A Farewell in Flowers......

We would like to say that this sign was for our farewell when we arrived at our favourite Terraced Garden for our final there jog today.

But of course we knew that this had to do with the big Chrysanthemum Show that was beginning today.  We understand that it usually happens a little later in December, but the stars aligned and we were able to see a bit of it.

Preparations have been ongoing for the past few weeks.

Please enjoy the displays while I ramble on.

Yes, today marks the end of our wonderful adventure in India.

Late afternoon today we will fly from Chandigarh to Delhi, spend six hours there before catching our next flight (10 minutes past midnight) to Beijing.  After seven hours in Beijing, we will begin the 10.5 hour flight to Vancouver.  So, 10:30 am on Saturday morning we will be back in Canada after 31 hours of travel.

My purpose in writing a blog was to keep family and friends at home up to date on our life here in India.  That way, they wouldn't avoid visiting us when we returned thinking that they were going to have to sit through hours of boring photos and stories.

There are many more unpublished photo so that is still possible.

I thought about updating maybe once per week.

Two surprises awaited me:

1.  The days were so full of experiences that daily blogs became the norm, and
2.  Other people were interested and the readership grew.  To date, I have had over 14,500 page views from people in 15 to 20 countries.  I know that many of them have come upon the blog by accident--maybe searching for a chat site?

Thank you everyone who made comments and sent emails.  Unfortunately, the capability of  comments was not available to everyone.  Several businesses were able to comment and wanted to capitalize on the audience to promote their product.  Clever of them really but it wasn't my intent!  

Back to the Chrysanthemum Show for a moment.  I now realize that what we call Dahlias and Marigolds are all part of the same family.  Some displays in the park reminded me of Alana's yard in August!

Some of the displays had to be repaired a bit today as last night, the wind and rain came with a vengeance!  George said even the Gods were weeping because we were leaving India today.

So, is this my version of "the last post"?

Some students have asked would I keep blogging when I returned home.  I said my life at home is not quite as exciting as it has been here so it could be really boring.  "Today I washed my floors!"

However, I have since thought that our "family" here might like to know something about our family and life in Canada.  With Christmas coming, we can share some of our celebrations with them.  

Chandigarh students who plan to come to UFV Abbotsford might be interested in that UFV campus and the classes George will meet in January.  Check occasionally for an update if you are interested.

We have many people to thank for this journey and hopefully we have done that.  I must pay tribute to something else that has been important to me over the past 15 weeks.  Yes, my computer!!  It has been a lifeline and I sometimes feel my fingers are permanently attached.  What would we do without email and Skype, and online newspapers and the ability to Google anything we need to know.  I often think of people like Mr. Kahlon who left this country and his young family many years ago to prepare a new life in Canada.  His long, long journey was followed by years of no communication.  How courageous he and others were!  I don't think I could have done that. 

There must be a song for this occasion--and the first line of John Denver's "Annie's Song" comes to mind.  We have heard this sung beautifully by Gurneet's friend, Michaelangelo Frances recently.
So, India, "You fill up my senses......"
Namaste!   Sat Sri Akal!  Till we meet again!