Saturday, November 26, 2016

Season's Greetings

In honor of yesterday's #OptOut celebration, last night we attended the Taylors Falls Lighting Festival's Grand Lighting of Village & Santa Parade. There's more activities today and tomorrow if you're interested.

local Cub Scout pack float
local Cub Scout pack float
Photo by J. Harrington

Christmas lights on a local business float
Christmas lights on a local business float
Photo by J. Harrington

cast of A Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas
cast of A Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas
Photo by J. Harrington

Today it was off to get our Christmas tree. On the way, we stopped at our favorite coffee shop and book store in Cambridge to help honor Small Business Saturday. At the family-owned Christmas tree emporium, the erratic and unseasonable weather we've been having required some adjustments to the parking and tree loading area.

a muddy North Country Christmas?
a muddy North Country Christmas?
Photo by J. Harrington


Nest


By Jeffrey Harrison


It wasn’t until we got the Christmas tree
into the house and up on the stand
that our daughter discovered a small bird’s nest
tucked among its needled branches.

Amazing, that the nest had made it
all the way from Nova Scotia on a truck
mashed together with hundreds of other trees
without being dislodged or crushed.
And now it made the tree feel wilder,
a balsam fir growing in our living room,
as though at any moment a bird might flutter
through the house and return to the nest.

And yet, because we’d brought the tree indoors,
we’d turned the nest into the first ornament.
So we wound the tree with strings of lights,
draped it with strands of red beads,

and added the other ornaments, then dropped
two small brass bells into the nest, like eggs
containing music, and hung a painted goldfinch
from the branch above, as if to keep them warm.


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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.

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