Thanksgiving 2025 and The Norfolk County Fair and Horse Show.

 For the last month, Christine and Jasons's 2 cats have been staying with me. 3 cats is exponentially more than 1 cat - 3 litter boxes have to be cleaned out every day (for the first little while they refused to use the litter boxes and I found "accidents" all over the place), the 2 young ones were nocturnal resulting in loud bounding around the house, and on and off my bed, in the middle of the night and wrestling, racing and hissing at all times of the day and night. They were fun but I was glad when they were going home at Thanksgiving.

Donny coming for cuddles. I have no pictures of Marie as she wasn't as friendly to me, but Donny is a cuddler and a purrer.

 

Rasta and Donny would play but Marie just hissed at him.

The first Saturday in October was the Sailors Awards Ceremony and I am in charge of ordering and organizing the flags.

Rick and I spent the morning helping set up the room at the Port Dover Yacht Club

and after an excellent buffet

Spellbound won 6 flags and 2 trophies (and I forgot to take pictures!)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.....Congratulations to Kevin and Broghan.

Chris, Jason, Cigi, Rick, Nicola and David all came for Thanksgiving Dinner (actually, late lunch). The next day we were off to the Norfolk County Fair.

Cigi  was very interested in the horse show so that was our first stop.

 

Then through the "gauntlet" of food trucks to the animal barns. 

We started with the rabbit, chicken and pigeon barn but in the end it was just too noisy for Cigi and on the way to the next barn

we found a corn pit which occupied her for quite a while.

allowing us to take a seat.

Next stop, a barn where we watched

a sheep getting sheered, got introduced to a llama and saw cows, calves, lambs, goats

and pigs as well as practicing milking a model cow.

I think this was to play checkers but Cigi

just liked moving the pumpkins around.

Getting hungry now we ate "fair food" - poutine, chicken fingers and apple fritters. 

Then headed for the midway.

Some discussion, purchase of ride tickets and

Jason and Cigi rode the "Monster Trucks"

She loves rides - takes after me, not her Grandpa George.

Quick hike back to the grandstand for the Heavy Horse Pull Competition (at Cigi's insistence)

Pairs of horses take turns pulling an increasingly heavier sled loaded with straw bales.

Then back to the midway to ride the flying elephants with Chris.

Very happy when she got

the pink one.

There was only enough money left on the ride ticket for one person so

she rode the Bees alone.

Back to the horse show on our way out to watch the Miniature Horses Costume Competition.

We had to head home as they were driving back to Toronto with the cats and Rick and I were going to another turkey dinner at his brothers.

Fall garden

 

I have harvested the last of the peppers

and most of the tomatoes

though I am leaving some out there in the hope that the weather stays nice long enough to ripen them up.

I have eaten a couple of Kohlrabi and the remaining ones are still rather small but I am leaving them in the ground and hoping that there is a bit more growing season left. Otherwise, just carrots to harvest when it gets colder.

Most of the plants on the bank have gone to seed but the Dogwood's red stems almost glow

and the Asters are a mass of bees

and butterflies.

Fanshawe Photography Course - Bird Studies, Chip Ship, Port Rowan Wetlands and Eco-Adventures.

We got to the Birds Studies Canada Banding Station just in time to see the last bird of the day being banded. It was a Gray Cheeked Thrush and a volunteer bought it outside so we could all take pictures.

 

We then walked the trail behind the Banding Station, nothing in the nets.

Next stop; the Chip Ship for lunch. Although I had bought lunch with me I couldn't resist and had a fish taco and a small poutine (I ate my packed lunch for supper).

Back to Port Rowan and out to the Wetlands that were created as part of the waste water treatment plant.

One of the easiest times to get birds in flight is when they are taking off. Pedro gave the hint that birds often poop just before taking off so that's an indication to keep the camera ready.

I have been to these wetlands when there are lots of waterfowl but today there was just one Heron and a few Cormorants. 

We found other things to take pictures of.

Red Admiral butterfly on Asters.

From here we drove along the lake shore road to Eco-Adventures, passed by a long stream of Corvettes driving in the opposite direction, a group out for a weekend drive.

We had hoped to see Raptors or, at the very least, Turkey Vultures, but there was absolutely nothing flying to photograph

 

so we took a short hike in the woods.

Last photo - Pedro taking a photo of a large spider on a web that spanned the trail. I think I passed my objection to spiders on to my camera - it refused to focus on it!

The whole day was very enjoyable, relaxing, creative, perfect weather, like minded companions. Although I had been to all the place we visited, this time I was purely focused on experimenting with the camera and the images. Over 12,000 steps, so it was also good exercise.

I look forward to the Rapture Conservancy outing which will hopefully be at the end of the month.