Oh, how scary it gets...not only are we coming up to the longest night of the year, it may be the LAST night of the year or even the very existence of our lovely planet, if the Mayan Calendar Doomsday Sayers get their way.
So far, I haven't noticed any panic around the house. The News cover the usual hysteria inducing events, whether it is the fate of the Ikea Monkey Darwin or the latest lost and found people in Revelstoke's back country, or the effects of slushy weather on Vancouver commuter traffic or whether it should be allowed to show a 'Merry Christmas' sign on the outside of a transit bus.
The neighbourhood shows itself in 'Darkest time of the Year' splendour, lighting up the very darkness with led powered strings of decorative lights, wildly coloured spotlights, rubber snowmen with interior illumination, and various winged creatures (mostly female - really - female angels??) and wire ungulates.
One vacillates between Christmas nostalgia longing for long gone family get-togethers and a certain ennui with the unceasing attack of buy, buy buy for your loved ones, and a trace of melancholy looking out at a grey and rain drenched landscape.
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| My garden is adjusting to the customary Christmas colours, red and green, port and starboard... |
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| The local grocery store, instead of a collection of politically incorrect nativity scenes, exhibits a tempting collection of edible ginger bread houses, made of everything from pretzels to shortbread cookies |
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| A neighbour decorated his hedge with shiny Christmas bells, still allowing a little glimpse of the Ocean as backdrop |
