elainegrey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elainegrey) wrote2016-12-13 08:25 am
elainegrey) wrote2016-12-13 08:25 am
Entry tags:
Yuletide decor
Last night i went and pulled out the Yuletide decoration crates: what a bunch of crap we moved from California. Also, what a bunch of crap i used to decorate with.
That feeling has slowly faded, yet i remain interested in the visceral reaction to the stuff. (I thought we had disposed of all the old Yule lights but tangles remain. There is even an unopened box of multicolored incandescent strands.)
Have i become more austere in my decoration/celebration desires? Probably. One thing i know is that i am less interested in artificial light living here with no competing artificial lights. I love the darkness around our home, love going out before bed and in the early hours to visit the night. I don't want the house ablaze with lights to announce celebration to everyone who drives by.
Have my standards for quality gone up? Yes, no? I'm not sure.
This year we actually have a real tree, set up yesterday. The real tree is a yellow pine of about an inch diameter, cut down at the edge of the east yard. (There's a very small cedar it and others in the stand of weedy pines was shading, and i want that cedar to grow into a large tree.) Because it was at the edge of the woods, all its branches are on one side. This is the epitome of the Charlie Brown tree. It's lashed to a chair on the deck, visible through the living room French doors, and serves mainly as a scaffolding for a strand of LED lights that color change with a remote control. In the dark, as we watch a show, the lights bring a bit of seasonal cheer.
I've a vase filled with a fountain of long needled pine branches on the mantle that we have finally cleared -- when we moved in, the mantle was a flat place in a furniture free room where we could stash things out of the way. An angel tree topper is on one side, a crystal bowl of LED plastic pine cone lights on the other. I had to push past a certain revulsion to set the bowl of lights up -- my "cheap crap" voice was complaining the whole time. Christine says it looks lovely.
I suspect that all my heart and energy is focused on creating a beautiful landscape and interior decorations just pale compared to carpets of moss.
That feeling has slowly faded, yet i remain interested in the visceral reaction to the stuff. (I thought we had disposed of all the old Yule lights but tangles remain. There is even an unopened box of multicolored incandescent strands.)
Have i become more austere in my decoration/celebration desires? Probably. One thing i know is that i am less interested in artificial light living here with no competing artificial lights. I love the darkness around our home, love going out before bed and in the early hours to visit the night. I don't want the house ablaze with lights to announce celebration to everyone who drives by.
Have my standards for quality gone up? Yes, no? I'm not sure.
This year we actually have a real tree, set up yesterday. The real tree is a yellow pine of about an inch diameter, cut down at the edge of the east yard. (There's a very small cedar it and others in the stand of weedy pines was shading, and i want that cedar to grow into a large tree.) Because it was at the edge of the woods, all its branches are on one side. This is the epitome of the Charlie Brown tree. It's lashed to a chair on the deck, visible through the living room French doors, and serves mainly as a scaffolding for a strand of LED lights that color change with a remote control. In the dark, as we watch a show, the lights bring a bit of seasonal cheer.
I've a vase filled with a fountain of long needled pine branches on the mantle that we have finally cleared -- when we moved in, the mantle was a flat place in a furniture free room where we could stash things out of the way. An angel tree topper is on one side, a crystal bowl of LED plastic pine cone lights on the other. I had to push past a certain revulsion to set the bowl of lights up -- my "cheap crap" voice was complaining the whole time. Christine says it looks lovely.
I suspect that all my heart and energy is focused on creating a beautiful landscape and interior decorations just pale compared to carpets of moss.
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