When you Live in a town like Charlotte where every last scrap of land is built on and all of the beautiful old trees are cut down to make way for ticky-tacky houses, I find myself with a greenery drought during the holiday season with a loss of my typical nipping areas.
All of my old stomping ground‘s for magnolia and Holly pilfering have gone and replaced with tiny sprouts in peoples yards. So luckily for me I’m not adverse to driving out in the countryside with my clippers in hand, Wellie boots on, and lots of large garbage bags in which to stuff my contraband greenery. So to that end I ventured out this weekend looking for target rich environment of magnolia and holly bushes.
After an hour of driving without much luck I got a call from an old friend who happens to own an old estate which is sandwiched out on the north end of town and on 20 acres. “Come on out he says... I can solve that problem....how much do you need” WHAT....kidding right? So I spun the car around and high tailed it up the highway. Giant magnolias and mature hollies covered in red berries beckoned. Heaven.. even better to have a comrade in arms who offered a par of giant loppers and helped to cut and drag my finds back to the car.
With a big wave and a giant smile I trundled off with my haul...
The holiday season these days is filled with a glut of continuous adds, blasting every type of shinny object imaginable and yet to me the simple beauty of natural materials takes me back to quieter times. When shinny green leaves and red berries decorated mantles and churches and Christmas pudding weren’t complete without a sprig.

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