Thanksgiving weekend

When we got our passports, our friends Geri and Fred, who live in the greater Toronto area (GTA), immediately asked, "When are you coming to visit?" A comparison of our schedules showed that autumn was going to be the first good opportunity and they were gracious enough to invite us for Canadian Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in Canada occurs on the second Monday in October, the same day that Columbus Day is observed in the U.S. (Columbus Day being that day when we celebrate Columbus "discovering" a land in which people already lived - go figure). Aidan gets two days off from school so it was a perfect time to go. We kept him out of school on Friday so we could start our trip in the morning and arrive at Geri and Fred's house before the holiday traffic became too crazy.

We had a fun weekend visiting with Geri, Fred and Ollie, who just might be the nicest cat in the world:

Unlike our darling cat (imagine the sarcasm I am intending as I type those words), Ollie is very quiet and content.

On Saturday morning, Geri took me to one of her local yarn stores, Soper Creek Yarn in Bowmansville. It is a lovely little store with a very nice and helpful owner. I showed tremendous restraint and bought only a pattern, and a skein of souvenir yarn from which I will knit some fingerless mitts:

 

While Geri prepared Thanksgiving dinner, James, Aidan and I went into Toronto on Sunday to the Ontario Science Centre. There are no photos to show what a good time we had at the centre; the camera was in the pocket of the jacket that I did not wear that day. Of course.

When we returned to the house, the intoxicating aroma of roasted turkey greeted us and soon we sat down to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner:

We took advantage of gorgeous weather on Monday and headed to Pingle's Farm Market in nearby Hampton. There were pumpkins and apples to admire plus lots of fun activities, including a photo opportunity for Geri and Aidan:

 All five of us chose to wander through the corn maze, but Aidan and James entered first:

They say that they ran through the maze the first time, then entered again to find Geri, Fred and me moseying along at a slower pace. There were corn stalks as far as the eye could see:

Despite the corn stalks and my lousy, make that nonexistent, sense of directions, I think I could have found my way out of the maze. Eventually.

We drove back to the United States on Tuesday and are now looking forward to our own Thanksgiving. Two Thanksgivings in one year -excellent!

Wrapping up

It is the first day of October and I am loving the fall weather: cool but not cold, and a nice balance of sunshine and rain. Halloween decorations have started popping up around the village and pumpkins are for sale just about everywhere, it seems.

I made just two goals for September and I achieved both of them. I got back into the routine of walking in the morning and while I vowed to walk three times a week, I ended up exceeding my goal and walked over half of the days in September. With the cooler weather, I find it much easier to pop in the ear buds and walk for 30-45 minutes at a fast clip.

The other goal was to sort through my clothes, put away the summer items and get out the winter items. I may adore our old house but I do not adore the small closets in our old house; there is not enough room for all of my clothes to be out at one time, so I have keep off season clothes and shoes stored in the attic. I did not pack away all the warm weather clothes, just most of them, and at least now I am prepared for cooler weather.

Speaking of cooler weather and cool weather clothes, I finished a new scarflet:

I wanted a casual yet pretty scarflet to wear with my barn jacket and fell in love with this colorway, which is called Vanilla Bean. I really like the purple and brown together, and it goes nicely with my jacket:

The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK and feels amazingly soft and luscious. I do not like to wear long scarves, both because I find myself fiddling with all that length and because I usually get too warm if it is wrapped multiple times around my neck. A scarflet is perfect for me with one wrap around the neck and a keyhole to keep it in place.

I am still trying to get my knitting mojo back, so in October I will try to find some incredible yarn and pattern combo that has me feverishly knitting...except when I am fulfilling my goal to continue walking at least three times per week!