Okay guys, here's my 3rd tree.

just kidding ;-)
We had a festive time yesterday in downtown Ft. Worth and I esp took the digi to get some Texan winter scenes per MK's request. Since the landscape here is mostly tan and brown right now, unlike her beautiful scenery, I thought the city's bright lights would make my job easier ;-) If the batteries hadn't run out after 5 or 6 shots, I was would have had more for the new Texas Virtual Stroll. Never mind, I will still put the rest of them up there sometime and hopefully add even more later. Our downtown area has become a beautiful place to be - in just the last decade, retaining many historic building and adding a fabulous opera/performance hall and more.

Boy I haven't seen buildings that tall since we moved to WV. I think the tallest building here in Elkins with an elevator is the hospital - it has 3 whole floors. That's some tree too! Glad I don't have to take those lights down and store them for next year. It reminds me of the tree on the Mall in Washington, DC.

Here's what you can do with all those promotional software disks you get in the mail for AOL.



Now I just need to practice getting it round instead of oval. But an oval wreath will do for this year. I think just a single disk decorated would work too. Thought it would be good to hang over my hubby's computer desk. (My desk is filled with Christmas angels now.)

Christmas greetings to all! I enjoyed your photos immensely. I've scanned in some photos of the Christmas lights at a nearby botanical garden. The display is fantastic. Please visit
ChristmasLights

Even the lights on the buildings add to the scene Maggie.
Now why didn't I save my AOL disks? Still three days left still time to recieve plenty more.
Glad you popped in Susan, those flowers are light fantastic.

What a cute hoot - just the thing to hang over a putor Mk! I once made a disc mobile to sway over my techy niece's screen. Great minds...alike. ;-)

Welcome back Susan! Gosh I have never seen anything so beautifully done with lights. So glad you showed us, thank you. I'm tempted to have a go at it myself, well, on a tiny scale anyway. Larry cringes. This year we only managed to do half the amount of outdoor lights as we usually do around the house. :-(

Ya'll wouldn't expect to see buildings that tall in a town known as 'Cowtown' would you? It's gotten real citified round here in the last decade or two!

Are you going to show us the lights on your house Maggie? Or some of your miniatures? I hate for Christmas to arrive and go, I'm enjoying this so much.

Yes Susan the lights are beautiful! Wish I could come visit.

Susan, those botanical lights are fab! What a great idea.

MK, what can I say? You made something so unusal and pretty out of stuff I don't even open the package before tossing in the trash. The mobile sounds like a cute idea for a techie as well, Maggie.

Just a little historical note on the downtown lights in Fort Worth. I don't remember when they started outlining the downtown buildings with lights, but I suspect it was around 1961. The lights would be turned on after Thanksgiving. In 1963, when President Kennedy arrived in Fort Worth, the night before his assassination, the lights were turned on a few days early in his honor. He was very impressed, and asked, "They did this for me?"

Thanks Carolyn for the added touch of history. I always enjoy hearing the history of places I see.

For those of you interested in Christmas Crafts here is my angel collection.


I made the felt angel on the wall about 15 years ago with our kids when they were young. The angel to the right is ceramic and was a gift from my friend and neighbor. She made me something ceramic each year for Christmas. The blue lights light up - if I had enough electrical outlets.


This angel is from Germany and is made of fine lace with the detail stitched in. Our daughter was an exchange student one year, and her host parents sent this for Christmas.


The crocheted angel was a gift from an elderly friend of mine that is not able to get out much. She makes and sells these. This year she can't keep up with all the orders.

So glad you posted that Ft W lights history too Caro - I had forgotten hearing about JFKs remark. It would good to include it with the V Stroll of DT.

How dear of you to share your angels with us MK. Not that I spend much time on it these years, but any kind of needle work is another passion of mine, so I esp enjoyed seeing those lovelies. And I adore ornaments made and given by dear friends or chillens. They bring their memories back to us with every Christmas, don't they?
When Callie was little we made bread dough (sculpting recipe) decorations cut with a gingerbread man cookie cutter, but used the form for many more characters besides the gb men. Such as cats - one colored with the markings for each of our long-gone-much-missed kitties, painted with acrylic and sealed with polyurethane. Amazingly, a few have managed to survive. I would photo them and more, if they weren't still packed away, thanks to Moggy. I've been away from the house too much this week to make more deco picies, but will try to do more for you, thanks for asking. :-)

I finally got one of our tree, it's artificial, and Christine puts so much on it. I had to wire it back to the speaker bracket to stop it falling over. The wiring back to the bracket was my only contribution, but it adds so much to the scene. J

A Safe and Happy Holiday to All!

