IF IT'S TRUE what is said about the number 13 being the unluckiest number, then this year has played out the way it should. It has been one of the unluckiest years on record, in my life anyway, as well as a number of friend's lives. The New Year's holiday can be one of trepidation, but since 2014 can only get better than 2013—in my book—I give the new year a whole-hearted and welcoming embrace. That's what the New Year's celebration has always been about—setting intentions for the future.
THIS TREE signifies a celebration of the best that has yet to come. And it will be colorful, fiery and bright. I know that if I can create a magical tree such as this, then I surely can muster some of that magic in my own life. Let it be so. That is my wish for the New Year. Although I'm not particularly religious, I am spiritual, and my God is found in nature and the cosmos, so I'll share the best-known form of the serenity prayer to push my intent to the universe on this New Moon New Year's Eve:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
THE GRACE of a deer is also significant. Ever alert and at one within its natural surroundings, the beautiful symbol of a deer is a poetic metaphor for leaping ahead to the new year. May the original form of the serenity prayer be a comfort in the New Year, no matter whom or what your God embodies.
The original words, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr:
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.
A GIFT that won't fail to be appreciated is at once personal and unique. You can never go wrong with an ornament as a gift if you match the ornament to the recipient's taste level. Also, if you put consideration into it being something symbolic of your relationship with them or something pertaining to their personality and likes, it becomes an especially thoughtful gesture. Since Matthew Mead has been an ardent supporter of my blog and has included my work in last year's and this year's issue of his holiday magazine, as well as a recent blog post where he named me "King of the Forest," I gifted he and his wife a literal tree ornament like the one you see above. Last year, I gave them a different tree ornament, along with a copy my book The Decorated Tree. He's already utilized this year's ornament as a prop in one of his beautiful photographs illustrating how to decorate a mantle.
EVEN IF YOU'RE a last-minute shopper, the variety and abundance of ornaments on the market during the holidays is so vast, you will surely to find something special for everyone on your list—even if they are hard to buy for. Ornaments also make great tie-ons for special gifts. Since I am on the constant lookout for the perfect ornaments to decorate the trees for this blog, I see the best-of-the-best in my collecting pursuit. I've found that selecting ornaments that are neutral in color (or even clear glass like this beautiful heart) are the best way to go when buying one as a gift, because they can be incorporated on almost any tree. And what says "I love you" more than a heart-shaped ornament? I collect heart-shaped ornaments in memory of my mother, as I maintained a yearly tradition of tying one onto a special gift to her every Christmas. The collection still grows in her memory.
THE CHRISTMAS after she passed I had a dream about her in which I gave her a brooch that inspired an entire tree. I'm including the photos of the tree here, but you can read the original post here. This tree is an assemblage of ornaments that remind me of my mother's spirit and humor. It served as a altar of sorts to her memory. It's still one of my favorite trees because it is so symbolic of a mother's love and was completely inspired by a dream of a gift I never got to give her, except in my dream, which is why I entitled the post "Tree of Dreams."
IF YOU TAKE a closer look at this tree, you'll see a myriad of symbolic and figural ornaments, all brought together by the cohesive color scheme inspired by the brooch. Even though most family trees are a hodge-podge of family memories (and there's nothing else like them), the trees I present in my blog are designed to create a certain theme or mood, which dictates that I usually stick to a predetermined color palette as I have in this post. Still, there is room for a lot of variety within such parameters. Not long after my parents had passed, I gave ornament gifts to my siblings representing my parents (a bluebird and a butterfly). I detail the special packaging in which I presented them in this post.
THE BROOCH (or the facsimile I found after having had the dream) inspired the tree above. You'll see it at the top of the photograph above. Another brooch I happened upon this year reminded me of a Christmas tree pin my mother used to wear. The tree brooch caught my eye in a glass cabinet at the checkout of a store that sells soft drinks and snacks, of all things. I saw the brooch as I made my purchase and immediately asked to see it, and I bought it as another memento of my mother's memory. Maybe this tree brooch will inspire another traditionally-colored tree. Maybe it's a message of inspiration from my mother to create one! I think my more sophisticated adult approach is much different than one as seen through a child's eyes. Or maybe it's only a reminder from the universe to rekindle the innocence I've sometimes lost in seeing a tree as a child would see it. Any way you slice it, it's a definite creative challenge to think of a way to create that innocent wonder and magic.
