Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Thank you very much for your good wishes, everyone. We, who live on this great North American English-speaking island (north of the Alamo, that is), who've not known international warfare for over 180 years, or within one major country for 140 years, have no idea of the ongoing fear of imminent catastrophe that millions know in many parts of the world, more or less daily. I said this a few years ago ... then remembered that the most recent military action was just over 120 years ago, against a local insurrection in this area of North America ... was in Canada, where a fellow called Louis Riel developed an uprising against perceived injustice meted out by an eastern establishment against developing Western Canada. He was elected to Parliament, the Eastern establishment sent a military action against him and his supporters (via U.S. rail system I think) and there was a battle at Batoche, in central Saskatchewan that went on for a couple of days in 1885, with a small number killed (I have no idea how many), mainly on the side of the rebels. Louis Riel ran to the U.S. for safety for a while, eventually returned to Canada ... was jailed and, later ... hanged! In recent years, he's been rehabilitated and considered to have led a reasonably legitimate reactive force against central government's rather heedless injustice. And ... the whole civil war issue was/is so minor that when I first thought of this military warfare issue in North America (north of the Alamo) ... ... I forgot about it! So much for Civil War in Canada (where we developed our independence in stages, by evolution, rather than revolution). Peacefully. Currently ... in a major portion of our country, where the official langage is ... a local variation of French, a substantial number of people say that they want to be idependent (and that the rest of us aren't to have much of a say in the issue) ... and they had a referendum (with a rather convoluted question) in their area a few years ago ... with close to half of the people voting in favour. But, it hasn't happened ... yet. So much for which to be thankful! And, we residents of the earth need to learn to live together in peace, using our scarce resources to work together to build, rather than smash ... and be seriously concerned to preserve our environment ... or we'll destroy ourselves. We have a number of endangered species - mankind is getting to be one of them! And, personally, as I approach age 80, enjoying good health, not having taken a pill in 30 years or so, living within my pension income, not currently needing the assets that have shrunk in current value recently, I'm living comfortably in what used to be Uncle's farmhouse, where I figure that I can stay as long as I can drive, I'm taking the produce of my garden to share with church folks and, on occasion, Food Bank and mission agencies helping the disadvantaged, locally. I can vote for the leaders of my country on Tuesday (in what many of us consider an unnecessary election - but, there it is) and things are going so well here that many don't even bother. So many take democracy for granted! How many more years? months? days? will be left to me to enjoy my good fortune, personally? I have no idea - who does, at this age? But, for the present, I am an independent, healthy, prosperous ... happy person. Our countries have some very serious issues with which to deal, and soon ... or later wish that they had ... but that's mainly for others to deal with. I'll do and say what I can to seek to deal with the illness ... but I long ago realized that God's the General ( a designation that I'm not too sure that S/He'd assent to)... I'm just a foot soldier, evaluating my society and the world as I feel called upon to do. Have a blessed, happy Thaksgiving, all of you Canadians! ole joyful

Momj47--great giggle! Not that either of them looks at all like where I live. An automatically changing by solstice and equinox "seasonal" widget brought it home to me. The sere, gold/brown "Autumn" colors are high Summer (end of June through September) where I live (Southern California), where "fire season" is also important for the propagation of native plants. The new greening is something that happens in Autumn and runs through Spring. We do have mountains, and they do get snow, but it's not a common sight in most of the area. Still, we have the holidays whose decor is dictated by the Northeast. :) Are there parts of Canada that have different looks for the holidays than the greeting card norms?

Thank you, it was a happy turkey day!