Time for an update on the graffiti-covered Chinese restaurant. After I last blogged it, graffiti continued to accumulate and it was looking pretty scroungy. But I walked by the other day and saw that it has been stripped of all identity, with the signs and even the pink stone facing removed, and the window covered with sheet metal. A few tags remain here and there. I wonder if it's about to gain new life as a different business?
Remember how I said we weren't going to have a Christmas tree in the library this year? We'd all discussed it with the maintenance department and that was the decision. None of us want one -- expensive, messy and wasteful was the consensus.
Well, yesterday, one of the school's maintenance supervisors took it upon themselves to order one -- especially strange considering there are only about ten days of school left. Someone from that department came to let me know, and we leaped into action to belay the order.
I don't know how or why the tree idea got revived, but we compromised by agreeing to put up a small artificial tree that we had in a storage closet, so that has been installed atop one of the bookcases. Hopefully that will satisfy any perceived need for a tree. It is admittedly more modest than usual, but I always wind up having to decorate the big trees and keep them watered, and picking up the ornaments that inevitably get knocked off by carelessly wielded book bags, and the maintenance people have to clean up around them and take them down -- and it's such a hassle.
I am a Christmas minimalist -- as you can tell from our flat, with its single strand of colored lights on a houseplant! I even objected when the librarian came up with an idea to make little tags with the names of books on them to use as ornaments (something we did years ago). We already have boxes of ready-to-use ornaments, so I put some of those on the tree and hopefully that will be the end of it. We have Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa book displays, and some other seasonal decorations like snowflakes and little winter trees. Enough already!
A small tree that you already have.. perfect...and the book displays are the best idea for a library.
ReplyDeleteWatch the space with the restaurant...it is ready for the next step, whatever that may be!
I'm certainly have a minimalist Christmas decoration year, with absolutely nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe shop is an eyesore.
"Belay" is a word that I normally associate with rock climbing. Was the chosen tree growing from a crevice in a rockface? Also - with your ungenial attitude towards school Christmas trees - was your father called Ebenezer Scrooge?
ReplyDeleteI was going to use Scrooge in the headline but I'm not really Scroogey. I just don't like excess. I've never heard "belay" used in a rock climbing context (but then I know nothing about rock climbing). I think of it in the sense of "Belay that order!"
DeleteI think that might be 'Relay that order.' Belay means to secure or fasten. In nautical slang it can mean 'enough already!' Which kind of fits your post, doesn't it?
DeleteYou had me looking up "belay" on my laptop dictionary and I decided this definition worked just fine: 2 [usually in imperative] nautical slang stop; enough!: “Belay that, mister. Man your post.”.
DeleteWe’re in the no-Christmas fly zone this year. We know where the Christmas boxes are, and that’s enough for us. That is so strange about the maintenance department. Glad you were able to pull back at least a bit. And, if we’re trying to not be wasteful, why create new ornaments when you’ve got a boxful. I’m excited to see what comes of that old restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI think of us as minimalists when it comes to Christmas decorations,especially here in the South where many people have trees in every room, and decorate every spot in their homes. It gives me tsouris thinking of putting all that out and then having to put it all away!
ReplyDeleteTsouris! Now that is an EXCELLENT new word I did not know!
DeleteI'm far from a minimalist in Christmas decor. Even this year, when things are choppy, my minimal will look maximal (is that a word? I don't think so!) to others. But a real tree in a public place seems unwise. Apart from the time and all (which is a big thing, though fun if you are into it), it IS a mess. The small tree seems like a really good solution.
ReplyDeleteAs the years pass, I am becoming a Christmas minimalist myself. When I think of "What goes up, must come down," I decide less is better!
ReplyDeleteI may not even bring in the tiny tree in a pot I have on the porch this year. In fact, it may have died in the freeze.
ReplyDeleteLa-di-dah.
I have many bins of decorations to put out and will start on that soon. It's just a tradition around my house. Just one small tree but lots of other Christmas crap that brings back memories. To each is own.
ReplyDeleteas a child, and by that I mean before the teenage years, I loved christmas and all the decorations my mother put out that we kids helped with, plus shopping for the tree, real trees, not those farmed and shaped ones into a perfect cone, and my father putting up the outdoor lights. as an adult, I put the whole kibosh on that by rejecting christianity and really all religion. nary a decoration here even though if I celebrated anything it would be the winter equinox, the original true celebration of the return of the light that was appropriated by the early christians.
ReplyDeleteChristmas decorations at school are debatable but kids like the decorations.
ReplyDeleteWoah, that shop front is looking very bare. I hope you are right and something new will show up. I'm with you on the Christmas minimalist style. I used to love decorating for the holidays but for the past 5 years it's just seemed like too much.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have the perfect solution for the library.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite small live Christmas tree is a Norfolk Island pine tree. They are sold in many grocery stores and garden centers. They do not survive the cold Winter, but they do very well on the patio in the Summer.
I've purchased a 10 ft. tall live tree, and it looks glorious fully decorated with an angel atop. I love Christmas.
fabulous texture! I would keep it that way and have a shop in there of oddities, sure to succeed!
ReplyDeleteI will have a tree, something that fills the house with forest aroma, straw decorations from Norway and Sweden and lights. Dennis is grumping about that -I am hard of hearing....After it is up and gorgeous, he will appreciate it. I think he is just concerned about the five dollars required to have the boy scouts collect the old trees.
I finally put up our tree, the skinniest tree ever because I was living in a small apartment when I bought it.
ReplyDeleteI read your last post about Hunter Biden. Good on Joe Biden. I have to laugh at the hypocrisy of the republicans, when trump has done the same and promises to do more. Makes me sick.
We're still not sure about putting up our tree. I was thinking I would do it this Saturday but I might go see Wicked again instead. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI haven't put up a full sized tree in years. I do very little decorating - just enough so the kids/grandkids don't think of me as Scrooge. I would think a "Happy Holidays" banner on the front of the checkout desk in the library would suffice.
ReplyDeleteBeing a snow bird, with a small house for the winter, pretty much puts the kibosh on a bunch of decorating. We have a 2 or 3 foot flocked fake tree with ornaments and lights, and that will be it. It's cheerful.
ReplyDelete