Tag: trees

Evergreens for the Season

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction

Our tree came into the house yesterday and today, I strung lights and garland on it. Tomorrow, I’ll decorate it completely. There were years when I’d do all this in one day, but I’ve come to enjoy breaking it up. Not because it’s a lot of work. I used to work at Christmasland at Lakeland Plant World Garden Centre, and there I learned to decorate a tree in 15 minutes.

But I’m no longer in a rush.

Years ago, when the kids were small, the tree came into the house, but it wasn’t lit or decorated until after they went to bed on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, with colourful lights shining brightly, the kids ran into the living room with sparkle in their eyes. It wasn’t only the few gifts beneath the tree that gave them joy but the whole transformation of the room while they slept.

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The Season of Naked Trees

by Diane, posted in garden

In the past few weeks, temperatures have dipped below zero a few times, gracing the early morning landscape with frost. It makes the air crisp and refreshing.

The leaves have clung to the trees fairly well in spite of a few days of high winds. In fact, the day I planted my Midgarden garlic (update coming soon), most of the leaves were still attached to the branches of the Horse Chestnut that hung over the end of the bed. That night, we reach -2 degrees Celsius. Heavy frost greeted us at dawn. Walking into the garden, I was shocked to see about 1/3 of the leaves from the huge tree had fallen and blanketed the ground, burying one end of the garlic bed in a thick layer.

A few days later, another 1/3 of the leaves fell off. Within a week, only a few remained on the horse chestnut.

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