Another Successful Hunt!

Well, daughter unit and I didn’t come close to our record of two years ago — twenty minutes start-to-finish — but in just under an hour this morning we were driving away from Sewell’s Tree Farm with a fine, tall Frasier Fir in the truck. $40, not bad. It’s a little on the narrow side, and mighty tall, over 8’ to be sure, maybe pushing 9. It was a fine morning to be tree-hunting, sunny and crisp but not too cold. Lights go on it tomorrow. Monday, the traditional Chinese food and tree-trimming. I guess there is a tradition or two that endure.

Speaking of tradition, I’ve started my Autumn ritual reading of Faulkner’s The Bear, a little late this year. Year after year, I’m in abject awe of the lambency of that man’s writing. A chronic alcoholic, whose wife tried to commit suicide on their honeymoon (not sure at what point he became an over-drinker, but that was probably enough to get him started!). A man who called the King of Sweden to tell him he wouldn’t be attending the ceremony to receive his Nobel Prize because it was hunting season. Would that I could be so true to my being!

The vocabulary lesson for me from his liquid, seamless flow of pearls:

lambent: 1. playing lightly on or over a surface: flickering 2. softly bright or radiant 3. marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression. Latin lambent-, lambens, present participle of lambere to lick

abject: 1. sunk to or existing in a low state or condition 2a. cast down in spirit 2b. showing hopelessness or resignation 3. expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit . Middle English, from Latin abjectus, from past participle of abicere to cast off, from ab- + jacere to throw

Priam: the father of Hector, Paris, and Cassandra and king of Troy during the Trojan War. Latin Priamus, from Greek Priamos