Thanksgiving in Canada-Fall Rhapsody

This is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada. We celebrate and give thanks for all the goodness and blessings that we've received during the year.

Fall Rhapsody is celebrated in Gatineau Park. The magical fall colours are always at their best during this weekend as thousands visit the Park to admire the splendour. Below are some examples of this beauty.(Double click to enlarge) I hope that you enjoy these pics and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

NACO 40th Anniversary

Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) is celebrating 40 years of music making! Where has all the time gone? I wasn't in attendance on Opening Night 40 years ago, but I was there last night for a great concert that celebrated this special occasion. And what a night it was!

Music from the 18th, 19th and 20th century was performed. Bach's Violin Concerto in A opened the program featuring violinist Pinchas Zukerman. The NAC's only composer-in-residence, Linda Bouchard's Songs for an Acrobat was included in the program. Baritone Russel Braun executed a pleasing rendition of the eight poems of love, loss and transformation. Of particular interest was CBCs Richard Dick's interview of both Bouchard and Braun during the Intermission. Mahler's grand Symphony No. 1 in D major with its challenging score for all NACO musicians and others - large percussion section and six horns - concluded the evening.

Pictured below is the majestic National Arts Centre opened in Ottawa in 1969.


Through the NAC Musicbox below, you can listen to the NACO performing 150 recordings. Go to their website www.nac-cna.ca to discover this amazing gift of music. After you listen to a few selections, I'm sure that you will decide to attend some of their live concerts at the NAC..maybe you'll become a season subscriber to one or more of their concert series! They hope so!

All the Sumacs on the Hill

When I was growing up in Ontario, we memorized poetry! Imagine that! The line about 'all the sumacs on the hills have turned their green to red' has stuck in my memory all these years.

Here's the complete poem below. It's in the public domaine.

William Wilfred Campbell's (1858?-1918) Indian Summer

Along the line of smoky hills

The crimson forest stands,

And all the day the blue-jay calls

Throughout the autumn lands.

Now by the brook the maple leans

With all his glory spread,
And all the sumacs on the hills

Have turned their green to red.

Now by great marshes wrapt in mist,

Or past some river's mouth,

Throughout the long, still autumn day

Wild birds are flying south.

This poetry particularly resonates with me during the fall as
I admire the colourful landscapes all around me.

The pictures below, taken on my walks, capture the 'turning' of the
beautiful sumacs on the hills from green to red.
I hope you enjoy them. (double click to enlarge)

A carpet of red maple and sumac leaves covers the pathway above on this 'long still autumn day'.