I got both nature and nurture this past Thanksgiving weekend (for us Canadians, eh!). We all hopped in the car–two city dogs included–and headed for the hills…er…Armstrong, BC to see my in-laws. There’s really nothing quite like the beauty of the Okanagan in the fall–the light and colours are amazing.

My wonderful in-laws, Fred and Diane Findlay, breed red angus cattle on their beautiful farm, and we always love seeing them as much as possible. It’s a working farm with lots of history and few frills. It’s nature at its best and hard to beat in my opinion.

There’s lots of wildlife on the farm, including a huge white tail deer that nearly gave me a heart attack when we were walking to one of the upper fields. And we steered clear of the forest, ’cause a momma bear and cubs made it their home during the summer–bears like to chase me!!!!! Hundreds of ducks, geese and rare migratory birds put on quite a show on the lake and in the grassy wetlands. The frogs are amazing on a summer night, but they’ve been replaced with a pack of howling coyotes this fall. If you’ve never heard coyotes, it’s a sound that always scares the pants off me.

We city folk turn into grubby, fresh-faced, well-fed country kin after a visit to the farm. Our prissy blonde city dogs were both brown by the time we climbed back into the car for the ride home. We’ll just have to dream about fresh air, real wood fires and wiener roasts the next time we go for a visit.