Wednesday, November 7th

As we made our daily trip to Penticton today, up through the valley bottom where the trees are still brilliant with autumn shades, we climbed to higher altitudes where a strong wind has thinned the leaves on the deciduous tree and in some cases scattered all the ground beneath them with gold.

At the highest point of the pass the beautiful bones of the alder and aspen are filagree lace, silhouetted against the darkness of the evergreen hills.

I was reminded of Mary Oliver and her beautiful "Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness".

Every year we have been

witness to it: how the

world descends

 

into a rich mash, in order that

it may resume.

And therefore

who would cry out

 

to the petals on the ground

to stay

knowing as we must,

how the vivacity of what was is married

 

to the vitality of what will be?

I don't say it's easy, but

what else will do

 

if the love one claims to have for the world

be true?

So let us go on, cheerfully enough,

this and every crisping day.

 

though the sun be swinging east,

and the ponds be cold and black,

and the sweets of the year be doomed.

And I thought about how these words are so relevant to the November of our lifetime

ABC Wednesday

The letter is Q

Q is for Quoits

Here is a fun video of a game of Quoits at a local pub.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg, Horseshoes or Quoits??? 

It seems some people are Quibbling about this, but no matter which the game of Quoits appears to have had its origin in ancient Greece  where poorer citizens, who could not afford a discus, made their own by bending horseshoes into a circle.  They were used in their open form only after it became customary to practice pitching at a spike embedded in the ground.

In England Quoits became so popular that Edward 111 and Eichard 11 prohibited the game in order to encourage archery.  However, it became quite a well organized sport by the 15th century probably because of the numerous attempts to eradicate it from the pubs and taverns of England.

The pub variety of Quoits has many offshoots, - games such as ringtoss or hoopla becoming popular as parlour games, and deck quoits which became popular as a means of entertaining blase passengers on long cruises.

For more interesting aspects of the letter Q click here to visit ABC Wednesday, sponsored by Mrs. Nesbitt and her quirky helpers.