As enamoured as I am of clothes, shoes, shopping, and the ilk, I occasionally hit a point where tawdry consumerism is all I can see and the gap between those who have and those who want seems more difficult than usual to ignore. The pre-Christmas conditions are perfect for bringing on this malaise and, sure enough, it hit this morning. I prefer to shop regularly, in small doses, when I don’t really need anything, and, after decades of frugality, I can often indulge myself by purchasing serendipitious finds when I find them(without reason and budget, obviously!). To have to find and buy something within a certain time frame just makes me cranky and apparently I’m not alone! Luckily, I didn’t have to get much at all from the shops this year and I was able to grab the last few things this morning and then able to decide just to let the rest go. There’s a certain point every year when I just say that Christmas will come and go without me and that I’m as “ready” as I’m going to be — and I’m there now. Even the “one for B…., one for me” shopping strategy held no appeal as I recognized yet again how lucky I already am, so instead of trying anything on, I headed by myself to our favourite crêperie, treated myself to a Number 5 on buckwheat (sometimes I just love eating out by myself–I feel so self-sufficient or something!) and then headed back to the apartment to nap and to read and to finish knitting the last few Christmas gifts.
Having found a surfeit of consumer goods in the city, I’m going to look at my photos of my year-end garden, and you can too . . .
I love these rusts, reds, browns and greys of leaves, twigs, and berries, with the occasional snowberry lightening up the mix
Here’s the white of the Hydrangea quercifolia (oakleaf hydrangea) flower still brightening the mixed browns, greens, and burgundies of that shrub’s winter palette.
Just nearby, the evergreen leaves of the Viburnum tinus ‘Spring Bouquet” are complemented by the metallic blue fruit and you can see the buds promising to flower in the next few weeks — I had a photo of that one, but it was just accidentally deleted (moving photos around using thumb-as-mouse on my husband’s laptop is an exercise in frustration!). I do have some buds left to show you, though. Look at these ones swelling up in the Hellebore
I love the glossy green foliage puntuaged by hints of red in the stems. More of that contrast below as my red osier dogwood stands out in front of the choisiya (Mexican mock orange)
Now that feels better — Nature’s calming colours have me breathing normally again. Back to my knitting so I have something to give those folks I couldn’t bear to shop for today!