HANDMADE ORNAMENTS are always welcome gifts, such as this polar bear made by my friend David Schump. In his modernized tramp art style, he creates ornaments sold on his website entitled "The Art Tramp". I've bought two ornaments from him this year and have two more on hold that he has made. He makes them in limited quantities, but I'm not sure if he has plans to make multiples of this one-of-a-kind polar bear pictured above. Please check out his site for other beautiful tramp art creations, including beautiful symbolic boxes here. The hand-blown glass deer ornament at the bottom of the photo above, is also quite special. Both ornaments would be a welcome addition to any tree, certainly adding a personality that only animals can. Animals evocative of winter are especially appropriate gifts to celebrate the winter solstice that happens just a few days before Christmas (December 21st this year). They also serve as a reminder for us to be careful stewards of the eroding environment in which such animals live.
MANY ORNAMENTS are commercially available, such as this lettered cardboard butterfly and a sturdy metal peace sign, which looks as if it's made from twigs. I gave the butterfly ornament this year as a gift to a former companion since butterflies represent his sister, who died of cancer much too early. I know how much he loved her and how he cherishes the butterfly symbol his family has adopted to represent her life. Either of these ornaments would be an appropriate gift for your more gentle, peace-loving friends, or as a special memory of one.
STARS ARE THE SHINING symbols of the light of the season. They give us hope for a future filled with the best things life can offer. It's no secret how stars have figured into my world since that special night in Tulum I've written about in posts this year. These two gold stars were gifts for Devin and serve as a reminder that while reaching for the stars in his new life in New York City, he should not forget the stars we saw on that unencumbered beach last November and the love we professed for one another. The light of the stars in such an atmospherically unobscured sky is our gift from the universe, reminding us all how insignificant we are in the big scheme of things and humbling us enough to live our lives with unconditional love.
TODAY WOULD have been my parent's 68th wedding anniversary. They were married December 23rd, 1945 and both lived short of their 60th anniversary in 2005. I feel extremely lucky to have had the bedrock example my parents both set and the real unconditional love they shared with my entire family. Love hasn't worked out so well for me, but I'm in a different situation and unable to legally marry. Maybe one day, that will become a reality wherever I live, as it has already for many in this country and around the world. But until then, I'll keep trying to find the one who will make that sort of unconditional commitment and stick by my side, for better or for worse. I am truly ready for that to happen. MUCH LIGHT and LOVE to everyone this holiday season. May you and yours find the indefinable magic of the season. And remember those special people in your lives that are less fortunate than you, and include them in your family gatherings to share in the joy of Christmas.
ALWAYS LOOKING for something fresh when designing a new
tree, I am rarely drawn to the traditional color schemes of the holiday season it seems.
Not that the traditional reds and greens aren’t beautiful and symbolic of
Christmas—they are absolutely
iconic. It's just that I find great pleasure in combining new shapes, color and form. I steered far from the traditional with the first tree I designed that is crafted by Dennis Bauer: The Decorated Tree's Alpine Feather Tree (sold here at Hometraditions.com) In Matthew Mead's beautiful holiday publication, the tree decorated in rich
pinks and oranges (as appearing in the pages of Matthew Mead’s Christmas All Through the House (sold here on Amazon.com). The tree is also detailed in this blog post.
IN A SIMILAR, but much more subdued warm color scheme, I've decorated this beautifully sparse “natural-cut” tree (yes, it's real) for Christmas this year. I found this tree at at Atlanta's Georgia State Farmer's Market—grown and sold by my favorite sellers there—Joel and Inez Owens. Their trees are grown in Tuckasegee, North Carolina and brought to Atlanta every year. Decorated in summery tones of yellow, gold,
silver and several shades of turquoise, this color scheme reminds me of a memorable trip taken to Tulum, Mexico last November, where the turquoise Caribbean water and the golden sun and sand were an inspiring part of the everyday landscape. Nights there, the sky was filled with awe-inspiring stars, so I've also used tiny LED Starry String Lights from Restoration Hardware to light the tree (a decidedly modern version of Martin Luther's lighting the first evergreen with candles to rekindle the starry night sky inside his home).
HERE, I ONLY used the top two-thirds of the tree, and left most of
the long trunk formed by trimming off the less desirable bottom branches. This way the tree fit nicely into a tall metal urn, which I packed with moistened sand—ironically enough—to hold the tree firmly in place.
WHEN FOLLOWING the paths least
traveled in life, the world becomes ripe with wonder and surprise again. This is my symbolic and literal way to usher in a fresh perspective to my life that has drastically changed this year. Hopefully, I can soon find my way back to happier and more prosperous times again. It's been a process, so please excuse me while I decorate for Christmas and welcome sunny colors to the mix that brings the warmth of the Caribbean to my living room.
