spotted towhee

i'm sorry!i would guess about eight years ago i bought a fraser fir seedling at a christmas tree farm, which is now city parkland, and planted it in the backyard. abies fraseri are the ideal christmas tree. beautiful symetrical structure, strong green color, lovely needle form and an openness that allows for decorations to shine. well, as our garden has become more mature all my little seedlings, and i have planted many trees of all sorts, have started to obscure my beloved sunshine so i made the decision that i would wait until christmas time and harvest the faser fir. i think the tree grew four to five feet just in the last year, so if it were to come down this would have to be the year to do it. this is the worst part of christmas time to me. i hate that a tree that has grown for years and years is chopped down to enjoy for just a few weeks and then turned into compost. so i said to the tree just before we cut it down, "i'm sorry!".

i must admit that this is the most beautiful tree we have ever had in our house. we cut it so it is just a couple of millimeters from hitting the ceiling. it looks so odd out there were it used to be in the garden, so open, unconfined. the tree was cut right to the ground so it appears as if it were never there. a ghost tree. it has to be the freshest christmas tree ever, just hauled in from the backyard. thank you tree for your years of growth to become our holiday decoration.

happy holidays.