Friends

06 December 2014

Cones for Christmas


I am useless at identifying certain trees. Even internet searches don't help. There are so many varieties plus the fact that female trees often differ to males. A bit like humans, when you think about it! The above picture is a Fir ... although (apparently) that name covers all sorts of pine and other varieties. It is a dominant tree at the end of my garden ... I just call it the Christmas tree for I feel sure it was planted after a festive season of years gone by. It is huge and appears to be trying hard to reach the heavens. The cones are lovely (see next picture) and the squirrel only wrecks an occasional one when he needs to sharpen his teeth. They are quite decorative (the cones, not the Squirrel's teeth) round about Christmas time. 


The next picture shows a tree that is one of many lining one side of the garden. They belong to our neighbour but we get the benefit on our side of the fence. The birds hang out in these trees because of their close proximity to their feeding station. Anything to oblige! The name of this tree is also a mystery. For years I thought it was a white cedar but when I checked on the internet I couldn't find a white cedar that looked like ours. 


As you can see this also has cones. Tiny ones that turn brown in winter. I have in the past decorated the house with sprays of greenery while the cones are fresh. They make the house smell wonderful and very Christmassy. I might fill a few vases this year since it's a lot easier than hanging Christmas decorations. 


What do you use to decorate the house at Christmastime? My chief aim is to display all the lovely Christmas cards we receive. I arrange them on framed paintings and on some of my decoupage pictures. I put them on doors and walls and shelves, coffee tables and other surfaces that we won't need to use for a couple of weeks. The rooms are colourful and smell great, thanks to the cones and greenery from the so-called cedar.

9 comments:

  1. Valerie, first, what beautiful trees you get to look at! And second, I can only imagine what wonderful fragrance they give off. I love the smell if real pine and cedar!

    I put up a small, artificial tree (10 inches tall) with tiny ornaments and lights. My apartment is a studio, so the size of the tree fits well.

    Have a delightful Saturday, dear lady.

    X to you and Joe!

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  2. I'm not much help with tree I.D.'s. But I'm with you there, I like the "Piney" fragrance of a living Christmas tree. However, we haven't done that for so many years now.

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  3. A beautiful tree, and a never ending supply of pinecones for decorations. I love getting cards. They have started arriving. I put them on every shelf available and you have given me some great ideas.

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  4. Oh, you're talking to the woman who was baking pinecones last night. They're all over, along with my honey locust pods. I started collecting them in the fall and hung on to them for winter decorating. So that's the repetitive theme, inside and out. And with all the fir branches and white lights....I'd say we're lookin' pretty darn festive around here!!

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  5. Surely a cedar and the smell is divine. I'm not a bah hub person but the amount of decorating and undecorating and Christmas Cards sent seems more overwhelming each and ever passing year. Especially so with our grandchildren living so far away in Arizona...

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  6. Ron, I just bought a small tree for the porch - ready decorated. We used to have big ones but in the end we got rid of them... suddenly we had no energy to decorate or dismantle them.

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  7. Mona, decorating trees does become a bit of a chore and there's plenty of other things we can trim up.

    Denise, I used to have a very useful pelmet on which I could display Christmas cards... but we changed the style of window dressing and lost the pelmet. I miss it now!

    TB, I agree, the Christmas card list does seem to be getting longer. I now keep track with a list on the computer!

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  8. We have not fir trees in our yard...but have five walnut trees and I still go out there to roll for walnuts every day as we had a bumper crop this year and I can barely walk in the yard without twisting my ankle.

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  9. We have not fir trees in our yard...but have five walnut trees and I still go out there to roll for walnuts every day as we had a bumper crop this year and I can barely walk in the yard without twisting my ankle.

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