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Christmas Tree.
Christmas Tree.
Two more weeks and it will be the twenty-fifth of December another Christmas day in my long life. Like most people I decided to get a Christmas tree to decorate. This year though things will be different though. I am going to buy a tree that is still growing not one that has been cut down. Going along to my garden suppliers I spoke to the owner and asked him if he had such a tree. “Come with me Mr.Shaw I will show you the small plantation where I grow my Christmas trees.” I walked with him to the back of the large premises and then saw the Christmas trees. Row after row of small to medium size Christmas trees were growing in a large area of cleared land. “These are the trees ready for sale, those with a red label are already sold you may choose any of the others.” I walked along the rows of trees until I came to one that was just the right size not to small and not too big. “This is the tree that I would like to buy,” I said. The owner quickly wrote my name and address on a red label and tied it to the tree. “When do you want us to deliver the tree?” he then asked. “Would tomorrow be alright?” I heard myself saying. “Tomorrow will be fine came the answer. We went back into the gardening centre and I paid for my new Christmas tree.
The following day just after ten in the morning; the gardening centre van stopped in front of my house. Two men carried the tree into my winter garden and after I gave them a small monetary tip both said “Good Morning and a very Happy Christmas to you.” I now had my Christmas tree in a large wooden tub and after Christmas was over I would plant it in my back garden and watch it grow. Going into town I went to the green grocer’s and bought all kinds of different nuts. Walnuts, Brazil nuts, and many others the names of which I have forgotten, my next stop was at the butchers, from the butcher I wanted some fat. At the newsagents I bought myself some balls of string then I went back home.
My next move was to decorate my Christmas tree. None of your glass baubles or tinsel for my new tree this tree would be just for the birds that frequent my garden summer and winter. Taking a large needle I threaded string through the nuts that I had previously taken out of their shells and hung them on the tree. Nuts and strips of fat soon covered the tree and I sat back in my chair and admired my work. The birds are going to love this Christmas they will have a real treat at my Christmas tree.
In the back garden I had dug out a hole big enough to take the roots of the tree. In the hole I had placed four large shovels full of rotting compost and the compost I covered with a layer of fresh earth. The hole I had covered with a couple of planks of wood and a small tarpaulin I did not want any frost to get into the hole.
My winter garden is a large glass room and a fairly warm place to sit in. The many plants and flowers delight my eyes whenever I have time to sit in my easy chair and watch them. I sat for quite while looking at the new Christmas tree. Suddenly the top of the tree looked as if someone had placed a blue light on it. The bluish light soon had bathed the whole tree in its eerie glow; I sat watching the tree and the blue glow for a very long time. The tree was still glowing when I went into the kitchen to make my evening meal. Before I went to bed I looked in at the Christmas tree, yet once again the blue light was still there. Christmas day came and I carefully took my tree into the back garden. It was one big struggle to get the tree to where I had dug and prepared my hole. I manage to get the tree in the ground and covered the roots with fresh earth. The eerie glow was still all around the tree a pale blue light. Walking back a few steps I watched as one sparrow flew to the tree and started pecking the fat that I had hung on the tree. Soon many other birds came to the tree and the many hungry birds ate the nuts and the fat. The blue colour stayed with the tree until the spring came in. One morning as I went into the garden to do some work I saw that the Christmas tree was now a lush green and it is still growing.
Where the blue light came from and why it stayed with the tree until the spring I do not know but I like to think that the blue light was a sign for the hungry birds to come and eat their fill. What do you think?
