Our Desert Tannenbaum
It’s ironic that we have made a home fuelled by the sun, the wind and wood, that I should feel guilty about chopping down a young pine tree for Christmas decoration. That was how I felt last year, guilt for robbing a young tree of it’s future. Call me silly if you like, but the guilt is derived from the idea of robbing the life of a ‘life form’ and commodity from it’s future, it’s potential, be it fine furniture, fruit or plain fuel.
This year we have decided to reap the ‘bi-product’ of a life form, the ‘mast’ of the Agave Americana, dried by the wind and bereft of flowers and seeds. Our Tannenbaum shall be painted white, decorated with white lights (Lichtfest) and hauled aloft in the patio, fronds decorated with glass baubles and it’s feet planted in a boot of concrete.
Currently weather conditions are foul here. Rain, snow and deep frosts have turned the earth to clay and the wind is bitterly cold. What better way to spend a few hours than searching the rambla for one’s Christmas tree. These agave are naturalized from Mexico and thrive on the edges of the dry river beds. Not a cactus, despite the evil spines, but a lily or amaryllis. Proudly, we are in possession of an Agave Parrasana bought in Girona last year, now thriving in the garden here at Los Gazquez. Maybe in a few years we can cut the ‘mast’ from this plant for our Christmas Tannenbaum.