WE’RE INUNDATED with the expected every day. And because of these mental habits, we tend to become disengaged with the immediate world around us. It’s
only when we travel, either physically or metaphorically, that we can let our minds
wander and experience the awe that makes life new and exciting once again. One of my favorite YouTube videos I've encountered this year says it all—about awe. Please take the time to watch it:
IN THIS VIDEO, "Performance Philosopher" Jason Silva explains that "one of the ways we elicit wonder is by scrambling the self temporarily so that the world can seep in." If we don’t do this from time to time, we no longer are engaged by what we perceive as the everyday banality of the mundane. "We have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel, nor understand," according to this video. As an artist, the creatively productive zone where I find new
ways of looking at things is a necessary process in moving outside of my comfort zone—to find a fresh perspective. It's sometimes an extremely arduous process, as this year has definitely been for me. But as Jason finds the words to express the reconfiguring and assimilating that takes place to create poetry in our lives, he concludes this hopeful video with the words, "we have a responsibility to awe." So with that said, I wish everyone that reads my blog an AWEsome holiday season ahead.
IT MAY NOT ALWAYS be readily apparent, but if you squint,
blur your eyes and find the space between reality and the magic that is in the
very air we breathe during the holidays—if you listen intently—you might even hear the sleigh bells ringing and a distant
chuckle. Then you'll know that St. Nicholas will soon be here. I REMEMBER in decorating the trees of my childhood, the
lights were always multicolored then, with some of the bulbs being an unblinking solid color, and
some being a translucent color. All of them were blinking on their own independent schedule. This gave
the tree an effect of a multicolored sky of bright fireflies. The overall
scene was wonderously magical. WHEN THE TREE was done I would sit on the sofa facing the
the "picture window," in front of which the tree stood proudly, for the passersby to see. I would blur my eyes until the lights melded together and formed halos
of overlapping color. It was mesmerizing. It was if we had our own blinking constellation
of color that bounced off of the ceiling and every reflective surface in the room. SOME SAY the season is ushered in at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade by Santa in his sleigh
being pulled by eight flying reindeer. That's the way it used to be. These days it starts long before that. But the beginning mark of
the holiday season is when the magic of the season lights up a child’s eyes. Whether it be by
the lights themselves, glitter everywhere you look, or brightly-hued baubles hanging from the tree's branches;
the real focus of the season is where all of that comes together—the tree.
THIS ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT TREE was conceived by good intentions
when it was decorated, but it drooped and sagged under the weight of the heavy
glittered reindeer heads, metal acanthus leaves and sleigh bells. Even so, Santa was diligent with his reindeer, create their own brand of glittery magic. With its LED lit branches, the tree still provided a measure of warmth for
the season that began after Thanksgiving, so the droopy branches didn't seem to matter.
ITS QUIRKY NATURE, I thought, was a welcome relief from a
tediously-decorated real tree that was the year before. Not to say they both
weren’t beautiful in their own right. Even in my semi-failures, I try to find the
beauty, so they’re not really failures at all. I even glittered one of the
reindeer’s noses with red glass glitter, to make Rudolf's nose glow. Now he stood out alongside Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen . . . and on with, Comet, Cupid,
Donner, Blitzen! THE REINDEER GAMES of the season are your chance to experiment
with something new. It’s always enjoyable to look for a uniquely creative way to express
the holiday. So with your best conceptual Santa cap on, consider a new way to
decorate your tree—even try a new kind of tree. It's always satisfying to find a distinctive way to decorate and stand out from the crowd. Santa might even give you a reward and let you guide his sleigh through the season. And now that you're aligned with Rudolf, you may even go
down in history!
A SIMPLE THANKS will do, they say. Saying thank you to the giver for the gifts you receive is always in order. But what if that just doesn't seem like enough? How do you thank the air that we breathe, the blood that runs through our veins, or the abundance of things that sustain our very lives? Such is love. It is painfully obvious that there is a great disparity between the haves and have nots of the world—both in love and life. Yet it always seems that those who have less have the distinct ability to say "thank you" in a way that transcends the obligation to do so. True gratitude is made of love.
