On furry prickly paws
The Christmas tree brings the smell to the house:
The smell of warm pine needles
The smell of freshness and wind
And the snowy forest
And a slight smell of summer.
(Yu. Shcherbakov)
Live spruce on New Year fills the house with an amazing aroma and makes the holiday truly magical. Only here is the problem: how to save longer spruce, fir or coniferous branches fragrant and green? I offer readers some helpful tips.
Choosing and saving a Christmas tree.
When buying spruce, pine or fir, please note that needle color was as much as possible intense green. The fact is that some trees begin to be harvested in the fall and do not provide them with proper storage. At a freshly cut spruce the resin on the trunk will be viscous and sticky, and in the old one it will turn into glassy amber droplets. Branches must be flexible and when a tree taps on the ground, from them Needles should NOT fall.Give the tree home adapt to the new temperature regime for a couple of hours. Before installation refresh the cut by 3-5 cm, delete extra lower branches and bark from the trunk to a height of about 10 cm. This will make it easier for the tree to absorb moisture and nutrients. Put up a Christmas tree in a bucket of settled water, at least, for a day. You will notice that the tree will drink 3-4 liters per day! Having drunk enough, the Christmas tree will be ready to put on a festive outfit.
To install spruce, use special tripod stands, under which you can substitute a nutrient substrate. As it is more convenient to use sand. To keep the Christmas tree longer, you need sand water with a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate or slightly sweetened water. Scientists Forest Research Institute in Sweden conducted experiments with Christmas trees and found out what best contributes to their preservation sweetened water! In the sand you can bury a piece of copper wire or copper coins. Copper prevents bacteria and fungi from developing.
You can also feed the tree fertilizer solution: 2 teaspoons of ammonium nitrate, ½ teaspoon of potassium nitrate and 1 teaspoon of superphosphate (based on a bucket of water). Such a “cocktail” will not only nourish the tree, but also protect it from the growth of putrefactive bacteria. Even easier to water the tree fertilizers for indoor plants.
Do not forget spray the tree every day settled water at room temperature and keep it away from hot batteries.
Save branches.
Before putting spruce or fir branches into the water, make several longitudinal cuts on them (as if splitting the ends). If you brought the branches in from frost, let them get used to room temperature for a couple of hours, and then soak in the tub, in cool water for another two hours. Now you can put and decorate twigs. A vase with branches should also NOT be close to the batteries. Regarding the substrate, there are also some nuances:1. You can put branches into the wet sand like a tree. And water weak solution potassium permanganate or sweetened water. The branches themselves are also sprayed every day with settled water at room temperature.
2. You can stick branches into floristic phyto sponge("Oasis"), abundantly moistened with water. Moisturize the sponge regularly.
3. If you placed branches in a vase of water, then for better preservation, you can add there (based on 1 liter of water):
- - 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablet of aspirin;
- - 1-2 teaspoons of glycerin and a tablespoon of alcohol;
- - 1-2 grams of gelatin, a pinch citric acid and 1/3 teaspoon of crushed chalk;
- - fertilizers for indoor plants;
- - just like for a tree, you can prepare a solution of fertilizers: 1/5 teaspoon of ammonium nitrate, a pinch of potassium nitrate and superphosphate.
Change the water in the vase every 2-3 days. And spray the branches themselves daily.
"Greenpeace" option.
Now available in garden centers coniferous trees with a closed root system. If desired and possible, you can buy a small tree, plant it in a pot of suitable size, adding land. With regular watering, fertilizing and spraying, the tree can stand until spring. And then it will be safe and sound to transplant into open ground.
As you can see, there are many ways to extend the holiday. I would be glad if you share the results in the comments and tell us which one is more effective.
I wish everyone new year mood and happy holidays!
The day was a weekday, blizzard, museum visitors were rare, and the appearance of an old man, in a shabby short fur coat, in bast shoes, with a bag behind his back, attracted the curiosity of the museum and was well remembered.
The person who issued the entry labels asked the old man with surprise: where is he from, and what does he need here?
The old man said: “from under Sarov, I came to bow to Father Seraphim.” He said firmly, apparently, he knew that he had not mistaken the place. To his demand, “Where is Father Seraphim here?” - the clerk pointed to the stairs: "they will point you there."
As it turned out later, she was “somehow embarrassed ... forgot to order the old man to leave the bag here.”
The old man, although very old and stooped, went up the stairs easily and completely inaudibly, in his bast shoes. The staircase was three knees long and steep, and the old man's cheerfulness surprised the clerk.
A young lady was sitting on the upper platform, punching the labels. According to her, the old man did not even suffocate. In her spare time, she read, and the inaudible appearance of such an unusual visitor frightened even her. She also asked where he came from and why. Having received the same answer as the lower one, she became interested in “such a rarity” and, at her leisure, without visitors, she began to ask this and that, how far is it from here to Sarov, did he come by rail, or did someone give a ride, as he found the museum ... The old man answered clearly and willingly, - turned out to be childishly frank. Came on foot, by promise; from Sarov about a hundred and five versts, it was more than a month, "everything was fine, task-oriented"; but he came - "by mother's order, for memory." For what ... "memory"?
