{"id":2891,"date":"2012-12-18T10:46:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=2891"},"modified":"2012-12-18T10:46:33","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:46:33","slug":"thats-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2012\/12\/18\/thats-why\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve written, and talked, about Christmas trees plenty of times.\u00a0 I have decades of memories, starting with \u00a0exciting ones, as the littlest in my family, \u00a0when we hiked into the woods, searched out the perfect \u201ctop\u201d in the forest of tall pines, and hollered \u201ctimber!\u201d when the tree started to fall.<\/p>\n

For years, my own family has driven into the Adirondacks to cut our own fresh tree. Usually, we end up at cousins in Vermontville, Rich Brandt and Ellen Beberman, who\u2019ve been clearing the balsams from a hillside meadow over the last 20 years or so.\u00a0 When we started there, those trees were somewhat<\/em> in the Christmas tree range, height-wise. No longer. Now the meadow is laid with wonderful market gardens, and the remaining trees around the margins area all in the \u201ctimber!\u201d class.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It can be a long process, finding the perfect tree<\/a> there.<\/p>\n

There have been years when we floundered in waist-deep snow. Some years, we\u2019ve sledded the long hill afterwards. This year, there\u2019s hardly any snow at all. In fact, and the expedition was cancelled Sunday because of freezing rain between here and there. I missed the harvest yesterday altogether.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s OK \u2013 the tree, a perfect, fragrant, moist balsam top, came in after dark last night. \u00a0You know the moment: a force enters your house — so strong, so vital. All we could do was light the candles and bow down before it.<\/p>\n

It brings to mind the wonderful song Jackie Sauter started (and ended) Music for a Monday<\/a> with yesterday. It\u2019s called \u201cJoy\u201d<\/a> by Tracey Thorn\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2026You loved
\nit as a kid, and now you need it
\nmore than you ever did It’s
\nbecause of the dark, we see the
\nbeauty in the spark That’s why,<\/p>\n

that’s why\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve written, and talked, about Christmas trees plenty of times.\u00a0 I have decades of memories, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3078,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions\/3078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}