A TRUE SENSE of love is necessary to understand what "thank you" actually means. Love seems to be the most elusive, the most misunderstood and the most misused emotion. It's rare that love ever needs words to express itself. It just is. It's the indiscernible truth at the heart of everything that makes life worth living. It is the basis of what drives us forward, what gives us hope and what feeds our soul. Yet, its meaning has been skewed. It has been made into a commodity. But love exists simply to give thanks and really mean it.
THE TREE ABOVE was given to me by my dear friend Peggy Dana as a gift a short while back. And I have had the tiny fruit ornaments that decorate it for as long as I can remember (probably at least 20 years). It is only now that I found a place for them. The variety of grapes, pears, apples and oranges that embellish this simple gift, essentially transform it into a sort of "tree of life," symbolic of the fruits of our labors in life and love. I thought this would be perfect to illustrate the idea behind Thanksgiving this year. Giving thanks is the simplest act of love, but yet the most profound. Embellishing this tree is an act of thanks (love) for selfless friends such as Peggy. She's one of those people in my life that truly understands who I am and of what I am made. And I thank her for just being her loving self. It's as simple as that.
WE ALL HAVE them in our lives. Those people and things for which to be thankful. Every act of love is just that—an intention to give thanks—and we must make a conscious effort to do so. My own mother gave me the ultimate thank you not long before she died. She and I were alone in her hospital room and suddenly we were talking about love. She told me "I loved too much." And then she said to me "that I would never know how much she loved me." I said to her "mother, I do know—you taught me how to love." She floored me by throwing it right back at me, saying "Darryl, you taught me how to love." So, I live with that moment every day of my life, and it gives me hope that I can teach someone else. That's what love (and Thanksgiving) is all about. My mother taught me how to give thanks.
THANKSGIVING has never been the same without her. The feast that she prepared for our family was always the same though. There was the requisite turkey with giblet gravy; her famous sage and cornbread dressing; her cranberry, citrus and pecan congealed salad; homegrown creamed corn (that had been frozen the summer before); green beans; potato salad; yeast rolls; pecan pie; pumpkin pie; German chocolate cake; and a fresh coconut cake. I'm probably leaving a few things out, but you get the idea. I am thankful for the abundance of love that she gave our family. To have her tell me that what she taught me about love is what I taught her in return, is the essence of giving thanks—it's not about getting and giving. It's just the alchemy of love behind the stuff of life which pays it forward.
THIS YEAR, I deem Halloween happy. None of that spooky, scary, macabre or twisted stuff for me. I've get quite enough of the things that keep you awake at night on the daily news, thank you very much. It seems there's been a reversal. Could it be that the original intent of Halloween is no longer needed? When our everyday lives are filled with trickery and not treatery?
THE WORD "Halloween" is actually of Christian origin and dates back to 1745. It literally means "hallowed" or "holy" evening. Hmmm, that's more like it if you're remembering saints, martyrs and all the faithful departed believers. Those truly faithful of yore still might have something to say to us of fore. And I bet their impetus would be a happy one, instead of a scolding one, no?
INSPIRATION comes to me from many different directions. The process is sometimes more interesting than the end result. Such is the case in this year's Halloween tree. Sometimes my vision for a tree doesn't come together quite like I have imagined—taking on a direction of its own—which is fine by me. It is still a fun exercise to make a treat to share.
A KIND OF free-association is what makes the happy accidents happen. My tree ended up with a decidedly subtle demeanor, which renders it incongruent with the increasingly large Halloween celebrations we see today. Or maybe its just a natural transition to the elegant holiday celebrations in the season ahead that carry us into the next year.
THIS TREE's understated Halloween presence incorporates one-eyed pleated rounds (I glued one googly eye in the middle of each for subtle humor), Christopher Radko's Shiny Brite Halloween ornaments and larger ones webbed with glitter (slightly displaced in form, not color—rushing the Christmas season ahead), and graphic tins and containers at the base containing unexpected Halloween treats such as licorice candies (which admittedly, a lot of people don't like, but I know some like me who do).
WHEN THINKING happy, my thoughts went immediately to the generic goblin masks of my youth, which I would love to see a comeback of in a market overtaken by commercial characters and gruesome zombies that saturate the media). I've gathered some photos of them here and present their retro-generic, but scary-fun presence in this photo grid. Altogether, the color palette is pretty wonderfully happy (inspiration for next year?).
WHO KNOWS? Assembling a unique tree always is an experiment in combining disparate, but appropriate things together to find a fresh expression of the holiday. What's happy about this process is there are no rules—only happy associations and accidents. With my "Happy Halloween" mantra firmly unplanted from my cheek, I salute a happy season ahead!
