Twelfth Night

Time to take down Christmas decorations - if you haven't already, and if you follow the tradition of taking down your decorations on Twelfth Night. Some consider that to be 5th January, while others believe it to be 6th January. This afternoon I undressed the Christmas tree in the Church of St Simon and St Jude. During the Christmas Eve Carol Service, members of the congregation wrote loved ones' names on yellow stars and hung them on the tree.  Today I carefully retrieved my family's offerings, two for Daddy, one for my Darling Man,  and amongst all the other stars for absent family, and the Pike River miners, I came across one for our whole family. Elwin it said and I smiled that someone else had wanted to remember him that evening: then I turned the star over and read three more names.  How I have missed our names together as a family. First on the sympathy cards, Elwin's name, though the subject, noticeably missing from the greeting, and then the Christmas cards that followed so soon after, were just addressed to three of us. So there in the warm afternoon amongst the tinsel and fir with our whole family in my hand, I shed a few rare tears.

After I had un-dressed the tree, I very reluctantly carried it outside, and stood it up amongst the oaks at the back of the churchyard.  This Douglas fir, harvested 15 days ago is still pert and green, and I couldn't bring myself to dump it in the compost heap or cut it up for firewood just yet.

Douglas fir  Pseudotsuga menziesii