Let Us Give Thanks

Let Us Give Thanks

By Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting, and, though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.
Let us give thanks:
For generous friends…with hearts as big as hubbards and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us we had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn — and the others — as plain as potatoes, and so good for you.
For funny friends, who are as silly as brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who — like parsnips — can be counted on to see you through the long winter;
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils, and hold us despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;
And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past, that have been harvested — but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.

Source: the late Rev. Max Coots, who was Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton, New York. His passion for gardening yielded this beloved and much used meditation.

A facebook friend of mine shared this poem and I thought it was kind of perfect for today.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!

Love, Michele

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A Simple Thanksgiving Table

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After all of my planning and good intention about decorations, and centerpieces, and name tags, it came down to four simple candles arranged by my little guy, great food and my wonderful family.  That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day was as blessed as mine was!

Love,  Michele

~Just a Few of My Favorite Houzz Thanksgiving Ideas

Gosh I love Houzz.  It is just so much fun to sit with a snack or cup of coffee for a few minutes and look over all of the ideas. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I like to make it special so I usually make place cards and decorate the table with a little twist. I need some inspiration this year so I spent a few minutes looking around Houzz.com this morning.  I could post a thousand photos, but here are my favorites so far:

This first arrangement is just classic and pretty. I like the way the textures of the runner and ribbon accent the shapes of the pine cones.

Beautiful pinecones and textures again, but with a little bit of glam…

I don’t have a mantel but I  have a server that I could decorate like this.

Simple and restful… I love it!

And a different take on the idea,pumpkins that were painted white.  The “white” centerpieces really allow the food to shine.

Candles and acorns…

More white (white seems to be all the rage this year) embedded with upholstery tacks…

And finally, mason jars, candles, greenery and a nice natural wood base…

At the moment I may use white pumpkins, pine cones,mason jars, candles and some greens, with some asparagus foliage for color.

I’ll keep you posted!

Love, Michele

A Little Thanksgiving Garden Update

In the midst of the cooking and cleaning and prep I managed to get out to the garden this morning, and to take some photos, and to do a little blog post! Yay!!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For me it’s about giving thanks, real, true thanks, from deep within. I love preparing the food and spending a quiet day with family and friends.

This morning I harvested the last of the carrots. When we grow carrots I always try to save some for Thanksgiving dinner. There were more there than I thought, we will enjoy these for a few weeks..
There’s still some mesclun… this is so resilient, it’s amazing…

And there’s still sage. I picked a nice handful for the turkey.

And rosemary and thyme… for the turkey, stuffing and dinner rolls..

And of course there’s still plenty of chickens… they look pretty happy that this isn’t their holiday,  ;

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Lots of love,  Michele