Sunday, September 28, 2014

Pumpkins!

Pumpkins at Sieffert's Farm Market, Comox

Fall is such a magical time of year.  The days grow shorter, the grass slows growing, and the shadows increase in size.  The leaves are starting to turn, and this week we experienced some of the first rain showers of the season, badly needed after an extremely dry summer.

We have Canadian Thanksgiving much earlier than the USA, this year falling on October 13th.  The above pumpkins are all ready to go for it.  I have been on the lookout for a cheap turkey deal, and later this week I will be picking up my 95 cent per pound young utility turkey which tastes great, sometimes they are missing a bit of skin or a wingtip.  My family could care less what the turkey looks like coming out of the stove, we don't carve it at the table, what only matters is that it tastes good.  My eldest stepson is flying in for Thanksgiving weekend this year, a first for us as usually we have a very quiet crowd of 3  which includes me, hubby and Mom at dinner with tons of turkey leftover.  He works out and is a healthy young man so I expect we will not have a lot of leftovers this time round.

This week a friend gave me a bunch of squash including zucchini, and a large bowl of tomatoes as she was overwhelmed by garden produce.  I had too much for us so passed on a couple of the squash to Mom along with some cilantro from my yard.   I had a bumper crop of cilantro this Fall, finally figuring out how to make sure I have some all summer long.  Cilantro doesn't like pots, does much better in the ground, and must be planted in waves so that when it starts to go to seed you have another round ready to go.  I happen to be a cilantro lover so it is a staple in our house, being thrown into every pot of rice and most soups, salads, and salsas.

I work my last week of the part-time job this coming week ending on Friday.  I will miss many of the people I work with and hope to maintain friendships after it is over but will love the fact that I will actually have some time to breathe again.  September is one of the busiest months of the whole year for our company and this week was no exception.  Yesterday I worked in my jammies until 3pm then finally took a shower and made a big pot of chicken salsa soup (yes, there was cilantro in it :))  In case anyone wonders, our company does sales training and consulting and I am in charge of administration which includes making powerpoint presentations that hubby delivers.  We try and be creative so that it is never boring and that takes a lot of effort and time.  Thank goodness I did so much cleaning earlier in the month as none has taken place this week at all.  We also do all our own printing with personalized binders with our logo on them.  We have figured out a way to make our very tiny company of 2 look stunningly professional, and as a result, business is booming.

Thanks to all the Anniversary well-wishers, we did make it out to dinner and it was very nice.  Next year for our 10th Wedding Anniversary I hope to plan something more, but it will depend on our business around that time as expect September to be extremely busy every year.

Plans are afoot for December, we already have our flights to and from Edmonton booked but from there we are spending one week somewhere hot and tropical, likely Mexico.  This week with my second to last part-time work paycheck I banked the last of the Christmas gift money and topped up the travel account.  There should be enough in there for whatever we decide to do but as I am waiting for a sell-off that likely will be booked within 6 weeks of travel for best rates, the money will sit in the bank account for now.  I will keep tucking money away all fall, and if there is too much, the remainder will go towards future travel adventures.  You can never have too much money in the travel fund lol.

13 comments:

  1. Congrats on your wedding anniversary. You sound like you had a wonderful time.
    Lots of exciting plans coming for you. I hope this week goes ok for you.
    My mum has been sharing her produce with us. Her runner beans are delicous.

    Sft x

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  2. I love your winter plans for Mexico, We had a wonderful time in Cozumel in early February.

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    1. I love Mexico, one of my very favorite countries in the whole world. The people, the food, the beaches, the culture. They say crime is bad but crime is just as bad in the USA and Canada, just different. You take the good with the bad anywhere. I have been 18 times to Mexico and never had an issue.

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  3. I must plan Thanksgiving dinner..it seems to suddenly arrive before I'm ready for it!
    Jane x

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    1. Just 2 weeks away! I am going to pumpkinize the house as well for Halloween since hubby will be back from another business trip and my stepson will be here as well. I have just remembered - I forgot to buy cranberry sauce! Must put it on the list lol.

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  4. You are exactly the way I am with regards to the utility turkeys, we would buy them for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter all the time. We love the leftovers from them as well, I can always make lots of additional meals from it.

    I look forward to hearing where you will go for your "tropical" travel in December as we will be in Mexico then as well.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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    1. The worst one we got was missing part of a wing but most of the time there is absolutely nothing wrong with them! I wish I could get a decent price on airfare alone but the best deals here are with hotel (just $100 or $200 more per person than airfare for a week). Likely it will be Playa Del Carmen as we really want to go snorkeling but leaving it up in the air due to pricing and trying to be open to a selloff.

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  5. I price matched on a turkey the other day. Food Basics advertised utility turkeys for 98 cent a pound, since my FreshCo doesn't carry utility turkeys, they give a regular turkey and at one cent less. A great deal! I was happy!

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    1. Well done! Some of the stores here price match but usually they tend to do it automatically if the item is identical. I usually shop Superstore (Loblaws) as they have the best prices on a regular basis. That is a great deal

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  6. What a beautiful pumpkin patch. We don't see any of that here. Maybe I can carve a miniature Jack-O-Lantern this year. Glad the anniversary was memorable and that you have a great trip in December to look forward to.

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    1. I just love that patch, there were a bunch of sunflowers among the pumpkins earlier in the year but they have been cleared out now. For someone who never thought she was going to get married (never wanted to) the last 9 years have flown by!

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  7. We will be spending our Canadian Thanksgiving in the States, and our US Thanksgiving in Canada. Guess we'll miss turkey until Christmas. - Margy

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