Corn Cob Birds

Day 60: Many of the ornaments on my Solstice Shrub are at least partly hand-made. In this case, the birds were store-bought, but I designed and created the corn cobs by beading them over a felt core tightly rolled around real cornhusks using #6 beads. Later, I took the process to extremes and made tiny end-of-thumb sized baskets, each holding three corn cobs made with #13 beads, so small that a standard beading needle wouldn't pass through the hole. Now as you might have guessed, my tree is full of birds of all sorts: resin, wood, felt, terra cotta, ceramic, metal. It's no wonder the chickadees sit on the shepherd's-hook outside the window looking at them. I'm sure they'd love to come inside to join the flock.

Magic And Mystery

Day 54: Seein' as how I already broke with tradition and made the St. Nicholas' Day cookies several days ahead of time, I chose to celebrate by putting up the Solstice Shrub today instead of on the 10th. The world could use more Light right now, both literally and metaphorically. I wasn't sure I'd get beyond erecting the tree, but by noon, all the birds were in their roosts, nestled among the boughs alongside snowflakes, icicles, a few frogs, a cat or two and the occasional sheep. Easily 80% of my ornaments are avian, probably closer to 85%. There are jays and nuthatches, goldfinches, parrots and penguins, cardinals galore, as well as dozens of purely whimsical, stylized birds but front and center is a Cockatoo representing the love of my life, gone now some twenty years though always close in my heart. His is always the first ornament to go on the tree and last to come down (unless there's a stray hiding somewhere). So many memories hang on my Solstice Shrub in caricature! Today, it shines in anticipation of the returning Light, illuminated by warm recollections of seasons past.

Lighting The Solstice Shrub

Day 58: When you live alone, it's tempting to dispense with decorating for the holidays. It's a lot of work, especially when you don't expect to have more than two or three drop-in guests (if that!). But traditions are an important part of the human psyche, and even though I don't celebrate "Christmas" in its religious sense, I do mark the Solstice and rejoice in the slow lengthening of daylight hours. For me, the holiday is one of Light, harking back to the first word my infant tongue pronounced: not "mama," not "dada," but "light," clearly and succinctly, and in reference to the full moon.

That said, I can no longer go at decorating full-tilt; I have to take it in stages. Today, I put up the Solstice Shrub (artificial...I refuse to support the killing of trees whether they have been raised for slaughter or not), and strung the lights. I may get a few ornaments on it before bedtime, but the bulk of them will be installed tomorrow.