Thanksgiving is the winding up of autumn. The leaves are off the trees, except here and there on a beech or an oak; there is nothing left on the boughs but a few nuts and empty bird’s nests. The earth looks desolate, and it will be a comfort to have the snow on the ground, and to hear the merry jingle of the sleigh-bells.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
(The Seasons)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Beautiful words and image for the day. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Thank you, Frank! 🦃
Blessings! 🧡
Thank you, Eliza!💙
Blessings and hugs from Norway 🙂
Blessings and gratitude from Norway
Blessings and gratitude from Norway – full winter here, and snow – and outside my living-room window, my old Beech still holds on to 98% of her leaves
Thank you, Leelah! 💙 The beeches around here are also holding their leaves. It’s called marcescence in English. Is there a Norwegian word for it? (Google Translate gave me marcescence — is it really the same?) I don’t think I will be seeing any snow here. I hope you enjoy yours. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving, Barbara. I hope you and Time are spending some time with your daughter, son in law, and grandchildren!
Thank you, TD! 💙 We had two Thanksgivings with the kids and other folks at their house. Finn learned to ride his bicycle!
Finn is the Thanksgiving Champion with riding a bike!
Finn for the win! 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving a day late! I like how bare the trees look this time of year and will enjoy the first couple of snowfalls, but after that…
Thank you, Ally! 💙 Tim likes the bare trees, too, every year he comments that now he can see what’s in the woods. With you on the limited snow appreciation!
I love that quote Barbara and it is so true … although the sun was shining brightly yesterday and today, there is a dullness to the trees with their bare branches and yes, snow will perk them up (maybe not me though). 🙂
Somehow I think snow was more comforting back then, when it fell quietly and winter had a stillness to it, with only the occasional jingle of sleigh-bells to break the silence. Now we have to put up with the noise pollution of snow plows and the ugliness of dirty snow banks…
Yes, I agree. I went outside on Sunday morning and it was still like that and we had a substantial snowfall – maybe six inches. No cars on the main street (I’m seven houses from there) or the cross street. No one else was outside but me. Just gorgeous. I hate when the snow gets dirty like that and has salt embedded in it.
I’m so glad you got to have those blessed moments of peace and stillness in the new snowfall. Six inches! Well, I guess I won’t be getting any of that down here. 😉
Yes, it was a still and beautiful morning – I came in and got the camera and took some pictures when it was lighter before the rest of the world woke up and later wrote a blog post about it. Not that type of joy this morning to see we had a light dusting, then freezing rain, then another inch today. Will have to go out and shovel it tomorrow, walking precariously.
I’m glad you got some pictures of that magical first snow! Now for you to deal with the yucky part of winter — you have my sympathy. Down here it was 22° this morning. Brrr….
I’ve been hearing it was colder than average in most of the U.S. – strange weather. We are getting some more freezing rain on Friday and we did not get warm enough today to melt what we had from Sunday … that’s cold for you guys. We had similar temps but windchill/real feel in the teens. Ready for Summer!
It was cold so it put us in just the right mood to go out and get a Christmas tree. Most of the trees were Fraser firs which weren’t as easy to find in Connecticut. I’m NOT ready for another North Carolina summer!
That sweltering heat Barbara and you arrived in the thick of it … perhaps if you had arrived in April and eased into it. 🙂 I heard a story on the news yesterday about a longstanding tree farm in Michigan and the owner was being interviewed because a large herd of deer chewed up on the tree, taking huge hunks out of them. He said he’s never had to fence the area in and this is the area where people go out to cut down or pick their own tree. He said he’s not selling any trees this year, just wreaths and boughs/garlands. So you are all set now – time to decorate. I remember you did a blog about your decorated tree in the past. I hope you do one again. Fred will be eying it from outside.
Fred has been so cute lately. He gets up on the porch railing and leans over to peer inside the bay window when I’m puttering around in the kitchen. When I call out to Tim, “Fred’s here!” he comes over and gets a shelled walnut and some walnut pieces. Then Fred comes to the door and I hear Tim telling him that he has to back up so he can open the door. They’re getting it figured out. But Fred won’t be able to see the tree from that window. I hope I can make a post about our first NC holiday tree — it’s been sitting there undecorated since Tuesday. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed — too many plans and too many new things — but hopefully I’ll get myself sorted out soon.
The squirrels learn so quickly how to cozy up to humans. 🙂 We had “Sammy” the Fox squirrel years ago and three neighbors feeding him: Marge, the guy across the street and our house. Sammy made the rounds every morning. It go so we had to stop feeding him as my mom was using a cane and slow getting up/down the door stoop at the side door and Sammy would come nosing around and trying to stand on the stoop and we worried he would get into the house. It will be fine – take a few days to ease into the Christmas holiday season … you likely had a lot of commotion going on with Thanksgiving. I hope you can make a post about your first NC tree Barbara.
Hmmm… I can picture Fred making his way into the house some day. I hope not, though! When you stopped feeding Sammy did the neighbors keep on feeding him? Thanksgiving was definitely a big deal this year, after several years of very quiet ones. I sat down and made a list of what I have to get done now for the holidays. Today Katherine and I are going to a special show at the university’s planetarium, The Longest Night: A Winter’s Tale. We’re both pretty excited about it! https://live-planetarium.pantheonsite.io/show/the-longest-night-a-winters-tale/
Sammy was impatient and he was the only squirrel getting fed (we did not have as many squirrels back then), so no one was going to eat those treats, but he was pushy and figured every human coming in/out of the house was there to feed him. When I had Grady the gray squirrel a few years ago, he waited on the front porch or came to greet me but was more timid and never tried to get into the house. Fred is not pushy like Sammy was. We stopped feeding him due to my mom – Marge and Jerry did not stop. Jerry was a retired boilermaker and he was used to getting up early. He retired in the Summer and would sit on the front porch with his newspaper and coffee and cookies. Sammy saw him eating and begged, so he took out extra cookies for Sammy. If it rained and Jerry couldn’t sit outside, Jerry’s front window had a long ledge on it and Sammy would pace back and forth and stand up and peer into the window until Jerry brought him some cookies. Marge fed him everything under the sun. She had a wooden back deck. Once she made Christmas cookies – sugar cookies and was on the phone and burned them so laid them all along the deck railing.. She watched him eat all of them.
That looks like a lot of fun – how interesting how they created the planetarium with a green screen and the puppets. I know you enjoyed yourself. This is what you had in mind with your move to NC – living the dream now, even if it leaves you a bit frazzled from the unexpected activity. I would feel the same way since I am used to it just being me.
Belated Thanksgiving wishes to you, Barbara. <3
Thank you, Joanne! 💙
Hope your day was filled with love, blessings, and awesome food, Barbara! Happy belated Thanksgiving!
It was, Donna! We all took a nice long walk and Finn learned to ride his bike that day, too! 🙂
Snow does beautify the barren landscape, even if I don’t particularly like the cold or the shoveling! Happy Thanksgiving, Barbara — hope you were able to get together with family/friends and enjoy the festivities.
I know what you mean, Debbie. Wish we could all stay snuggled inside, watching the snow fall and only having to go outside to have fun building a snowman. We did have two lovely family gatherings — I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful, too.