Tag: Christmas tree

In a vase on Tuesday: winter daffodils

Cindy at enclos*ure6 Comments

narcissus-21-enclosureOn Monday, we went downtown for lunch and a stop at Stuttgart’s Markthalle or indoor food market. I also stuck my head in the stylish home goods store that occupies its second floor and discovered that it was having a 50% off sale on Christmas ornaments. So I bought five of these little trees, which I had coveted earlier in December.

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At the same store, I also picked up some forced daffodils (1.90 euros). I liked the bright yellow plastic pot that they were already planted in, so I just dropped them into a little glass vase with some shell chips.

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Two of the buds opened up overnight. Very early thoughts of spring. . .

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To see what other garden bloggers put in vases yesterday, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

Happy New Year to all!

Madison Square

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christmas-tree-madison-sq-garden-nyc-1913-bain-library-of-congressRaising the Madison Square Christmas tree, ca. 1912 or 1913, New York City, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all photos here).

The park is located at Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street.

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Madison Square may have been* the site of the first illuminated community Christmas tree in America — lit on December 24, 1912.

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The tradition is continued today by the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Light is a dancer here and cannot rest.
No tanagers or jays are half so bright
As swarms of fire that deep in fragrance nest
In jungles of the gilt exotic night. . .

— John Frederick Nims, from “Christmas Tree“

*There may have been two prior illuminated community trees: in San Diego in 1904 and Pasadena in 1909.

Waterford, Ireland

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National Library of Ireland, 1929Christmas tree wagon of William Power & Sons, merchants of seeds and trees. Photo taken at Waterford, Ireland, courthouse on December 16, 1929, via National Library of Ireland Commons on flickr.

There’s another good photo of this little girl (possibly a Power) and another loaded company wagon here.

To be
Brought down at last
From the cold sighing mountain
Where I and the others
Had been fed, looked after, kept still,
Meant, I knew — of course I knew —
That it would only be a matter of weeks,
That there was nothing more to do. . . .

— James Merrill, from “Christmas Tree“