IN DESIGNING my first tree, I wanted it to evoke one of those beautiful scenes of tall, slim, snow-covered, and downswept evergreen trees seen in an alpine setting, hence the name The Alpine Feather Tree. Since I also love the tension created between unexpected or even opposing elements in design, when planning the first decorations for this tree, I immediately thought of the phrase "fire and ice." And since this was a new take on an old feather tree tradition, both in style and shape, I wanted freshly-colored baubles that were bright, but not glitzy, with only an allusion to the beautiful, but sometimes stodgy Victorian tradition of feather trees. So I set about crafting my own set of ornaments. I wanted to keep it simple and doable. Painting your own custom-colored ornaments requires a lot of trial, error and literal elbow grease (when shaking the ornaments to coat the insides with colored paints). But as always, there is a method to my madness in getting just the right look I want.
The condensed magazine
version available on
newsstands everywhere.
My tree is on page 30 of
both editions (above and below).
THIS "FIRE AND ICE" decorated tree is the result. Cool "snow-tipped" branches and pine cones, accented with tin icicles are contrasted with hot colored baubles—bright pink and oranges. The metal star atop the tree and the icicles are purposefully traditional to give a nod to the Victorian tradition. This tree (above) makes its decorated debut in Matthew Mead's Christmas All Through the House this holiday season as a page in a story titled "Good Tidings." Matthew and I collaborated on this story remotely and matched up the color-scheme and such. My tree is included in both the Amazon.com "bookazine" (below) and a condensed magazine version (right—available at newsstands everywhere this season). Although the Amazon version has many more pages of ideas, why not buy both versions and give one to a friend?
The bookazine version is available at Amazon.com
YES, VIRGINIA, I know there is a Santa Claus and he isn't supposed to appear until the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but my design for the tree and the craftsman’s fine handiwork were united early this year to create this museum-quality heirloom. Since it takes time to meticulously handcraft these trees from real goose feathers, it's a good idea to order yours early to beat the holiday rush. Hometraditions is offering the tree on their website. Dennis Bauer in Ohio, one of the best-known craftsmen stateside to uphold the German tradition of the feather tree, makes each one by hand as they are ordered. You can even customize them slightly with a different trunk color or maybe even a smaller size if you want (just ask when you order). I whitewashed the trunk of this original version of the tree to give the trunk an icy look—specific directions for that are on the Hometraditions website. The decorations seen in this post are not included when you order the tree, but I'm including information below on how to craft your own from clear glass baubles and pine cones in any color scheme you prefer.
I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT that the star atop a holiday tree was the perfect accent. Forget bows, angels or any other sort of topper. Give me a fine star to hand down as an heirloom any day of the year. This silver-plated star was found after a long search for the perfect size and form (on Ebay). I've found ornaments on Ebay that have been part of an estate and even plenty of newer items—oftentimes it's a rich resource for the unusual. It's important to find a topper that fits your tree proportionally as it will become the focal culmination of all of the joy found underneath it.
CLEAR GLASS ornaments in three sizes were swirled inside with high gloss, multi-surface acrylic craft paint thinned ever-so-slightly from the vibrating three-color ingredient list of amaranth, habanero, and marmalade (from Martha Stewart Crafts) at Michaels. Some of the baubles were left clear to give the tree more sparkle.
UNOPENED PINE CONES found under a stand of favorite pine trees I've discovered were gathered while they were green and allowed to dry—becoming a natural brown. Then I added a white grosgrain ribbon tied into a loop and hot glued to the top of the cone. Glue and coarse white mica glitter were added to give them the look of being capped by a freshly-fallen snow.
VICTORIAN TINSEL or "tin-twist icicles" were ordered online and became the finishing touch on the tree as they hang precariously from the tips. You could also use glass icicles for a similar effect. I always prefer to have a variety of ornament sizes and shapes on a tree. And I use the wise "rule of three" in almost everything I do (three sizes, three vibrating colors, and three shapes).
ALTHOUGH I'VE always thought it gauche to rush the season too much, when you're writing and producing a blog that centers around the holidays, it's necessary that planning has to happen months before—especially if you're going to be included in a magazine that hits the newsstands in October or get a new tree on the market before the holiday season. It's not unusual anymore to see Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas wares for sale all-at-once in the stores starting in October. So what are you doing to do?
YOU MIGHT AS WELL join in the merriment of the holiday season that starts in October every year now and gracefully accept that the commercial aspects of the season are not going away. The characters of Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas fell in love with Christmas, no? Even though none of us are stuck in Halloweenland (which rivals the retail space that Christmas gets), just consider it a positive and enjoy the special moments created with friends and family around your decorated tree, whatever the season!
