Letter from the Editor

Sybille Forster-Rentmeister, Editor-in-chief

Dear Reader

This was and still is indeed the most beautiful fall in decades. I am recalling early years in Canada when we sent photos back home to family depicting the glorious autumn colors of the many different trees and no one believed that they were real. “We can color our photos too!” was the exclamation. I felt compelled to prove that these amazing shades of red, yellow and orange did indeed exist. I encased several fresh leaves in a resin that was setting fairly fast and preserved the colors brilliantly, and took them home on my next visit overseas.

Well, this year is again such a fall with such incredible colors. It is the kind of fall that makes people chose it as their favorite season. Personally, even though I love Autumn, I still prefer Spring and Summer; and Winter is my least favorite season simply because it is too long in this country and I am not a skier and do not enjoy the cold outdoors. Yet I do understand that there are people who would love to ski all year round.

Fall around my house is very nice because all animals prepare for winter and I get to help them with it. There is an abundance of birds, especially Blue Jays and Cardinals and all sorts of colorful little birds, for which I have no names. The squirrels are busy getting fat and the raccoons must have found another home since we fixed it so they cannot get back into the garage. There are shelters built for all the various cats of the neighborhood whose owners let them out in the morning, not

realizing that a cat needs a place to sleep after they checked out their world and had some breakfast.

Just today large amounts of children and their parents came around for Halloween. Since it was unseasonably cold I put on a very warm pajama and a super warm housecoat and posed as Grandma waiting for the Wolf. What showed up were a whole lot of ghosts and goblins, princes and

firemen, dragons and pirates, cats and even a giraffe, but no wolf. However, Little Red Riding Hood came by and got an extra hand full of fruit juice candy, potato chips and chocolate eggs. It was delightful to speak to the children and the parents.

Now we are preparing for a season full of concerts and performances of all sorts. We are announcing the Christmas fairs and are pleased to be able to tell that Toronto is having an authentic Christmas Market in the Distillery District this year. It runs from December 3rd to the 12th. The Danube Swabia Club in Scarborough opens the Christmas Season with a 3 day in-house fair November 19-20 and 21, and Kitchener is having its Christkindl Market December 2-5. That makes for lots of opportunities to get into the mood and search for those special items for our dear ones.

A lot of stores are also creating a Christmas environment and have started to display all sorts of decorative and delicious items for our pleasure. I personally don’t know anyone who is not keen to eat Advent-Stollen all year round. It is a perfect bread replacement .With a bit of butter on a slice it replaces the bun with butter and jam ideally. I guess to balance all that extra rich goodness of the season at home and the usual get-togethers and parties we also need to stock up on celery sticks and carrots.

As far as the gift-hunting is concerned, the smart shoppers have already started some time ago, or do it all year round, like I do. That way we can concentrate on truly Christmassy items at the fairs, enjoy the atmosphere, drink mulled wine and just get in the mood.

Hoping that the season will give the economy a boost is definitely on my wish list. Last year was already a bit lack luster for a lot of retailers. Hopefully it is better this year.

Enjoy the season!

Until next time in December

Sybille Forster-Rentmeister