Christmasyness

Here’s wishing each of my readers, a very Merry Christmas! 

Sharing some images from the last 24 hours at our home.

Above, an amazing Emu egg I received in our family joke-gift grab. Thanks to my niece Lindsey, this was my favorite gift. Naturally, Joe wants to hatch it.

On overcast days like today, the scarlet red branches of the Coral Bark Maple, seem almost artificial set against a dull, winter landscape.  This shrub is planted in a frost proof fiberglass container on our deck, and it truly looks good every day of the year.

In the kitchen display window over the sink, I was stumped on what to bring in from the greenhouse for a display this year since camellia and jasmine become repetitive, but then I spotted some of the large bonsai spending the winter on the cold back porch, and I had an idea. Here, a bonsai trained Metasequoia trained by our friend bonsai expert Glen Lord of Bonsai West ( in Littleton MA) is set into a wooden tray which I covered with moss from our woodland. Glen is probably freaking out now that he knows that I brought this into the house while dormant, but, it’s only for a day, and this window is very cold. Completely natural decorations are just as beautiful as artificial ones, and this brought lots of comments from out guests, as it was lit at night, bringing the outdoors, in, for a day. 

I was tempted to add fake snow, but I didn’t. The bonsai pot it hidden under sheets of moss and rocks that I brought indoors. The entire display is set into a dark, wooded serving tray.

My vintage bottle brush tree collections with bamboo ( Sasa vietchii) outside.

Our Indian Runner ducks await their Christmas dinner  on the back lawn. You can see their duckling pictures on postings from last may. They have stopped laying eggs on these shortest days of the year.

Mercury Glass Christmas tree toppers on the mantlepiece display.

Nothing says Christmas like an Ikea squeeky rat.

paperwhite narcissus and Ilex berries

I know, it looks a little bit too much like a Pottery Barn catalog shot, but believe me, ask anyone who has visited our home, if I moved the camera one foot to the right, we could be on hoarders! But the house did look nice for our dinner thanks to some last-minute cleaning and hiding of junk. The best part of all – I have next week off from work! Yay! Maybe I can finish my magazine, but I will have to change the holiday pages to just winter pages. Never enough time to do all of the projects I want to.