APPLES are a quintessential part of autumn. They signal the cool, crisp weather to come with their own brand of cool crispness. Having just eaten a late lunch with some friends on a clear-skied autumn day on a restaurant patio, none of us indulged with a finish of dessert. But as we were standing in the restaurant's parking lot saying our goodbyes, I noticed the blackboard touting a new seasonal offering for dessert—an apple-pecan cheesecake. I went back in as we were leaving and ordered a piece to go. It sounded like the perfect thing for a bright fall day such as this. I'm glad I did, because the cheesecake itself was dotted with cubed apples and topped with chopped pecans. It was coupled with a sweet caramel sauce, which rendered it as perfect taste of autumn.
GEORGIA is well known for its summer peaches (and peanuts, boiled or otherwise), but more and more, its becoming known for its autumn apples. As they are grown in the north Georgia mountains, I made a special trip to Ellijay, in north Georgia to buy a variety of the first of the season's apples for this post, and filled in with a couple of "Yankee" varieties imported to the local supermarket for good measure. While not exactly a "tree," this centerpiece of apples stacked on a tiered wooden stand is a beautiful way to decorate for the season. The variety of natural-color-coordinated apples lend themselves well to such a dramatic display of their inherent beauty. This harkens back to the wooden German tree stands (or pyramids) that held evergreens, fruit, nuts, and other baubles around the holidays (thought to be the predecessor to the Christmas tree). The forerunner of the pyramid was a construction known as a
"Lichtergestelle" (literally: light stand) which were very popular in
the 18th century.
ELLIJAY, Georgia has a yearly apple festival which spans over two weekends in October. The Ellijay Lion's Club, the Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce, the cities of Ellijay and East Ellijay, and Gilmer County join forces to usher in the autumn season with a bumper crop of apples. The 42nd Georgia Apple Festival will be held the weekends of October 12-13th and October 19th and 20th. There will be over 300 vendors with handmade, hand-crafted items, as well as many on-site demonstrations of how selected types of crafts are made.
ALTHOUGH most apple farmers in North Georgia don't adhere to organic methods to grow their apples, my friend Margie Thorpe has ferreted out one farmer named "David" who she gets organically-grown heirloom variety apples from in Ellijay. You can contact her through her "Vegetable Husband" website to procure a few of David's organic apples in her baskets of fresh produce. Near Ellijay at Mountain Valley Farm, you can stock up on fresh milk products, including roll butter and homemade ice cream. They also sell farm fresh eggs that have never been refrigerated or had the natural just-laid bloom washed from them (which helps prevent bacteria from permeating the eggshell) and a variety of delicious grass-fed meats (frozen to carry home). If you don't want to veer off the beaten path, in nearby Blue Ridge, Mercier Orchards is probably the most visited "apple house" in the area boasting a variety of their own branded products for sale (aside from many varieties of apples). Their famous fried pies are a must! If you are not an adventurous sort, an easy stop is Penland's Apple House just off the main road heading into Ellijay from Atlanta (Highway 515).
AUTUMN wraps up the abundance of crops grown in the summertime, but autumn is the time for enjoying the crop that defines the apple season. Here's to a big piece of apple pie with ice cream, or just a pie in your hand that's been fried and lightly glazed. Or as I enjoyed today, a piece of apple-pecan cheesecake with a drizzle of caramel sauce. But just a for a simple treat, there's nothing else like a fresh crisp apple, sliced and eaten out-of-hand. It's a time to celebrate the bounty of the season, no matter how you slice it!
IF IT'S TRUE what is said about the number 13 being the unluckiest number, then this year has played out the way it should. It has been one of the unluckiest years on record, in my life anyway, as well as a number of friend's lives. The New Year's holiday can be one of trepidation, but since 2014 can only get better than 2013—in my book—I give the new year a whole-hearted and welcoming embrace. That's what the New Year's celebration has always been about—setting intentions for the future.
THIS TREE signifies a celebration of the best that has yet to come. And it will be colorful, fiery and bright. I know that if I can create a magical tree such as this, then I surely can muster some of that magic in my own life. Let it be so. That is my wish for the New Year. Although I'm not particularly religious, I am spiritual, and my God is found in nature and the cosmos, so I'll share the best-known form of the serenity prayer to push my intent to the universe on this New Moon New Year's Eve:
