I love 'autumn'. It has both side of the weather. Sometimes the sun shines gorgeously, splashing golden color everywhere, a time to take up opportunities, a time for dicision. Sometimes it drizzles, everything get shrouded in the mist and fog, like we come to the uncertain part of our lives, a mystery. A waiting time and a time to recompose.

I stopped by a nursery next door to the field trip place. I knew better it was not a time to plant things, as much as they tell you it is a good time to do that. I was struck by the sight of these color patterned gigantic potted mums outside the store.They measureed a meter across the top. I looked for the price. I saw a $5 sign standing beside it. I thought that must be a mistake. So I brushed off the idea and went into the store to look around. When I came out, I heard someone saying those potted mums were really $5 a piece and she was hauling 4 or 5 of them into her truck. I dashed back into the store to double check with the clerk. Indeed, it was. I couldn't see how wrong it could be to get one. So I chose one, and then another one, to pile them into back of  my little car. I drove away happily---there was no looking back--- I couldn't have seen through them anyway. They graced my deck and yard for Thanksgiving and lasted for more than a month.

I am not a fan of birthday celebration. I think birthday is a time to think of the person who had to suffer nine months of discomfort and many hours of excruciating pain to bring me into the world. So when J said we would go to our usual resturant for my birthday, I heard myself saying, 'no thanks' under my breath. But at the same time, I saw this tiny ad on the newspaper that this place is holding a fundraising turkey dinner a couple of days before my birthday. So I booked couple of seats.

On the night, we left on time and got there exactly at six. The door lady was turning away people. But said four people had not show up yet and would sell those tickets in a while. We arrived at a pricarious time, almost lost our seats. The place was full, we went around trying to find two chairs at the same table. At best there were single ones. So I went to the head lady and told her we can get the money back and go somewhere else. She said, 'no way, we will find places for you.' And she squeezed an extra chair beside an empty one at a table. By then, I thought , J would have lectured me the advantage of arriving early. But he didn't. No sooner after we sat down. They called for tables to line up for food. Our table was the first one. The two of us were the first ones in the line. I thought that was a pleasant    change. I couldn't have arranged it with all my plotting and scheming. I favoured the moment. It was a scrumptious meal. Truely, there was not a square centimeter of space left in me after the last spoonful of  pumpkin pie. Then we heard another announcement. They still had food left and would happily sell them for $5 a box. Of course, we couldn't bypass the reasonable offer. So $30 ended up buying us three meals.

I like the surprise birthday celebrations arranged by my Father above. Thank you very much!

Usually in the past years, if we had a sunny day during the Thanksgiving weekend, we were pretty lucky. But this year, the sunshine is gorgeous and brilliant for the whole weekend. The sun seems almost impatient to break through the day, and streams of blinding light pours into the windows early in the morning.

I saw this ad on the newspaper a few weeks ago about the community tree planting project this weekend. So I rallied the ESL classes to go for it. As a reward for their effort, I cooked two turkeys the day before and planned to serve them lunch afterwards.

The room was full of bodies when I arrived. I tried to sort out who were the ones going to the tree planting.
Secretely, I was hoping just the younger families. But no, all the older ladies wanted to come too. Even with my van and two cars, I still had to do a second run to bring everyone to the park. I bought some lawn chairs thinking of seating the elderly couple I had invited. Fortunately, I also had a big typolene in the car, so I threw it on the grass for the others to sit on. But no one wanted to sit yet. They all wanted to work.

The ground was so hard after having no rain for nearly three months. It was dry as bones even digging a foot deep. I was having a hard time. The older women told me how many trees they had planted already, some two, some three. One said six, everyone cheered. The children asked me how many I planted. I said I was still digging my first one. They couldn't believe it. So I told them I had been doing the harder job of driving and taking pictures. It suprised me how enthusiatic everybody was.

The supervisor told us after the job was done, that normally, they would take back 50 out of 100 trees to their storage. Since our group came, they were able to achieve the goal of planting them all.

When we got back to the Centre, the hungry crowd had to wait awhile for me to bring out the food. Even though turkey is not their normal diet. Everybody (less one fussy eater) was happy for the meal. And thanks for the inspiration from above, that we had  'No sweat, healthy Turkey Donair'. 

That was a real Thanksgiving  lesson everyone had learned. To be thankful and giving at the same time.