birding trip. So here's the report.
Now we did the walk from 2:00PM to 4:00 Pm. Now that's not a very good time of day to find birds. Birds are quite inactive in the afternoon. But that's the time people wanted to go so off we went.
I'm getting you prepared for this one!
Now I got photos of ducks ...shovellers and blue winged teal. The were only three ducks in the whole wetlands. Ducks have not begun their flocking and preparation for migration. I didn't get any other bird photos.
After that I saw, crows, magpies, blue jays, eastern king bird, black capped chickadees and a marsh wren. The marsh wren is a lifer for me. I'd never seen a marsh wren before. The marsh wren gave us a challenge as it kept under cover of riparian vegetation. The eastern king bird gave us two looks of about 7 seconds total. So there were challenges but that's what we go out for.
On Sunday I not only got some brilliant colors but some reflections. Some of the reflections are a little fuzzy.
As I was leaving a little breeze tarted and put a ripple on the water.
Yesterday I took some people to a local wetlands for two hours of birding. I was surprised to still find brilliant fall colors. Usually our leaves do not hang on for long. This fall the leaves turned color and have stayed on the tree. This morning was our first hard frost... minus 5 C ( 24 F). The leaves were rapidly falling this morning. It's a good thing I was out yesterday afternoon.
The Michael Obrien Wetland is a man made wetland. Riparian plants have been planted on the edges of the series of ponds. Other trees have been planted on the area so it makes a first class park area right in town. The objective of this wetland is to treat some of the street run off so that the water is in better condition when it is returned to the river.
This morning I watched hundreds of robins whirling through my district. It was plus 2 C (36 F) and very windy. They were not flying south but spending time eating berries left on trees.
Last Sunday afternoon when I was at Heritage Ranch there were again hundreds of robins in the area. They were flying with abandon and eating saskatoons, chokecherries and whatever else they could find. It was at this time that we found the pileated woodpeckers. I also took photos of robins at that time but they were so poor I deleted them.
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| Pileated woodpecker |
I have noticed some time ago that some people are reporting that their robins had flown south. That got me thinking. Robins nest into the Arctic. It will take them a long time to get to me in Central Alberta. In the high country, mountain meadows above the treeline, the robin is a common nester. The Arctic and mountain robins nest nest on the ground.
I'm wondering if the mountain robins come down from the mountains and visit me for a few weeks? I wonder how many of these birds are Arctic robins?
These birds have frosty breasts with just a hint of color showing through. The black is also much duller.
I've also said many times that I've seen robins in every month of the year in Central Alberta.
So there must be tough robins and wimpy robins. There seems to be a wide pattern in their fall migration. I don't notice this in the spring.
No matter what , I'm enjoying these joyful robins who are passing through in this October.
I recently did a post on blogging that got away on me. I was interested in two bloggers who were making some serious attempts to change their blogs. Sometimes we need to change to rejuvenate and get out of a rut.
I have some things that I would like to change on my blog and named them and why I would change them. I also went out on the limb to ask people what they liked and what suggestions they would make about my blog. There were no great surprises and it's always nice to reaffirm what is going on. There were many suggestions. I now know how to live dangerously when I want to change my blog. I have to set up another blog and use it for experimenting.
Now when you ask for opinions you risk hearing some things you might not want to hear and some things that are just plane wrong. All of your comments were great.
I then reflected on being able to ask for judgements.
As a teacher , I went through many evaluations. In the 50's and 60's we had one visit a year from the superintendent. It was a terrifying visit. We didn't know what he was looking for and I don't think he did either. I had one superintendent who was most helpful.
As time went on teacher evaluation changes. Specific skills were looked for. We were trained to use these skills and when an evaluator came to your classroom you knew exactly what he was looking for.
Evaluation expanded. Principals and vice principals visited the classroom so we had 4 or more visits per year. Not all of these visits were formal.
I was a department head and I also did classroom visits.
I also had many student teachers and had to evaluate them. This evaluation was a pain because of the way the evaluation form was set up. Having student teachers was always a good experience.
So it wasn't hard for me to ask for opinions and I'm glad I asked as I learned some things and certainly had things reaffirmed.
