Tree Transformed!

In honour of the approaching Winter Solstice, I thought that I would have to show our Christmas Tree now that it is decorated and the fairy lights are illuminated.

Our tree is at the back of the house, by the rear garden. Reflected in the large window, you see the spiral tree that is in the front window, as well as a secondary image from a front-window reflection..

The little tree is a survivor from last year. I showed a photograph of it outdoors in October. Commenting on that entry, Orchid99 wrote "Oh not yet! But it is a real tree." Well, "yet" has come upon us with indecent haste. The solstice is at 11:12 tomorrow in London. But, yes, "a real tree". The Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 10:2-4) condemned as Pagan the ancient Middle Eastern practice of cutting down trees, bringing them into the home and decorating them. But Pagans did not cut down whole evergreen trees. They did decorate their houses with clippings of evergreen shrubs, and also adorned living trees with bits of metal and replicas of their God, Bacchus.

I have a feeling that we, too, will be paying homage to Bacchus in the days to come...

I found it not entirely easy to get a reasonable exposure for the photograph that would show that the lights were bright while giving some detail of the tree itself. This is what happens with straight flash, and low room lighting: the tree lights become just rather insignificant dots.