Merry Christmas

Post 21 (Please click on links for music.)

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ...

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

                                           IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

 

 Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming
  from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming,
  as those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
  amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night...

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
dispels with glorious splendor
the darkness everywhere;
true man, yet very God,
from sin and death he saves us,
and lightens every load.

Lo. How a Rose e'er blooming




O Holy Night



Hallelujah



Waltz of the Flowers

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

*
Merry Christmas, Happy Yule,

May the rule of love bejewel

12 starlit nights, as newborn sun 

Cries good news to everyone.

Watch the constellations dance,

Their patterns turned in winged spheres

That angels and the blessed hear,

While we move within our years.

And so, within these very years:

Can you hear what music falls,

As the stars bow down with song

 To the pattern of their call?

William Blake

Silent Night

Wissahickon Style II

Post 20

Looking for a good Christmas gift book? Consider "Metropolitan Paradise' by Carol Franklin and David Contosta. This work uses a series of snappy, well-illustrated vignettes that delight and instruct as they take you through the history of the Wissahickon watershed.

Carol Franklin, a landscape architect who grew up in Northwest Philly, first used the term 'Wissahickon Style' in a 1989 seminar. David Contosta has written so many books on this area that he probably dreams in schist. Together, they have created a work that feeds the senses, the intellect and the soul.

For Wissahickon Style posts, I include photos of other peoples' and public properties. Unless otherwise noted, these are photos taken by me from right of ways somewhere within the Wissahickon watershed. Except for already well-known places, I prefer not to identify locations for privacy reasons.

Light in the Winter Garden

Post 19

                                                          
No, the garden is not over.


Nandina berries hang above angel by the door, the Heavenly Bamboo's lush foliage uplit by the variegated euonymus underneath


On the other side of the door, the Camellia, which last year did not bloom till February, now looks like it will soon mean business.


And this morning it did.

And another surprise, this one so unlikely as to bring a rush of wonder.

A violet. In spring violets cram the hellstrip, and in midfall there may be some rebloom...but in December? A December violet?


"A violet by a mossy stone,
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one 
Is shining in the sky."


An image I have loved since High School, now, for a moment, seen.


The image comes from a group of poems by Wordsworth called "The Lucy Poems." His flower is of spring and isolation, growing along untrodden ways. But here is a very different violet indeed, one between well trodden sidewalk, stone and city street, blooming close to St Lucy's day.

--(If you live around Philadelphia and are open to Christian folk festivals (with strong pagan influence), get thee to Gloria Dei, Old Swedes Church to see a lovely antithesis to commercial pre-Christmas festivity.
Lucia Fest & St. Eric’s Fair at Old Swedes’ ChurchDecember 9-11, 2011Fri Dec. 9 - 6pm and 8pmSat and Sun Dec 10-11  2pm, 3:30pm and 5pm)--

Back to the garden... the hydrangeas still please

The grasses bend...

An azalea opens...

The roses bloom.

Early winter/late fall is not all brown after all, but can be full of good surprises. Less pie in your eye than midsummer, the light, nevertheless, remains sufficient to the day. Not a bad lesson to learn.

How to violet: Common Blue Violet or Viola papilionacea is another one of those plants that is hard to buy, but easy to find around. Yes, in proper conditions it will rapaciously self-seed, so keep it out of any place where you do not want it to spread. It flowers in spring in waste places that are moist and have dappled shade. Given enough moisture and shade the plants will continue till frost. In dry years or places, the plant will disappear, only to return the following spring.  And it is not just their shy beauty that is fetching, it is their odor as well. It is also an edible flower and looks lovely in salads, ice cream and on cupcakes.