As a special, early, Christmas treat, on a very mild evening on 30th November 2023, a friend and I visited Greenwich Council’s Light Festival, the magical Sparkle in the Park, held this year at Avery Hill Park. This was Greenwich Council’s 4th Sparkle in the Park event, this time featuring many new displays, and it was nice to see the many artists being acknowledged for their spectacular creations. The excitement was palpable as the winter wonderland trail lead visitors through an illumination of lights and enchanting displays amongst the trees.
At this ho-ho jolly time of year I expect everyone is looking forward to getting some good Christmas gardening presents! (Yes? No? Bah Humbug?)
I asked the committee what ideas they have this year, and we came up with the selection below. I hope it gives you some inspiration, or at least is something you can use when asked the dreaded question “What would you like for Christmas this year?”
Books: The Power of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. This was reviewed recently in the RHS magazine and I have seen it recommended elsewhere too. Waterstones says it is “a manifesto aimed at preserving the future of our forests and debunking accepted wisdom about tree-planting schemes”.
Books: What did the Tree See by Charlotte Guillain. I bought this for my grandson, it’s one of those childrens books that covers a huge age range. He is far too young to understand the whole thing at 3, but loves the pictures and storytelling. Much older children will like the historical side of it. And OAP’s like me love it too!
This year, for the first time, I decided to put up a Christmas light curtain along the back windows of my house, never thinking that it would be such a difficult job! Having finally got the things up, with a good deal of foul language, I have felt reluctant to take them down. As well as the candles and lights around the house they have provided a welcome point of light in a rather dim January.
Imagine my delight when I heard a representative from English Heritage talking about Candlemas on the radio recently. Apparently, a tradition preceding the one which instructs us to take down Christmas decorations on the twelfth night, this allows for decorations to remain until Candlemas – the second day of February, which means that my lights can stay put for some time yet!
And snowdrops are also known as Candlemas Bells as they bloom so early in the year, and often before February 2nd. At one time it was believed that it was bad luck to bring these flowers into the house before Candlemas, but an opposing view has it that they are believed to purify the home. According to folklore, an angel helped these Candlemas Bells to bloom and pointed them out as a sign of hope to Eve and the flower is thus often seen as a sign of hope for the world.
It seems to me that everything comes together quite neatly: lights, illumination, snowdrops and hope. I think I will continue with this tradition!
One of our regular volunteers, Anne R has written an article for the Westcombe News, all about her experiences of volunteering at the Old Pond Garden. It’s a great advert for us, and will hopefully encourage even more people to come along and help, especially if we are to expand into the Long Borders as well!
Charlton Champion post
The Charlton Champion has recently posted about the Christmas wreaths on the gates at the Old Pond Garden. There’s still a couple of days to take a walk there if you haven’t seen them. Read the full post here:
One of my presents this Christmas was a fun book called “How to eat your Christmas Tree” by Julia Georgallis. As you would expect for a book with such a title, there are some bonkers ideas in it – but there is a serious message behind it and some quite intriguing recipes too.
The statistics are quite sobering: the author calculates that if we DIDN’T cut down one years worth of Christmas trees, the carbon emissions saved would be the equivalent of banning all global air travel traffic for a year, or taking all the cars in the United Kingdom off the road for the next five years.
On a much lighter note, here are a couple of her recipes:
Christmas Tree Tea!
Apparently pine, fir and spruce contain a lot of vitamin C, although pine produces quite a weak tea. If you have a go, make sure you wash all the needles thoroughly. (And never use Yew, obviously.)
Ingredients: A handful of pine, fir or spruce needles / Juice of a lemon / 30ml (1fl oz or 2 Tbsp) Honey
Method: Brew the needles in a teapot for 6 minutes. Add a dash of lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of honey to each cup. Pour over the brewed tree tea and serve.
Christmas Tree Cordial
This tastes a bit like grapefruit juice according to the author!
Ingredients: Juice of 10 lemons, zest of 4 / 2 litres water / 700g caster sugar / 400g spruce and/or fir needles (you can also use some of the branches for flavour)
Method: Sterilise a 2l glass bottle. Bring the ingredients to the boil over medium-high heat, turn down low and simmer for 2 hours. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, a few times, to make sure no needles are left and pour into the sterilised bottle. Keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge.
Christmas Tree Mimosa
Ingredients: 70 ml Christmas tree cordial (above)/ 140 ml prosecco / Ice cubes and lemon
Method: Combine in a cocktail shaker, pour into a cold glass and serve!
President of the Society, Sir Nicolas Bevan, draws the raffle from last month’s Zoom meeting and gives his Christmas message. Congratulations to Janet H on winning the £30 Garden gift voucher.
2 December A wet and chilly session, but good to be back after Lockdown II.
15 December A great day for gardening! Lots of planting was done, path clearing was started, and as for the gate decoration – we’re getting really festive now. Mince pies (from Charlton Bakehouse) at half-time were much appreciated.
The CABAHS bench, to commemorate our Platinum (70th) Anniversary, in situ. A lovely shady spot to look forward to next summer. We think perhaps a Trachelospermum climber up the back wall..
Isn’t this a great idea? St Luke’s Church in Charlton Village asked residents to send in their Christmas messages and they would be hung on the tree outside, so everyone can read them as they walk past. There are some lovely children’s drawings and heartfelt messages. CABAHS has added a message on members’ behalf too.
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 