No contact tree buying

  

This is a pee-wee tree compared to the giants we usually drag in the house. It's just a little taller than me, which seems right for our scaled down Christmas. Put up some lights and the prettiest ornaments then call it a day. No reason to decorate the entire house just for the two of us. We'll make up for it next year.

Best of all, we brought it home in the Honda. The posh West Seattle Nursery delivers, but it takes 10+ days to get a tree after you order online, $100 sight unseen. 

Can the world get any stranger? For some reason, people want real trees. It's just the beginning of December, but McLendons Hardware was so picked over, we were lucky to even get one. 

We have a couple more days of cheerful sunshine before rain and clouds return. Yet another weekend at home, but I'm busy writing cards and getting packages ready to mail early. If I feel ambitious, maybe a two-crust turkey pot pie, made with the gravy and meat I stashed in the freezer. The best part of Thanksgiving.

Have a good one, dear friends and family.

Sweet Advent

This year I gave the kids in the family Bon Maman Advent calendars. Behind the doors, miniature jars of fruit spread and honey. Bon Maman is the French company that makes the excellent jam.

There's a different variety each day, and enough for two slices of toast if carefully divied up. A hit with the little kids and the big one. 

Of course the big kid keeps a daily record of the flavors!

Winter gardens

The Japanese Fatsia japonica usually blooms in early winter, when no one is outside to appreciate the tropical looking flower. They're planted mostly for the gigantic, notched leaves anyway.

We haven't had a hard freeze yet in Seattle, but by spring, this one looks ragged and pitiful. At that point, they benefit from "renewal pruning." Which is a nice way of saying, whack it off to the ground.  Once Fatsias are established in a place they like, the top grows right back.

I walk past hundreds of yards on my walks, from the meticulously tended to the utterly neglected. The real garden comes into focus now, when the shrubs are bare and the colorful bloomers finished. 

Some winter garden are very attractive, the result of good planning and all the attention the garden got through the growing months. Sort of like well-tended old folks, in the winter of their years.  Not all gardens (or people) are so lucky.

I still have some raking, then the outside work is pretty much done until February.

December 1st officially marks the start of "Meteorological Winter." The Solstice is still three weeks away, but this far north, the sun barely comes up and creeps along the horizon for a few hours of daylight.  This week of dry, bright weather is a special gift, taking a big notch off the darkest month.

The labors of December

 The Book of Hours December calendar, wild boar hunt

A medieval Christmas was actually twelve full days of feasting and raucous fun. Our single day holiday is basically a Victorian invention. It's a shame that all that preparation and anticipation goes into something that's over so fast. No wonder we sometimes feel let down after Christmas. 

Mid-winter was perfect for such drawn out festivities, since many laborers and farmers had extra time on their hands. And as we know, winter in the northern climes can be boring and depressing. 

Advent came first, requiring a 40-day period of fasting and piety, then all hell broke loose in December and early January. Soon to be followed by Lent. The traditional church calendar had a nice balance to it.

Many of the ancient illustrations and paintings for December are rather gruesome, depicting the butchering that took place in the early cold months of winter.  Now we are far removed from the sights, sounds and smells of butchering.  

And the work. I know Dad still remembers when butchering the pig was an exciting day on the farm. Everyone had a job and "everything but the oink" was preserved, from the hams to scrapple and plenty of sausage.

Winter sun

 

I already feel nostalgic about our sunset view from the front porch. A new, two-story school addition is eventually going up, about where those portables are now. Who knows when, but it's definitely coming. 

Also, just down the hill on the play field, they're installing tall, extra bright floodlights for city wide evening sports. More lights, more noise, more people, more traffic. 

The city solicits comments from the adjacent homeowners on these projects, but by then, the planning process is already so far along that's just a formality. Who cares about the old house on the corner with the precious peek view. We don't have zoning restrictions for height in West Seattle. In fact, in the urban village, the taller, the denser, the better.  Too many small houses on large, wasteful yards. 

But for now, the big brick school is as quiet as Pharaoh's tomb. Nice in a way, but just too strange. Seattle Public Schools might stay on remote learning for the rest of the school year.  So sad, with all these children out to sea.

It was beautiful yesterday after the morning fog burned off. I'm trying to add hills and distance to my sauntering 2-mile loop. I'm lazy when it comes to pushing myself hard physically. Besides, whenever I do, something new starts to hurt. I'm plagued lately with intermittent heel pain, a common problem according to Dr. Google.  

A few years ago, I went to a podiatrist for the first time. The old guy was so interested in my genetically strange feet (Harvey toe, etc.) it was almost flattering. Well, CBD cream and Epsom salt will have to do.  I'm not going back to that small office at the height of the pandemic. 

After we get through a rainy Monday, it looks like a stretch of dry weather this week. Maybe we'll go out and get a small Christmas tree tomorrow. Other than that, we are home, home, home. 

Nice tree

 

Nothing is more idyllic than cutting your own Christmas tree, especially with the North Cascades wilderness in your backyard.  Of course, wild trees always look much bigger when you get them in the house. Tom had a challenge getting this one into the stand.

The North Cascades highway is closed for the season, but you can park at the "end of the road" a few miles outside of Winthrop, then hike or ski to your heart's content. Amanda, Tom and the girls usually meet up with other families and make a afternoon of it.

A nice tradition with kids and dogs everywhere. The girls are on the Nordic ski team this year, so they really cover some ground. 

"Nica" is horrible to walk in her harness leash, yanking constantly on dry ground, but on the snow she loves pulling the girls along at great speed.  A lanky mutt, ranch born and bred, she's strong and good-natured and runs for miles. Go, "Nica."

We'll get a tree this year as usual at the West Seattle Nursery, but a smaller one.  This will be a very different Christmas.  I'm trying not to be too sad about it, but realized the other day that it's been almost a year now since anyone has visited.