(Please do brightly sing the following to the same holiday tune, pictured above. A most perfect musical accompaniment can be found at the top of my sidebar. Thank you!)
“The 'Holly and the Ivy'”:
Most Definitely Non~Traditional
The Bat Wing and the Climber,
When together they’re sown
Into a sack drawn by a string,
Then true romance will be honed!
O Christmas “petals” and green leaves
Mingled to make “one,"
Pledging luck in love: your heart’s desire!
Now real magic has begun!
Bat Wing is the sobriquet for holly leaves, the perfect pet tag for this plant of good fortune, doubly enhanced by it mirror-alikeness to the flying mammal’s wings, mustn’t you agreed?!
On a day taken from a big batch of them
in right front of Christmas, when
all halls had just been bedecked,
with Gemmama’s
(It being a scissor similar to this,
as a child, I would feed it nutty sesame seeds!)
tiny stork shearers in hand, I returned to the mantel’s holly bough to make snippets that would earn me two of its leaves. Spit~spot, I then made gentle sparges of a pair of winter “Bat Wings” and several pluckings taken and saved back from a summer’s ivy, into a heart-red and small dilly bag, sprinkling them like seeds being planted in a garden of new hope! Back-to-back, then, High John the Conquer root* togethered with a matched set of lodestones**, were plussed into the satin sack, after which I blew thoughtful kisses into it, before drawing its ribbon~string to tightness.
*High John the Conquer root is a completely benevolent botanical. Born of Morning Glory’s “feet,” it brings luck and good fortune to faithful believers~in.
** The lodestone is a naturally magnetic piece of the Earth's crust. Famous for drawing love to the wearer, it helps to remove any obstacles that would sidestep new romance.
Ever so quietly, huzzahs I soon merrily mouthed as, after only a two-day’s worth of wearing the lovely Bat Wing conjurer, Thomas (my grandmother’s mail carrier and the man I hush~hush and perpetually adore!) made gentle knocks upon the front door (to the beat of “Jingle Bells,” no less!) to politely be so bold as to ask if I might be able to assist him in purchasing a most special Christmas gift for his little niece.
Safe~keeping my grip, yet without hesitancy, my answer was “Yes!” (Very in point of fact and quite actually, I geysered a resounding “Yes! Yes! A thousand times YES!” ~~inside my happiest head, that is!) The next day’s afternoon, together Thomas and I (<~~How beautiful that “music” is to my ears!) located a delightfully fluffy, black kitten --who would later be dubbed Pollywog, only to be called Hollywog, because “It’s Christmas, Uncle Thomas, and so is she!”–- for him to present to an eight and a half-year old, soon-to-be-spounting-“You’re the best uncle ever!” Natalie. The "To Boot": Coming after his daily rounds next Tuesday evening, Thomas and I will have our very first official date together! Again, I say, Happy New Year!
Postscript:
I thought so certain I would not be posting until after the bells rang in 2011,
but with the possibility of me bursting, well, I had little, if any, choice! lol
Stork Scissors: Trocedero Antiques
(Giving attention to this picture: I could not resist!)
Receipt for Lamb’s~Wool
