Happy Thanksgiving!
AND THE BEAT GOES ON
It’s been a very busy but gratifying couple of months with lots of appearances, presentations and classes. It has been fun to catch up with so many of you. I’m done until December, as of last Saturday, after a great class at PARC in Plymouth. I was able to get my house in order today, as it has been in chaos for weeks. Yahoo! Such an uplifting feeling and relief.
The last-of-the-season garden work is done. Bushes and small ornamental trees have been wrapped in netting to keep them protected from becoming deer food. My lawn is covered in a blanket of leaves that are not scheduled to be cleaned up, for the third time this fall, until next mid-week. Maddie and Sophie will be sad to see them go as they have a blast running through piles way higher than they are tall. I love to watch them get their ya-ya’s out and then come in and crash for the next few hours. I’m so lucky to have my buds; they always meet me, tails wagging, when I get home. It doesn’t matter if I’ve been gone 30 minutes or 5 hours, I get the same joyful greeting. Sophia will hunker down in a full run to catch a deer until she realizes her energy expenditure is for naught. Maddie could care less and we watch, she in my arms, as Sophie bounds through the woods. Galant is so cool and doing well too. He has been with me 8 months now, so we’re pretty used to each other and are getting great rides in. He has transitioned to a warmer blanket and will be partially body shaved soon. The cold naturally induces a horse’s coat growth and if not clipped they are sweaty and wet after a vigorous ride, which takes hours to dry in the colder weather.
In addition to the deer around my woods (a small buck just passed my window), wild turkeys are prolific thanks to conservation programs instilled over the last decade. They are the most difficult of birds to hunt so their numbers keep growing. Only one in six hunters will fell a wild turkey. The average life span is three to four years unlike their domestic cousins who live, birth to freezer, 26 weeks. Domestic birds eat 75 lb. of feed in their life, wild birds feed on seeds, nuts, insects and berries. And they can fly. I can attest to that as I’ll see them perched in trees time to time.
It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The reminiscences of past holidays are dear. Grandmother made the pies until my sister Liz took over the duties. What pies they were. Pecan, sweet potato and pumpkin. All still warm from the oven and topped with real whipped cream. Mom was up at the crack of dawn preparing the bird for roasting. Dad made the dressing which included everything but the kitchen sink. Then too, all the little appetizers: bar cheese stuffed celery, big black olives (a must have for sister Kitty), Aunt Betty’s pickled beets and deviled eggs. I was in charge of the mashed potatoes, roasted acorn squash and a green salad. We ate well for days afterwards too, finishing up the leftovers. My favorite go-to was a turkey, cold dressing, cranberry sauce and mayo sandwich. A Thanksgiving slider. So good! This year Liz is hosting, and it will be fun to have family members from all sides with us. Mom, at 96, is the reigning matriarch. I have an easy bring-along: the fresh, no-cook cranberry relish that’s been tradition for years. Try it, you’ll like it!
The first observance of Thanksgiving in the United States took place on December 4, 1619, in Virginia. Thirty-eight English settlers had just arrived in the New Land, and their charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a day of thanksgiving to God. It was two years later, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that Thanksgiving took on the theme of a harvest festival. A harsh winter killed half of the members of the colony the year before, but a good corn harvest the following fall encouraged the people to give thanks to God for the progress the colony was finally making.
So, in the spirit of the holiday, I give thanks. Thankful that I am not homeless or hungry and that I have the ability to help those who are. And appreciative of all the wonderful opportunities that I have been given over the years. And, of course, my gratitude for my family, dear friends, pups and pony is monumental. I count my blessings every day and all the ones to come.
WE WISH YOU MANY MILLION DOLLAR DAYS!!!
XXOO,
Mary, Maddie, Sophie, and Galant