Autumnalia!

 

Okay, this season is the best.  All the trees are exploding with colour, it's warm and sunny, and we get Canadian Thanksgving, which is my favorite feast of all. When we are most fortunate, we get to spend the day with family up at a cottage on a lake. It is always sunny, and feasting sessions of turkey and pie are interspersed with rambles through the woods or a quiet canoe around the lake.  I try and wear my best autumn colours, which isn't difficult as the trees are singing in tones of mustard and ochre and russet and even some persistent green.  If Canadian trees were secretly plaid in their hearts I wouldn't be surprised.

 

 

I love making pies (and eating 'em) and was able to score a bunch of rhubarb to add a strawberry-rhubarb pie to my usual apple and pumpkin offerings.  I was never a huge pumpkin pie fan, but this recipe is the best. They had me at 'pecan gingersnap layer'...there are rarely leftovers of that one, even with 6 pies on the table!

pumpkin, apple, and strawberry rhubarb (followed by apple, and cherry and more pumpkin!)

I'm going to hold onto these memories and colours for as long as possible before winter swoops in, with its grey light and gusting chill! Already the daylight is gone by 6 pm...!