Canadian Thanksgiving 1997

It's been a while since we celebrated a Canadian Thanksgiving, it's been a good 10 years I guess since we really celebrated with a feast.  I've just been going through our photo's from our first Canadian Thanksgiving in October 1997.  Donald and I had spent a good 3 months back packing around the Middle East, Europe and the UK from May until early August, where our trip finished in Canada.  We were staying with an old family friend Yvonne, a very patriotic Australian living in Canada.  Donald's mum Joan and Yvonne were nurses together in Canada a long time ago and the family have been firm friends since.  I'm sure there is a whole other story there, but Yvonne, a good soul that she was, sheltered and fed us for 3 months until we found our feet and got a job and a place of our own. 

Yvonne lived in a town house in Chilliwack, British Columbia, it's about 100km east of Vancouver BC and she was a midwife who caught babies for a living.  Yvonne was a tiny thing and hardly ever ate, so I think Donald and I decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her and her friend Barry.  We roasted a turkey and vegetables, ate gorgeous Chilliwack corn (the best corn we have ever tasted) and I made my Christmas creamed carrots and baked an apple pie.  It was just like Christmas dinner only in October.  Donald and I loved the tradition.

 

Yvonne would lend us her car on days that she didn't need it so we could get out and about and see a little of the country.  October was a beautiful time of year, the snow had just started to cover the tops of the mountains surrounding Chilliwack and the leaves were changing their colours.  

 

Chilliwack corn was the sweetest, tastiest corn Donald and I have ever had.  You could buy a sack full of corn for only a few dollars.  We know why it was so tasty, that's because they fed the growing corn liquid poo.  We'd drive by a corn field and a truck, like a water carrying truck, would be driving back and forth across the field spraying the liquid goodness and oh the smell!  Chilliwack was a bit smelly at times but it was because of the surrounding rich farmland.

At other times Yvonne would take us hiking, stopping along the way if there was a photo opportunity, she was photography mad like I am now.  Although we didn't have digital cameras then, it was SLR and slide film for Yvonne.

A hike to Spirit Caves near Hope, British Columbia, a very steep hike.

I know we both miss Yvonne, sadly she passed away a few years ago due to cancer.  If it wasn't for her generosity and kindness we wouldn't have been able to spend the 3 years in Canada that we did.  So this Canadian thanksgiving is dedicated to you lovely lady with a laugh I will never forget.