People in all directions

My daughter's at an optical radiometry conference in Daejeon, Korea, my grandson and son-in-law staying behind in London; my son's in New South Wales and my sister's in Old South Wales, near my mother. My friend Elva's co-ordinating international standards at meetings in Stockholm and my niece Rhiannon is on a very strict Vipassana meditation course in Hereford, England. As I stood at Rockcliffe airport watching the sun set this evening it seemed that my thoughts were going in all directions towards these various people, like the contrails lit from below the horizon.

Here in Ontario we had a real treat, flying to Westport, at Laurie's suggestion, over miles of brilliantly coloured Ontario trees and blue lakes under a blue sky. Three other planes landed with us on the grass and another (Bill's yellow Cessna, a "180 on floats") taxied over the lake to join the outing so that nine of us could squeeze round the table to lunch together by the Mill Pond.

(Added on October 12th) Today being Thanksgiving Sunday, the Gatineau Park, through which we hiked for a couple of hours with Laurie this afternoon, is full of families enjoying themselves in the fresh air, dabbling in the streams and swishing through the fallen leaves. Simple pleasures; it's good to see people forgetting the world wide economic crisis and such worries while the sun shines. We're looking forward to a Thanksgiving Supper with David and Elizabeth for which I'm contributing some cranberry sauce I've just made from local cranberries bought at the market and (inspired by my sister-in-law, Debbie, who specialises in such things) a table top flower-and-leaf arrangement crammed into a small pumpkin.