A Holiday Greeting for You

Thank you MK and a Merry Christmas to you and to everyone.

Thanks for the Christmas page, Mamakane, and for the great collection of angels. I'll take a picture of the angel my sister made out of shells - but the roll of film won't be finished off any time soon.

Nice to see your tree, Terry! Don and I didn't put up a tree this year. Seeing yours makes me wish we had...At least we have some lights in the yard!

Here's a Christmas card my mother sent:

Oh that is terrific Susan ~ Thank you!
This thread has been a delight - it's been just like dropping in for a holiday visit with our distant gardening friends!

Here's the answer to your mistletoe question Terry, to thank you for sharing yours and Christine's lovely tree.


It is so dear of you to make that beautiful message for us forum-ers MamaKane, thank you.
And thank you, everyone for the lovely Christmas Ecards. Larry and I have really enjoyed your sweet wishes.

Here's one of my ditties, to send all our gardening comrades a holiday smile, as well as lotsa oxoxoxoxoxos, as always, oxoxox maggie

We Know Our Land

We gardeners know our land
As others know their hands.
Every lifeline, bend and chink,
Each sight, scent and stink.

We know where each plant grows;
What hides and what shows.
Which was given, bought or sent.
What is meant, and what’s accident.

We know where every critter creeps
And wherever they all sleep.
Where every butter flies
And every bumble be.

Each nutty-squirrel planted oak
And every bind weed choke.
Where to prune and what to lop
And when each fruit will crop.

We know pill bug woes
And all that’s friend or foe.
Which plants and bugs are loves
And which are greedy thugs.

In every nook and cranny
Where there’s clay and where it’s sandy.
Wherever grassers hop
And when the hummers stop.

We know each niche of slithery hiss,
And every leafy beetle kiss.
Who and what’s inside each hole,
And every snip of mouse or vole.

What the dear deer will prune
And the rack of every coon.
Every slime trail route
And any pending drought.

We know more than we grow,
Yet know what’s best to sow
In borders, fields or pots,
Without fear of color cops.

We build pubs for slugs
And cotes for doves.
Dig dams, drains, grottos and knolls,
Ponds, sumps and planting holes.

For all the wonder it brings,
With each heartache that stings,
All is worth the toil,
To sculpt our precious soil.

We gardeners know our land
As others know their hands,
‘Cause ‘tween each line, scar and mole
Are goals to sate a thirsty soul.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I haven't been able to access the forum for several days. And look what all I've missed. MK, you are amazing. What a cool card. Susan, pretty clever card. Terry and Christine, great tree (neat lookin' stuff around it too). Maggie, pretty poem. Thanx for sharing your lives and gardening adventures with me this past year.

You are determined to make a thief of me Maggie, first the beautiful arrangement, now the poem.

I wondered where you went Caro.
Hope everyone had a wonderful time - we sure did!

After the rush, I now have the urge to add that the kissing ball really is round folks, and of better colors - just couldn't get it lit right to do it justice.

BTW Terry, the 'slug pubs' came from you :-)

I, too, haven't been able to make it back to the forum for a while now. I hope everyone's Christmas was everything they wanted it to be!

I just read through what all had been posted since my last visit. "Slug pubs"!! ROTFLMFBO!!! Wonderful! And I just can't believe that that room is a miniature, Maggie! And you didn't tell us you were a poet. How did you do that card, mamakane?! Nice! I've saved that picture of light flowers, Susan. NEVER have I seen anything like that! Makes me want to attempt a "light-bed" in front of the house next year!

I heard an interesting bit of mistletoe history the other day. Since mistletoe grows entirely on tree branches, long ago people thought it a gift God threw down for them. When they hade differences, they would meet under the mistletoe and settle them. This translates to the "meet me under the mistletoe for a kiss" tradition of today.

