My Black (silver, green and amber) Friday

I know I can't be the only one who finds the whole business of Black Friday yet another symptom that this society's priorities are out of balance - or maybe I'm just getting more curmudgeonly in my middle age. 

An Early Morning Walk

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

- Henry David Thoreau

Like many Americans, we were away for the Thanksgiving holiday. Fortunately our road is not long to Virginia's beautiful Eastern Shore where my parents live, as well as many other members of my family. Seeing fog out the window when I woke up on Thursday, I grabbed my camera and 2 of 3 hounds and headed out for a walk. It was a good thing I went on Thursday, for Friday was wet, windy and stormy - while Saturday morning was just plain cold with our second dip into the 30's this season.

Most of my walk took me to the shores of Metompkin Bay where a few of the Spartina grasses were hanging onto to their summer greens, but most had on their fall golds waiting for their winter color. The air was still, the bay dead calm, and the crashing waves on the distant islands could easily be heard, even over the din of the geese. The morning was similar to the day after last Christmas that resulted in one of my favorite blog postings.

The dogs mostly had a great time. Penny stays busy and has a full agenda, and it did her a world of good to be able to run at top speed, off-leash and without fence.

Near the end of the walk Loretta was anxious to return home as the sound of gunfire was echoing through the woods. It is prime hunting season for deer and geese, and to her phobic self it all sounds like thunder.

(I have decided to come back and use this photo for the June 2010 Picture This contest sponsored by Gardening Gone Wild.)

You are welcome to view the rest of my morning walk pictures here.

A Different Kind of Turkey

This past Saturday we took our friend Chris to the other side of Suffolk to pick up her family's Thanksgiving turkey from Full Quiver Farms. This was no ordinary supermarket turkey, this was a humanely treated, free range, hormone and anti-biotic free bird. Besides turkeys, Full Quiver sells chicken, eggs, pork, beef and raw milk. All of the animals are treated the same way as the turkeys. They also grow organic produce and use no chemical fertilizers, preferring compost and an abundant supply of manure (I wonder where they get it?). However, their greatest efforts go into raising their full quiver of nine children. The thought of this number of children is staggering to me, raising one child is trying enough. When we were there all of the children, but the very youngest were busy either tending customers or tending animals.

Snickers' belly was swollen with kid(s).
This old RV was full of chickens. One group would clamor into the front door and another group would bolt out the backdoor to take their turn running around the yard, then tired with that they would start the whole exchange over again rushing in the front door.

Remind you of anyone?
I would have liked to have taken a picture of a turkey, but the only ones around were already "dressed" for dinner and not very photogenic.

This trip to Full Quiver and today's holiday naturally have me thinking about food. I like to eat (perhaps a little too much) and consider myself an omnivore. I think that if you are going to eat meat, you need to be mindful of where and what it comes from, and how it gets to your table. My family usually includes some kind of wild game on the holiday table, but not everyone likes to eat venison, duck, rabbit or seafood. For some it is a matter of taste, but for others they don't like the thought of hunting and eating wild animals. I ask my wife that if you have no problem eating a hamburger or a piece of ham, why would you have a problem with game? Which scenario is better, a factory raised animal destined from birth for the table, or a free and wild animal taking its chances with fate? If I was the animal, I would prefer to be served with a side order of fate. In our house we go to no regularly efforts to make sure what we eat is local or organic. Right now I am OK with that, but perhaps we can start making some changes. I have noticed that most major supermarkets in our area are now carrying a bigger selection of organics and will also identify local grown or local raised where possible. I have also been pleased to see that this largely rural state now has more and more farmers markets popping up. There are lots of changes afoot in the food world, and today is a good day to reflect on that.

I am grateful for all of the abundance that is my life, not just what's on the table today.