Running Pine - Hello and Welcome

I will not be rushed  - this is too nice.  MY blog at Vernon Patch!  

As it develops, may it win support and responsive interaction and may it be all the right things for its readers and writers.

I have called it "Running Pine" for a reason -

The story:

Our old Family Homestead enjoyed some wooded acres, and at the winter holidays, as a girl, we'd visit there with Gram and Gramps and after tea and cookies, be led on the woods walk:  

"It's for the garlands!" , Mother would laugh, "Let's go! "    

I had no idea what it was about but soon our father showed us, also in a merry mode brimming with the glow.  

"See?" He pulled aside some of the ground growth in the woods and there it was: a strong vine, running along the forest floor, without end, and spunky tufts of evergreen soft long needles popping up at intervals.

"See how it runs along the forest floor? That is why we call it running pine!  We carefully pull up long strands of it," he instructed, "and then wind the strands together and that's how they make the pretty garlands we'll hang over the mantle and the cornices in the living room this Christmas. Careful, now ... but let's go!"  

Mother, Father, Brother and myself, Aunt and Uncle and their three children and Uncles Bob and Bill from the homestead. With care but much laughter the task was a celebration in itself. Too soon, tired and happily full of the wonderful smells,  arms were very full of the long strands of evergreen running pine.

Home with it all, and cocoa to warm everyone and something to eat and then to work, winding the strands around and round and hanging them triumphantly to "Deck the Halls" and add the wonderful fragrance to the coming holiday. Bows and other trims were often added but not always. It was wonderful just as it was! I don't remember taking them down, and we must have; but who wants to remember that part?

So Running Pine is a life thing. It is a symbol of it all and how fine it can be - and it's up to us to make it so.  Rich and real and rewarding from the blending together of the strands and the love of the people who collected and hung it.

Today , running pine is cultivated, and protected, having been over-harvested at one point, but its truth is the same. And may we all be so good as we dance along the life vine, and as happy, as we team and wind together to make a grand show with fragrance clean and sweet!