Thanksgiving Day at the Rapids

As you well know by now, we enjoyed our wonderful but non-traditional Thanksgiving meal on the previous day, but the actual day was beautiful, and I think we observed it well. The beauty was found in both the glorious weather and in the remaining colour. 

We drove up to Blakeney Rapids, a small conservation area about 15 minutes north of us, where rocks jut out of what is almost a distributary off the main channel of the local Mississippi River. We are close to the Canadian Shield in much of Eastern Ontario, and it comes to the surface here.

It has been a droughtish summer. While there are always boulders here, they looked more prominent and ubiquitous yesterday in the lower-than-usual water. 

That ↑ sight greets us from near the parking lot, but then there are woodsy and somewhat rocky trails to hike through to the main channel of the river. We crossed this ↓ footbridge. There are others on the more circuitous route, but this is the only one that we crossed on the more direct path.

The trail had its share of inclines, branches and boulders, but a number of people, including us, were out enjoying the paths.

We found two cute benches opposite each other on one part of the trail, and I photographed one of them. They were both very low to the ground, so not really helpful to septuagenarians who are getting rather close to becoming octogenarians.

However, the bench situation changed when we came to the end of the trail where it overlooks the main channel of the unmighty Mississippi. They had built a nice bench on the Precambrian bedrock since we were last there. 

We took a selfie on the bench. Oddly enough, the picture-in-picture feature is still not in the phone's camera options but still just part of the Facebook app — I think only the Messenger part, to be specific. I find this rather odd, but, once taken, we can save it to the regular camera roll. Go figure, eh.

Back at the beginning, we sat on a bench for awhile before turning back home. Thanks to my new phone, I was able to take a telephoto picture of the distant bank. Getting a zoom was the main reason why I spent my children's inheritance on an iPhone17 Pro. Good phones ain't cheap me dearies.

Finally, Sue noticed an unusual tree to our left and asked me to pose for a possible photo for her group if it were to become suitable for a prompt someday.

And that, mes amis, concludes Thanksgiving for another year. It was a good one, and I am thankful to have been there for it and in decent health along with my mate who is also in good health. As a plus, our tiny family had also managed to come together for a few hours on the previous day.

Our Day-Early Thanksgiving

Our little family observed Thanksgiving on the day before the official date. One makes accommodations when the kids split their time between two households and especially when the other grandmother plans a big, traditional gathering and dinner out of town.

Sue and I did one of our customary morning strolls and spent most of the afternoon at home before heading over to Sha's around 5 o'clock.

We took one more photo from the bridge looking upriver as Sue continues to look for the best conditions to complete her four seasonal photos from the same spot. This was my version but not too dissimilar from hers.

I've been playing around with selfies more than usual with the new phone. I'll explain more about it all someday.

With an orange-themed week coming up, Sue took this one of me, but she never knows ahead of time what all parts of the prompt might be, so I don't yet know if she'll actually use it for her group.

At the official get-together later, I grabbed a typical shot of JJ absorbed with his phone.

Sha took this selfie with my camera after I showed her how it worked. Once again, I'll save the explanation for a later date.

Everyone had a turn with my phone, and Dani took this one of me in portrait mode.

And Sue took one of Dani and me sitting side by side.

There wasn’t much else, apart from delish lasagna and apple pie although Jonathan's girlfriend did drop by, and he then became quite happy to get away from his phone.

Oh, two more: both are selfies. I had only known about Christmas crackers until then, but Sha found Thanksgiving crackers, which were basically just like the Christmas ones.

We can't be the only family that does crackers. Do you?

Light and Reflections

Somewhat unusually, we found ourselves downtown by the bridge on Saturday evening. Sue was looking for an upriver photo, but what we found was incredible colour along with reflections in the placid river right by the bridge, all brought about by the light of a nearly setting sun.

Downhill is actually a dull beige and not this vibrant colour, but it was, indeed, orange in the sunset light of that night, and the reflections were also terrific.

The old Bolton Brown Mill, now condos, were also reflecting well, just a little to the left of townhall. 

Then, I concentrated on photographing  just reflections. Later, on the computer  I inverted them. I think seeing townhall this way is pretty darn cool. I have tried to do this inversion with other reflections in the past, but this one and the next, worked really well, or so I think.

Just, or mainly just, the reflected spire and flag look impressionistic to me.

Away from the water and reflections, the low sun lit up the steeple  quite wonderfully as we saw the spire peeking above the trees from where we stood on the bridge.

They say that photography is all about the light, and, quite unexpectedly, we stumbled upon it on Saturday evening.

Picking up the Pies

With it being Thanksgiving weekend, I made my habitual foray into the hamlet of Ashton yesterday to pick up two apple pies at the Ashton United Church. Although they usually hold this bake sale three times a year. it had been my first pickup since last Thanksgiving. For logistical reasons, they didn't run the sale last Christmas, and for weightloss reasons, I didn't make an order at Easter. While I am still  👀 my weight, I am no longer trying to shed more pounds, so I was very pleased to make this little pilgrimage once again.

As you are about to see, it was an overcast day, but some colour remained on some trees, so, of course I took a few photos. 

I hadn't taken this route into Ashton for some time, so the greeting on the silo was new to me. The steeple of the church where we obtain the pies is to the left in the distance.

I have shown pictures of the church more than once in the past, so I didn't photograph it yesterday. However, I did click on a little cluster of colour off to the right of the above photo. While the image could have used somewhat better light, I still found the colours to be very pleasant to view in person. I hope that  the pleasing, subtle colour comes across in the image as well.

