THANKSGIVING WEEKEND ALWAYS A TREAT FOR THE SENSES

We will once again, this autumn season, have what they call, a "Stay-cation," for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is truly one of my favorite times of year here in Muskoka. We Curries have for long and long, celebrated the four seasons here…..the place we live. We travel a lot for our profession, but regionally…..without the need for an airport visitation. While we are probably pretty dull folks in this department, every time I see the huge traffic jams to get into Muskoka, on holiday weekends, and other summer weekends, I very much appreciate their appetite for what we have on a daily basis. I'm proud of being Muskokan. This is ever-more poignant when I think back to my early city years, in Burlington, and how stirring it was to arrive at a Muskoka lake for a wee vacation. I can walk down to the same lake in a couple of minutes. There are a lot of perks to living in the hinterland of Ontario.

Our family is thankful we live in such a naturally beautiful region on earth. We don't take it for granted. If we, at times, become annoyed at all, it is usually because we have become immersed in local politics, or the follies of developers who wish to remove the forests of the region, for housing developments and commercial nodes. Generally, we are pretty calm, as residents of Gravenhurst, and very much celebrate the opportunities afforded us, in business and profession, and have no real interest in getting political. Of course, some times, you just can't avoid making a comment or two. This would be the case no matter where we lived. We have some pretty firm commitments, better stated, "loyalties" to our environment, and we don't bend too much, if we feel particularly strongly about the adverse affects of a development or destruction of a forest or lowland. We not really activists here at Birch Hollow but we are watchdogs without question.

We are very thankful, as a family of Muskokans, to live in the Town of Gravenhurst. And despite a lot of recent negativity, and some outright disasters in a number of areas, we still look upon our situation here as a blessing, and will make a toast to a good hometown, at the commencement of Thanksgiving dinner…….as is our tradition on these special occasions. We hope you feel the same way about Muskoka……and about Gravenhurst. Having a Stay-cation is no hardship whatsoever!

Cheers.