Gerard Pas | Musings and Cogitations: orchids

Up here in Voltaire’s soon to be “four hectares of snow”, we’ve started to get our first frost warnings. Last night it went down to 4 Celsius and the last two days the mornings have been rather cool. I actually turned our central heating on yesterday to take the chill out of our house. More signs that fall truly is setting in. Beautiful bright and warm days with cool evenings, real fall days.

my fathers Phalaenopsis Orchids have come into bloom

It seems fitting then that up here in Canada; this is also the weekend that we celebrate the harvest with “Thanksgiving” weekend. Yes on October 10th and not in November like our cousins to the south of the 49th parallel. I think it makes sense as our harvest just happens earlier than in America, were we to wait until November 24th all we’d have to celebrate is barren trees, hoar frost and maybe a slight dusting of snow.

So today me and mine went to my parent’s home to take part in the pleasure of our greater family and thanksgiving. I enjoy seeing my nephews and nieces, sisters and my entire wife’s family also. Today being Sunday, is a gloriously sunny day and the leaves on the trees are starting to show some fall colour change, but not fully.

My father, Martin, had been a landscaper for more than 40 years until he retired a few years ago. When I was growing up we had greenhouses and my life has been surrounded by plants and trees, as well as a lot of turf management. My dad has always prided himself in growing plants and has a real passion for Orchids. I took these images at his house from just one of his orchid plants, which has recently come into bloom. They’re beautiful things orchids are.

my dad’s orchids

I have a friend in New York; he is an executive for a very prominent global corporation. That is his work, but for the rest he’s an Orchid grower and what a privilege it is to go to his home and see very rare Orchids that bloom only for a short time every few years. I love them and visiting with him is one of my favourite and privileged things to do when I am in the City of New York. I also mention him because the few times I’ve been in New York on American Thanksgiving, he and his wife have had me over for the holidays with their entire family and have always made me feel at home: their son Tommy is one of my closet friends in NYC. I have a lot to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving, not just my family but also my friends.

Jim and Mittie's home in Upstate New York

I don’t have enough time to dedicate to this passion and I’ve substituted other plants as my “poor persons orchid”. There is a lot to be thankful for and I wish you all the happiest Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading my blog!