Hey look … Eddie went back to 1973 for this fall themed photo-shoot, done in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend.
The holiday is to give thanks for the harvest and happens much earlier in the year (on the second Monday of October) than it does in the United States. This year we’re having a quiet one although there will be a fancy dinner involved … I can hear Nick already prepping things down in the kitchen as I type.
This photo session all began when I came downstairs yesterday morning to find he had made himself a nice little bed in the the old plaid blanket that had slipped to the floor before I went to bed on Friday night. So I thought I’d take advantage of his desire to sit on the blanket so I draped it over my keyboard case, grabbed some props and got snapping.
As for the props I had, you might remember the wooden chicken from this thrift-store shopping trip. The wooden pig is a piggy bank and was handmade in rural Quebec. It was a wedding gift from my uncle Paul who sadly passed away soon after Nick and I were married.
The cast iron pile-of-pigs is a door-stop and usually lives in our bathroom. It and the handmade duck wall decoration were gifts from my former sister-in-law who I loved and miss. (She is my brother’s ex, and was a close friend of mine before and during their marriage, but you know how divorce will break bonds, both within a couple and for the rest of the family.) She was a funny one and I was never sure if some of her gifts to me were a joke or serious. She knew I was not a fan of the Country-Kitchen look, and I think these things may have been on the joking side. Regardless, I’ve held onto them and am reminded of Thanksgivings past, when she and I would spend time talking and laughing together in the kitchen.
The blanket is also a sentimental favourite as when it was new it covered little baby Nick when he was born.
And the pumpkins are the ones we bought for pie making on this recent trip to the countryside.
Now let’s talk about the cat … in these shots he has a injured left ear.
I was out for dinner on Friday night and when I got home I sat with him for a cuddle. That’s when I noticed he had been hurt. Nick hadn’t noticed, saying that Eddie seemed fine when he came in from being outside. That cat … his guarding instinct is high and he will challenge other male cats that dare come into his yard. This is usually done using his voice, but sometimes there is a brief battle.
The thing is his front paws had been declawed by a previous owner when we adopted him as a stray, so he always loses the fight. (Declawing a cat’s front paws was once a common procedure in North American but now many vets are refusing to do it. It is illegal in many parts of the world. If you’re interested here is a good story about the procedure).
Thank goodness his injuries have never been serious and he doesn’t seem like he’s in pain at all now, but sheesh, cat … stop with the fighting! In his defense, he hasn’t been in one, (as far as we know), for a long time, so this could indicate a new stranger has moved into the ‘hood.
These pictures were all taken within about 15 minutes as Ed is a very cooperative model. It’s almost like he knows what is expected of him when my camera is pointed in his direction.
Well, I should say that in this case he was not completely cooperative, but he came around in the end.
Here are some outtakes, and a peek behind the scenes of the shoot …
When I reviewed the pictures later I laughed at how much they looked like they could have been taken for a 1970s greeting card!
Thanks for taking a look. Wishing my Canadian friends a happy thanksgiving.
xo loulou
