GIVING THANKS - October 8, 2017

Catherine Cummins's photo.
The pitter-patter of rain on the rooftop a lullaby and the click-clack of falling acorns an alarm clock. Thanksgiving at Turkey Point Provincial Park. 

This tract of land on Lake Erie one of the most northerly remnants of Carolinian forest is unique in Canada, and home to white-tailed deer, Virginia opossum, American badger, hooded and prothonotary warblers, Carolina wren, yellow-breasted chat, eastern prickly pear cactus, tulip and sassafras trees. 

Every year at Thanksgiving, local families fill the park for a weekend of fall frolic. For our family, there is an agenda. Friday is for gathering food and firewood. Saturday is Hallowe'en. The park providing pumpkins for a carving contest and campers decorate their sites to be judged by the park staff. After a supper of deep fried chicken wings, we join a snake of revelers with flashlights and glo-sticks touring the campsites to admire the spooky scenes. On Sunday, the celebration transitions to tradional Thanksgiving; deep fried turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots, pumpkin pie and a local VQA wine served on a long picnic table by candlelight. 

Waking to the smell of hardwood fire and fresh-brewed coffee or walking amid the campsites with small children who want to pet my previously unpetable bulldog or sitting in a splash of sunlight and listening to the kibitzing of our teen and twenty something youth, I feel such a wave of gratitude to the Creator and Giver of all this goodness. Even the warmth of sun on my face and the slither of pine needles down my back remind me that I am alive and truly blessed.


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