Winter Wonderland

Working in retail, I have already endured "Christmas" for the last month or so. Gaudy tinsel, flashing lights, electronic voices singing Christmas greetings - I have to live with them all day every day in work. Seeing grown-up people coming in and saying "We must have that one to go with our display of lights!" What a waste! Spending on trivialities when it could be used to really help people live and give people health, education and a better standard of living. It debases Christmas and all that it really means. Don't get me wrong - I am not a "born again" Christian. But you don't have to be a Christian (or a Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist or any other religion) to appreciate the real story of Christmas, whether you believe it or not. I like the idea of giving and recieving presents. It's a way of showing people you love them, care about them, want to make them happy. But over-the-top - mainly showing off - decorations (whose origins often emanate from "pagan" rituals) are not for me.
Winter has descended on us quite suddenly. From temperatures in the high teens a couple of weeks ago my little thermometer tells me now that it hasn't been above freezing point for a couple of days now - a rare thing in this part of the world. I hate the cold - my hands freeze, my feet freeze and I feel the need to hibernate. I think I must have been a snake in any previous existence I may have had (it's the forked tongue that gives it away, folks!). I ventured out into my garden this morning and found that Mother Nature is much better at decorations than anything we mere mortals can produce, so I took this picture. Spiders' webs and frost on my hedge make patterns more intricate and beautiful than the incongruous "reindeer" and "snowflakes" and other shapes we make. Perhaps winter ain't so bad after all!