Bittersweet, Birch and Starry

Somewhere in the midst of Yuletide "toing and froing", I decided to take a break this morning and go for a potter through the village, leaving behind shopping, baking and various charitable activities for an hour or so and hoping to find signs of Yuletide untrammeled by plastic, tinsel, resin or styrofoam. It is sunny here today, but the temperature is well below zero, and I wrapped up in almost every warm garment I possess before setting hopefully off on my small adventure.

In this day and age, such an undertaking is fraught with peril (or at least disappointment), but our local florist always manages to create a sidewalk display that is appropriate, organic, seasonal and very pleasing to the eye. In spite of the bitter cold and the raw wind this morning, I found myself stopping to look at this lovely arrangement of pine boughs, grapevines, bittersweet and a Yuletide star crafted out of birch bark.

The music being piped out of the shop was not one of the usual modern holiday ditties, but a string quartet rendition of Gustav Holst's magnificent "In the Bleak Midwinter", perhaps my favorite Yuletide carol ever. I've no idea what instruments Holt originally scored his creation for, but on a cello it is sublime.