I made a little detour on the way home to photograph trees beyond a cornfield in still overcast but still pleasant appearance.

I dropped the pies off at home and hit the stores for new phone accoutrements. I needed a new connector to use the phone in the car as well as new ear buds because my old ones won't work on the new device. I think I have endured 4 different apple connections over the years, and my supply of old cables and connectors continues to grow.

I also picked up a bottle of red for the festive weekend. It's a Canadian wine that makes a statement apropos to the unfortunate political climate: Don't Poke the Bear. I wonder if there is an Elbows Up wine as well.

I'm All Balled Up

Before we get onto the pre-written post, below, let me tell you about the latest — which fits pretty well with being :all balled up.”

Yesterday, my new phone came. That was planned.

What hadn’t been planned was both phones and internet getting a new consolidated provider. It was a last-minute decision from a cold call at our door. I am pretty resistant to sales pitches at my door, but I succumbed. 

Both the new phone and the new internet came on the same day which was a bit overwhelming. First, I had to get the new phone up to speed, which was relatively easy. Then, the technician came to get the fiber line into the house. He had trouble, and the job extended into hours, but he got it done, 

But the rest was up to us to configure or pay $150 for him to do it. This wasn't his fault. It's just how it is done. That "balled us up" a bit, but we managed to get it up and running. But I still have the old internet too, and I think some devices are on the new system while some remain on the old. My ex-BiL is very good at this sort of thing, so he will come by sometimes this weekend to help us get all sorted and “unballed up.”

"I'm All Balled Up." I said it one morning as I was changing back into my daywear lounge pants. They are the same as my nightwear lounge pants, except I wear black during the day and shades of blue at night. This colour scheme wasn't planned; it just happened. It helps me keep the two usages separate.

Digression aside, I was struggling to get my right foot through because the pant had become all knotted or tangled down by my foot. That is when I said it to myself: "I'm all balled up." 

I surprised myself, for this phrase is not part of my normal usage. However, I know where it came from although I hadn't heard it for decades. It was something that my dad would say when he got things confused. Maybe he would get his times wrong or some fact.

I looked it up for clarification. This is what Merriam-Webster had to say:

ball up
verb: balled up; balling up; balls up

transitive verb: to make a mess of : confuse, muddle

intransitive verb: : to become badly muddled or confused

I was also curious about the origin. According to dictionary.com: "This term may come from the fact that when a horse is driven over soft or partly thawed snow, the snow becomes packed into icy balls on its hoofs, making it stumble."

However, it also suggests that another meaning is possible: "that it alludes to the vulgar term balls for testicles." Apparently, that usage may have become common with American troops in WWI. I guess an alternative in that sense would be, cock up. 

It's earlier usage, however, seems to have been somewhat common with America colleges students.

The phrase "I'm all balled up" originated in American college slang of the 1850s, where it initially meant failing an examination or becoming thoroughly confused. While the precise source of the word choice remains obscure, possible connections include the image of a snarled ball of yarn or string, the act of crumpling paper into a ball, or a horse's feet getting clogged with snowballs in winter.

Dad wasn't a college student of any era, and he wasn't a soldier either. He never would have used it in the vulgar sense; nor would I although I wouldn't be quite as averse as he. He would just being using it as a synonym for confused — as was I.

So there we are. I'm am almost sure that I haven't used the phrase or even thought about it for a long time, but, suddenly, the words were back — as was dad . . . if you know what I mean.

Critters Encountered

The furnace battle continues. Partway through the night I moved from the bed to my chair in the den. Fortunately, I was able to get back to sleep, and I am grateful for that  But when I did wake up again at almost 7:30, I saw that Sue had covered herself with the second blanket. Since she runs very hot, this was quite a testament to how cold the night became. But we won and are so proud of our ancient selves for our steadfast resolve in this epic struggle, especially with the notorious Jack Frost joining the fray last night  

From various walks at various times, we've collected a few critter photos. There are a couple of cats too, but we will perhaps save them for a Caturday. We have two herons, both photographed by Sue from a distance, the first from the downtown bridge, the second from the trail near us. The second was photographed first, but Blogger was being Blogger.  (In point of fact, all of these were by Sue, who uses her nifty iPhone telephoto capabilities.)

The squirrel was posing in the park.

Woody the woodpecker was hanging out along the trail where someone has left a little collection of birdhouses. There was also a nuthatch and a chickadee flatting about, but they as I said were flitting and not posing. Apparently the woodpecker found this birdhouse good enough to eat. What a tasty treat!

I find the birdhouses to be a most pleasant addition, and I think the birds do to. 

The War is On

The October War, alternately the Furnace Battle, is on again.

At 7AM, I am wearing my sweater and am snuggled under an electric blanket as I huddle in my chair. I am toasty and warm under here, but I would likely be chilly otherwise with the outdoor temperature registering just a fraction above freezing. However, the furnace app app reveals that it is 17C/ 62f inside, which isn’t too bad, and it will increase during the day. 

We wage this futile tussle every October: resisting activating the furnace. I don’t know why exactly, but it seems like capitulation when we give in to the inevitable. We have made it all of the way to November 01 — exactly once! — but it felt like a victory. 

We shall see how and when the Furnace Battle of 2025 ends in inescapable submission. But it won’t be today. We shall hold the line, I tell ya. 

, , , Meanwhile, if I may shift the theme, I present you with an insight regarding my often unfortunate countenance. It has nothing to do with the cold but is simply, too often, my general reality. 

PS: I should have added that I did don my warm winter socks for the first time yesterday. They are long, so they help a lot.