How many of us want to keep it simple for the holidays?  Especially now.  I, for one have been shamed out of wanting to shop by the atrocious behavior of fellow consumers.  And aren’t we all feeling a little pinched money wise this year?  I’d love to keep Christmas simple and for me that means giving gifts to my family and friends that are meaningful rather than frivolous and I have just a couple of recommendations to share if anyone else out there is so inclined.

How about giving a loved one the gift of membership to your favorite non-profit organization like … say, Blithewold?!  It’s the kind of gift that not only benefits the recipient (for a list of membership perks click here) but also helps your favorite organization stay afloat in rough waters.  Don’t forget that if you click through the membership link in the side bar (or here) you, as a blog reader, are entitled to a 20% discount.  Such a deal!  And what about giving the gift of an outing?  I know a lot of families that make an annual pilgrimage to Christmas at Blithewold – why not bring a friend too?  Or you could plan ahead for a walk in the spring…

I’ve heard a lot of people lately talking about shopping locally and that’s a terrific idea for boosting your town’s economy – plus your gifts are more likely to be thoughtful and unique.  BUT if you can only find that most perfect thing for Auntie on Amazon, please enter their site via ours (or your other favorite non-profit).  By clicking on the link in the sidebar (you can peruse my garden book recommendations but you’re by no means limited to purchasing those) and following through with a purchase of any kind, Blithewold receives a small percentage of the sale.  It’s a really easy way to make a donation and shop “locally”!  (If you’re like me and you forget and always click your browser’s Amazon bookmark instead, make a new bookmark for the blog and title it “Amazon”.  Easy-peasy.)

Gifts of time and creativity are also extra special.  You could give the gift of a hand in the garden come spring – or you could do as I like to do and make terrariums for everyone!  It turns out that terrariums can be the kind of gift you can give again next year if the plants have petrified…  The parentals who gave these terrariums back to me asked for new ones – that certainly solves the dilemma of what to make for them this year!  For anyone who has a terrarium that’s limping along in need of a little TLC, I’m planning to write a terrarium rehab post in the near future.

Are you keeping it simple this year?  Do you have any other gift ideas to share?

I’m stuck on a baublular theme because I have to rave about what Fred and Dan have hung from the trees this year.  Each year the staff, volunteers and visitors are surprised by yet another spectacular light show – from a star topped Giant Sequoia one year, to a Ginkgo with huge “fruit”, to last year’s flowering Star Magnolia.  And every year I think – “Whoa!  OK, this is my favorite!”  Well.  This year’s night lights are my total top favorite of all time.  (At least until next year.)

In honor of Blithewold’s Centennial Anniversary, Fred and Dan didn’t hold back.  At all.  Seeing is believing that they used 1000 linear feet of bamboo and 10,000 lights to decorate two front lawn Beech trees with 50 stars each.   And you have to see it for yourself – I’ll show a photo (if I get any good ones) only after everyone in the vicinity (a 1000 mile radius?) has had a chance to see it live first.  Ferry Road traffic has slowed for gaping rubberneckers – it’s a little scary to think you might be hit by someone who’s not watching the road anymore.  But it’s so worth the worry for a drive by and even better, a stop in – I know I’ve already mentioned that the inside of the mansion is bedecked to the very nines too and not to be missed for all the dust in fairyland.

What is it about Christmas lights?  Is it an inner kid thing that makes me grin and want to clap when I see a good display?  Am I already so starved for daylight that I’ll settle for staring at 10,000 tiny bulbs on a string?  Do you decorate with lights?  Why?

‘Tis the season to hang stuff from branches – even the trees are doing it!  – Hey, maybe that’s where Martha and the rest of us got the idea…  And when the trees drop their decorations, I think it’s totally fair game for us to pick some of it up and hang it somewhere else.

Gail and I – Gail especially maybe  – have been getting a little sidetracked with the abundance of visible cones and pods all over the property.  She’s been picking them up by the armful and I’ve been studying their whorls, patterns and the Fibonacci sequence like there’s going to be a test.  How well do you know your cones?  Quiz yourself on the pictures below and hover over for the answers (no cheating! – Just kidding – it’s ok to cheat.)  Can you guess which one is not a cone but a pod?  Do you know what makes a cone a cone and not a pod?*

How did you do?  There’s only one cone I know well enough to call by its first name when I meet it on the street.  A few years ago I was asked to draw a picture of a Giant Sequoia cone for Blithewold’s tree map and I must say there’s nothing like turning something over and over in one hand and drawing it over and over with the other to learn it by heart.  I’m inspired to draw the others now that I remember that trick.  Or maybe I’ll just spraypaint them silver and hang them from a new branch…  Do you collect cones and pods and other garden baubles?

*A cone is a woody, scaly structure on gymnosperms (conifers) from which naked seeds are dispersed.  A pod, loosely defined, is a dry fruit that splits open to disperse seed.