//237
- “How mother was dying,” she punished: “remember, Vanya ... I begged you from Father Seraphim ...” - “begged, then, mother me ...”
Word for word, the young lady learned, - "as erected." She sat the old man on a chair, to rest, - she regretted how old he was, overgrown, “like moss”; the beard has become already greenish as if.
And here's what the young lady found out.
A little boy, he was very sick, he’s about to die; neither with a hand nor with a foot, it immediately happened from something. Mother cried out all her tears, she kept going to Father Seraphim to the grave, forty versts from their village. And Father Seraphim erected it. Since then, every year they went to the grave, ruled a funeral service, - “to please, to bow with flowers, from his clearing in the forest”, and in winter time spruce paws in the forest they also broke pine knots with knobs, put them on the grave - to please. And as the "relics were enlightened", about thirty years ago, without fail they visited twice a year. And the mother died, and the deceased wife died, and the son was killed in the big war, and the grandchildren tried on, "from a troubled life", he has no one now ... otherwise everyone went, "according to the covenant, for memory." And how Father Seraphim was “taken from us…” – he began to inquire where he had been taken. Faithful people and they pointed out, they only ordered to be silent ... So Batiushka went to look for. And now good people there are, “legitimate”: they let them spend the night, and feed them from poverty, and gave a penny - and from them to bow to Father Seraphim, a dear candle, put ... And then they burst into tears ... - “I will tell them a holy word -“ weeping will be comforted ... ”- an and
//l. 238
they'll have fun." It was fun all the way. The boy once caught up, with a weapon that was high with the authorities, - “What kind of person? .. where? will it be? ..” He ordered to sit down on akhtynabil ... - “it rushed off, you couldn’t see the snow! ..” A hundred, not a hundred, but a lot passed over the eighth decade.
The young lady still remembered how another boss shoved him a piece of paper, "eagle-eagle": "everywhere you, grandfather, with bell ringing will meet with my paper!” - “Yes, I moved a little away, put it in the snow, from sin ... well, is she wrong? ..”
The young lady herself brought the old man to that door ... - and realized that she had let him go with a bag: “It somehow didn’t occur to me!” After that she was severely reprimanded, but without any particular consequences.
When the old man returned from there, she told him to sit down and served water in a mug, but he did not drink, he said: “no, I’ll chew a snowball there.” She offered him a piece of sugar, "for strength", but he took her hand with sugar: "no, dear ... they will feed me and give me tea ... there are good people." She felt sad: he did not even take water from her.
From questions from the old man and from museum stories ... - (this "phenomenon" produced strong impression even on the "responsible" at that department), - it was found out what happened there.
Giving explanations to visitors, "responsible", - "was, directly, amazed" by the appearance of an old man with a bag. The old man was not in the least embarrassed, he did not listen to the explanations, but the first thing he asked and interrupted was: “Where did they put Father Seraphim the Reverend…
//239
us taken from Sarov?..” She pointed to the shop window. He looked at the “responsible” “incredulously”, and interrupted insistently, even sternly: “But you’re not deceiving? .. Father Seraphim is resting right here?! out, behind the glass, and the bones ... "
And the rumors that circulated among the museum, learned "the whole story."
“Responsible” at first - “a little confused, but pulled herself together”, ordered the old man to give her the bag: “we can’t take things with us! .. how did they let you in?! ..” no, I won’t give you a bag! .. this is Father Seraphim, memory. She left: "what to demand from such a ! .." -
Approaching the indicated display case, where there were "remains from Sarov", the old man crossed himself three times and made three bows to the earth. The "responsible" did not remember well whether the old man looked behind the glass ... - "I think he looked." But she noticed that tears were shining in his beard ... They said that, in her words, “she was somehow annoyed ... miserable, dark people!”
After bowing, the old man took off the sack from his back and began to untie it... She immediately said to him, raising her voice: “what..?!.. what are you?! we can’t! .. ”- not knowing what he would take out of the bag, but feeling “something unacceptable”. The old man shrugged it off, wheezed something like... - "Well, ta ..!" - grabbed the bag by the corners and shook it out under the window, on the floor ... - “fuck ... and some bumps! ..” She shouted at him - “no! .. we don’t have a market here! ..” The old man and didn’t hear: he poked his head into the fir trees, “shook there” ... and, kneeling, “became
//240
pull, plaintively, whiningly…” the museum staff whispered:
“... you are born on-sh .., Ba-a-tyushka Serafi-im ... came to you ... Vanya-shka-a ... I remember .., you are sha-ash ... Ba-atushka Serafi-im… God-pleaser…!”
"Responsible" clearly saw how, by his "terrible, haggard face tears rolled down in a hail ... " Nevertheless, she strictly reprimanded him that - "this is absolutely impossible with us! .. what is this ?! what is it for?..”