Mistletoe Lore, let's have some more ;-)
From my Mother's family - If you hang it at Christmas, it must be left there all year to ward off lightening and ensure a prosperous new year.
Oh dear.

I don't have any mistletoe lore to share, but how about a memory. Each year my Dad would take us into the woods to gather mistletoe for my Mom to decorate. He would shoot the mistletoe out of the tree! - sure beat climbing the trees. We would also find a nice pine to bring home for our tree. Actually we brought 2 trees home and tied them together - they all seemed to have a flat side where we live. I can't ever remember just 1 tree.

Terry, I used Miscrosft Home Publishing 99 for making the card. Then published it as a mini web page - actually the software program did all the work on creating the mini web folder, I just had to rename it and publish it on my web site.

Wingnut, I checked a couple of 'Flower Language' books for mistletoe - the meaning relates to your history source too. Both reported that mistletoe symbolized "I surmount difficulties". Cool, there is definitely a connection between the two.

MK, your mistletoe and tree collecting treks sound picture card lovely ! Well, except for the tree shooting Haha such a funny image. Dad must have been an eagle eye. I gathered ours from a park and only managed to get the bits growing low down on the trunk. Must remember to take the rifle next time, to get in some target practice as well as mistletoe ;-)
Tying the two trees together and then Terry's wiring trick both remind me of a friend's tree from long ago. She had a romping-stage litter of kittens in the house at Christmas time. After they had knocked over the tree too many times, she screwed a big hook in the ceiling and just hung the whole darn tree from it! Then when the kittens attached themselves to the tree in a flying leap, it just swung with them instead of falling over. :-0

Hi All,A belated Merry Christmas to all,had a little problem with the computer for a week or so. They say it crashed,but thank god it wasnt my fault!!!!!! Anyway Christmas was busy,especially with grandchildren around,but lots of fun.A belated thank you to Terry for the advice re:my orchid,I did what you said and moved it to a warmer location and hoping for the best,I will let you know.We are still in the North Pole mode here and this weekend more snow,YUK....Only 5 weeks till groundhogs day,Im thinking Spring cant be too far behind,too much caffeine this morning,its only 7 degrees out there....I hear the weather in Texas is horrible too,hope things arent too bad in your neck of the woods Maggie!!!!!Talk to you all soon :-0

Oh how I would love to see the kitties swinging from the tree hooked to the ceiling! I'm laughing, just imagining it.

My dad was one of those people that once he placed an item of furniture, picture, or in this case Xmas tree in a certain place...that's where it stayed....forever. At our old farmhouse, Dad put the Xmas tree between the fireplace and the French doors on the north side of the house, which were the doors we brought the firewood in through. If there was a strong North wind, when the French doors were opened, the Xmas tree blew over. So, the standard remarks about getting firewood were something like, "Paul, open the door when Daddy brings in the firewood, and Carolyn, hold the Xmas tree." After breaking a few too many stars that had been on top of the tree, Dad hung a star from the ceiling, and every year put the tree beneath the star. When we sold that house 2 years ago, the star was still hanging where Dad had put it 30 years before. I've often wondered if the folks who bought the house ever puzzled over that old star hanging from the ceiling. It must have been the "tree hanging from the ceiling" story that reminded me of this.

So that really was a guiding star Carolyn.

Hi Mary, glad you joined us. We missed the really bad ice storm, but the north TX border sure got a bad dose. Much tree damage and many people without electric for days. It sure sounds bad up there in New York, from the news reports. Looks like you are in for lots of reading time - keep warm! Do you have a wired-tree stories?

Great story C. Amazing how many trees end up with wire treatments! I just remembered another one. We used an artificial tree for a few years. But Alex moped about it so much that we reverted to the real thing after a while. Before we chucked it, some of the branches wouldn't work right and had to be hiked up to the trunk with wire - not as amusing as the kitten swing, but this is becoming a collection :-)

Then there is this guy who would buy the cheapest tree possible, trim off some of the stick-out stems, drill holes into the trunk where it was bald and glue the trimmed stems into the bald spots. I need to do that to my bottle tree - or atleast drill holes to put some big screws in it, to hold more bottles!