Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving, a holiday that usually coincides with the best colour of the fall season. This year, colours hit their peak a week or so ago, and are still going strong. They were, and are, spectacular!
I haven’t enhanced the colours. This is really what the view over The Skating Pond looked like at the end of a beautiful day.
Not so the colours of my poor little corkscrew hazel. I’m starting to feel sorry for the tree: it is trying so hard and simply can’t manage to make itself attractive. The rich burgundy of the spring leaves faded throughout the summer months to a non-spectacular shade of green where they’ve remained, ever since.
I like the contrast between the grey branch and the green leaves.
Still, it is Thanksgiving, so I will thank my little hazel tree for connecting me with other tree lovers around the globe, through the English blog Loose and Leafy. I’ve followed a mulberry tree with Chloris, cottonwoods along the Laramie River with Hollis, a quince with Alison.
And continuing the thankful theme, I thank my friend Alessandra who worked with me for many months to develop this new website. I thank the linden tree at the end of the Big Lawn for being as close to perfection as a tree can get.
The linden tree at the end of the Big Lawn
I thank the apple trees growing wild in the woods around Glen Villa for their flavour,
Apples from these old trees gone wild sometimes taste as good as they look.
the faces on birch trees that eye me as I walk the woodland paths,
Do you get the feeling that someone is watching you?
and the ancient maple trees that, miraculously, become young again every spring — and generous enough to share their sap.
They may be old but the sap is young.. and delicious when it becomes maple syrup.
Canadian Thanksgiving is about six weeks earlier than the American holiday of the same name. The difference in timing reflects history and differences in climate conditions: Canadian harvests are that much earlier than those in Virginia, where the first American thanksgiving was celebrated. But in whichever country it occurs, Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate nature’s bounty.
Tree lovers: who and what do you thank? And when do you do it?
