What Do You Get From Sitting On The Ice For Too Long?… Polaroids!
It seems that Trumps lies and sins will finally catch up with him. Epstein shall be his ruin and hopefully Epstein’s partner in crime Maxine will be sent back to the hell hole she was in before and good luck to her. Trump is finally feeling some of the errors in his poor judgment on tariffs and is reversing some to relieve the prices of food in the USA. It will be a long time before they recoup and of course he has more time to do more damage!
The yard and greenhouse are nearly wrapped up for the year and when the last of the leaves are up I suspect we’ll get some snow. Snow has been predicted for about the 23rd however if its similar to the rain forecasts that we got throughout the fall I’m not that convinced that we will get that much or any. I can’t believe how quickly November went and how quickly Christmas is approaching. The next step will be setting up my lights and decorating the yard. Then the Christmas Tree! There are about 350 million Christmas Trees grown in the USA of which 25 to 30 million are exported around the world. There are also a very large number of artificial trees being produced as well. Ancient people hung boughs over their doors and windows to keep at bay ghosts, witches, evil spirits and to prevent illness.
Long before Christianity and the birth of Christ trees and evergreen boughs were used as a symbol of life over death and the Druids used them as a sign of everlasting life. The Vikings used them to honour their Sun God, Balder. For the early Romans evergreens were a symbol of the rebirth of farms and orchards. The first evergreen trees were first brought into homes and decorated in 1510 by the Latvians. In the 16th century they were widely used in Christian homes and in the 17th century immigrants brought them to the New World although they were considered pagan and were shunned by other settlers until in 1848 Queen Victoria put up a tree for her children. It soon became the norm and trees went up throughout Europe and North America. Early decorations were apples, nuts, marzipan, cookies and other sweets. Soon after the Germans were making beautiful glass ornaments. Tinsel, made from thin strips of beaten silver and with that same the myth about the Christmas Spider. A family too poor to decorate their tree for Christmas had all gone to bed but when they awoke the next morning the Tree Spider had covered their tree in spider webs that on Christmas morning these webs had turned to Silver and Gold and this was done by St. Nicholas, Father Christmas now called Santa Clause. The first lighting of the Christmas Tree was done by Martin Luther a Protestant preacher who when walking home one night and stopped to admire the stars that seemed to glitter in the evergreen trees in the distance.
Using candles to light their trees was of course beautiful but led to many disasters including the burning down of a Chicago Hospital in 1885. In 1917 an enterprising young teenager using the rapidly expanding electric light capability started the infamous Noma Electric Company.
Your tree should be placed where it can be seen from outside and where it can be seen while dining or relaxing with friends and family. Keep it away from radiators and base boards. When you get your tree home cut a small wedge of the bottom of the stem and put in water to keep the needles moist and supple. Add a drop of bleach to this water and some sugar source this will make the water more acidic will help with absorption and will also kill bacteria which will shorten the life of the tree.
Happy Gardening!
Samantha Nason
BS Ranch & Greenhouses
250 547 6567
sam1nason@gmail.com
