Happy Thanksgiving!

Ha, I almost titled this: "Remember my face while you eat your turkey dinner"! This Turkey lives at the Saskatoon Farm, SE of Calgary. I'm never sure whether to call this bird a Wild Turkey or just a Turkey. Took this shot on 8 September 2017, knowing that Thanksgiving was coming up. I find it hard to put the two together - the naked, frozen bird that you see in the supermarket, and this huge, magnificently-feathered, living creature : ) Hope this doesn't spoil your appetite!

Here in Canada, it is our Thanksgiving long weekend, with tomorrow, Monday 9 October 2017, being the official Thanksgiving Day. Some people choose to celebrate on the Sunday (today) and others on the Monday (tomorrow). I wanted to wish all Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving, no matter what part of the world you are living in or serving in. We have so much to be thankful for every day in this country, even in difficult or sad times! A special thank you to those service people and their families, who make so many sacrifices for the rest of us, too, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice. I am very thankful for what you all do for the rest of us. Have a happy and safe time, everyone, whether you are fortunate enough to get together with family or spend the time quietly by yourself.

On the day I took this photo, I decided on the spur of the moment, to drive south to the Saskatoon Farm. I wasn't sure what I would be doing that weekend and wanted to make sure I went there to buy a few of their vegetables and fruit. I knew that a weekend would be a much busier time and definitely wanted to avoid that. I also wanted to photograph a few of their beautiful Artichoke flowers before they were all past their prime. These flowers were very popular with the bees, which was so good to see.

As usual, I wandered round the grounds with my camera, catching one of the cats, one of the dogs, and a few of the chickens, an old tractor, as well as flowers. I never return home with an empty memory card when I visit this place.

Unfortunately, it was a smoky day (what's new?) with the air quality rating an unpleasant High Risk level. In fact, I almost turned back before I was half way there.

This interesting place is maybe a 25-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside green houses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They also have a restaurant that offers great food.

www.saskatoonfarm.com/

We had snow this morning, 8 October 2017 - all five minutes of it : ) I don't mind that kind of snow. Our temperature shortly before noon is 3C (windchill -3C).