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.