Lighting up

In the early 1970s my father decided to illuminate the Christmas tree he had planted in the front garden. This involved running a thick power cable to the tree and pushing units with two pins into the cable at various points (through the live and neutral wires. These units were then held in place by a grip and had a rubber flange to prevent water getting in (which was not always successful). The coloured bulbs were known as Pygmy bulbs, I recall

We were the first home in the street, if not the district, to have lights outside on the tree at Christmas. I gather it was seen as a bit brash by some.

Nevertheless it instilled in me a love of Christmas lights both inside and out. For a couple of decades at our current home I would decorate the rowan tree by the gate. In recent years I’ve decided that swaying at the top of a tall ladder was perhaps not the best idea so have lit up two camellia bushes on either side of the window.

For many years our house was the only one with lights. It made it easy to direct taxis when coming home. Nowadays lights outside are everywhere but tonight one of our neighbours has taken Christmas exterior lights to a new level.

The whole front of the house is covered by small multi-coloured lights moving around gently like fireflies.

On closer inspection it looks like a net of filaments along which light is transmitted to create the effect. The blip is of the light source. The extra is a slow exposure of the front of the house.

Impressive, but I have no plans to replicate it. I think I have handed on the baton.