Day 19 Advent Challenge A quiet town today

Not many people seem to have braved the snow and bad roads to come to Keswick today.  I noticed the shops were not doing any brisk trade. I like it when the town is not so full of visitors though because it seems more normal that way to me. We popped out to deliver our local Christmas cards by hand ourselves, something which has become a habit now.  In contrast to the town my garden has been seething with birds this afternoon. I counted 14 Blackbirds mostly eating the fallen apples on the lawn, I make a point of leaving some for them because I know they need this extra nutrition.

Anyway, as you see I made the door wreath this morning and used some lovely small pieces of variegated holly I snipped off in Fitz Park. Now the other day I saw a person really taking a lot of holly from the park, I must say I try to take a few small pieces from the back of the bushes usually. However, most of the holly with the red berries was collected in the wild yesterday along with the fine grey fir tree fronds which only grow wild in one place, so I am not going to let you into my secret......When I was doing my City & Guilds Flower Arranging course, my tutor was Eva Gardner and she was a case.... she used to say that she always snipped a little bit here and there when the owners were not looking! And she always put some foliage at the back of her designs 'for the Vicar'. I finished off the arrangement by wrapping some red ribbon around 3 cinnamon sticks and attaching them to the wreath just to give it a bit of a lift. Eva always taught us to make the central placements last and to choose something which highlighted the design. I wish I did more flower arranging as I miss it, maybe I will this Christmas for fun.......