It’s hard to say if this has been a typical 1st full week of November or not. I suspect my grass may not get cut or the leaves mulched again this year. Do you like geese? Across the road from me, at Twinkleberry pond, there were absolutely hundreds just lying about today. I have never seen so many, maybe occupying an acre of land – goosemagedan! Last week I saw the swan pair still on Elgin pond, but expect they have moved a little south before the freeze. Before that a monster flock of grackles spent a half hour or so in the yard. Thank goodness they didn’t go near the feeders because half a dozen can clean them out, never mind the hundreds in this flock. But the robins are also coming back around, finally eating the copious amounts of mountain ash berries and others in the area. I stopped into the church this morning and a robin was singing just like it was spring. The pretty white and black juncos are also back. Birthday wishes go out to Karen Shreeve, Grant Evans, Karen Popydenic and Jamie, Trevor Cox’s better half, and to all others who celebrated this week, whether birthday or anniversary. Congratulations to Katie Cox for winning with her grand Champion Hereford Heifer at the Royal. Also big congratulations to my nephew Rob Ashton and family for their showing at the Royal. Dorito is the first milking Hereford since 2000 to be in the Supreme Championship. Dorito didn’t win but it was still an “udderly” beautiful sight. I was informed of a tractor fire earlier in the week, north of here, but have not been able to find out who the unfortunate owner was. It looked pretty bad, so condolences. Congratulations to John Cavers who has, once again, done a “super” job as one of his photos, of a black wolf, has been chosen for the Canadian Geographic calendar. This is the 4th year in a row to have his photo chosen. Congratulations to Erin Blackstock who, not content with winning music awards, has moved into the clothing design area. Continued success in both fields Erin. She is now 52 in the long list of Country Tunes Charts. This week at church in Zephyr, we had a beautiful Remembrance Day service. Darlene Hallett conducted the service wearing her Legion Jacket and finished the service with a “smile” that had everyone laughing. In between we were treated to a beautiful bagpipe rendition by Bill Richardson of the Lament (Flowers of the Forest), first explaining how it came to be written about 400 years ago. Emma Webb and Maya Burgess-Stansfield, two very talented Uxbridge High school students, gave informed, inspirational, and inspiring accounts of their participation in the Vimy tours and other European battleground sites. They are certainly Torch bearers. Their teacher and mentor Tish MacDonald, who instigated these trips 4 years ago, shared how she began doing this and how her interest and enthusiasm grew and expanded. Not only did she organize and lead these student tours, but also was instrumental in starting the Banner programme, where there are now some 250 banners around the town and some villages honouring veterans. Other towns are now following this trend. All in all it was a very moving morning which we will not forget. Next week Rick McKinley will be our worship leader at church in Zephyr and the following week Darlene will be back with us. In December, we are back to Sandford when Carol O’Neill will be with us for the first two Sundays. Please join with us at any and all of these services.