The old man ... - "Of course, I understood in his own way, naively ..." - and he barely uttered with gray lips, "affectionately somehow, even quite childishly ... It was pointless, of course, to explain something to such a person ..." - - -
“Spruce paws are ... from the very borok of Father ... Father loved his borok ... our memory ... in memory of him, after his mother ... "
He crossed himself, barely got up - and wandered, unsteadily, dragging his bag.
The young lady puncher saw the old man - “completely exhausted, yellow-yellow, like a dead man ...” - she was frightened, - come on, he will die here! - and sat him on a chair, seeing how he dangles. He sat down and opened his mouth ... there was not enough air, "whistling in him." And here, here, she gave him water, but he did not take it. Then, tangled in his fingers, he folded his sack for a long time, smoothing it with his equal, and put it behind his sheepskin coat. When he caught his breath a little, he began to whisper, as if to himself that the Lord had brought ... to bow to Father Seraphim ... the Reverend ... now he will calmly go home. And he looked around so complacently ... She asked - “what about the bag ..? why is it empty?
//241
He seemed to be smiling, shaking his head, thinking something. He finished it, quite calmly, as if he was looking into his thoughts: “strict-ga-a ... but nothing ... nothing ... shouting his own - “throw it out, burn it! ..” - well ... nothing, you do your own thing ... what they tell you ... and I his own ... did ... the deceased mother ... punished .. mulberries here ... ”And he began to rub at the heart.
He was upset, or something, with his thoughts ... - he sobbed. The young lady, - she said, - "heart contracted." It was bitter that he did not take water from her. She remembered his words: “not ... there, I’ll chew a snowball ...” She was not offended, feeling why he did not accept and said so ... but she was uneasy.
He rested and went, saying: "Goodbye, dear ..."
They remembered this visit for a long time, then it was forgotten.
* * *
Less than a year later, it was at the very beginning of August. The same young lady suddenly saw the old man again. He was in the same short fur coat, in bast shoes, with a bag. He seemed to be getting older and weaker. She reminded him and he recognized her. To her question - “with Christmas trees? ..” - he said: “Yes, dear ... spruce paws, to Father Seraphim.” I soaked the road, so that they didn’t dry out, they didn’t sprinkle.
It was the same as that time: bows and “memory-joy” - spruce paws and pine branches in cones. No one there said a word to the old man. He left in peace, blessed. He affectionately said to the young lady: "Well, dear ... goodbye."
Didn't come again.
July, 1947
Paris.
Shmelev I.S. LIGHT ETERNAL. PARIS , 1968
Good day everyone!
Today I want to show you how fir paws for the January page of your calendar.
The essence of this MK is very simple and requires a minimum of tools and materials, and therefore everything is quite affordable!
So let's get started!
For work we need:
1. A leaf of white cardstock;
2. Twine or jute rope (I don’t know exactly what it is called, but it can be found in hardware stores, but in OBI it is simply for buyers to pack goods);
3. PVA glue;
4. Ink spray Adirondack Color Wash color Meadow;
5. Thin wire (can be replaced with fishing line or strong thread);
6. Nippers (not necessary, you can just scissors);
7. Embossing pad;
8. Powder for embossing (either just white or with the addition of glitter)
Cut off a strip of cardstock 1 cm wide. we get a segment of 1cm * 30 cm
We do not cut a couple of millimeters to the end, we make the fringe itself as thin as possible so that the twig does not look rough
Now we spray our strip of fringe with a spray (to make the paint disperse faster on the surface, you can pre-spray with a spray with plain water, or you can use a glimer mist to add a shimmering effect).
Let me explain why I chose Color Wash! This paint does not react with water and therefore does not smudge. This will come in handy when working with PVA glue. It won't ruin the color. In addition, you may want to dye the strip right away, before creating the fringe. This option will not work either, because in this case the sides of our needles will remain unpainted, white.
We leave our fringe to lie in the ink for about 5 minutes, so that they are better absorbed and the color is more intense and uniform. In the meantime, you can have a cup of coffee =) I advise you to make several blanks for painting at once. This is purely for the purpose of saving ink! It's just a pity that so many drops will be wasted =) Yes! Yes! I'm greedy for materials!
Here's what we have after painting! By the way! One side will be lighter (the one that was in contact with office paper during drying, which absorbed some of the ink).
Drip on the edge more dark side some glue and glue our strip of fringe to the end of the rope at an angle.
When we are convinced that the edge is securely glued (you can squeeze it with your fingers and wait a bit), we apply glue further along the length of the strip and wrap the rope around it.
We perform the same operation several more times.
Until the length of the branch is 4 cm. Then we cut off the rest of the fringed strip.
The first part of our branch turned out
We need 2 of these. Accordingly, we repeat all the steps with the second piece of rope 15 cm and the rest of the fringe.
These two 4 cm branches will take about 15 cm of fringe.
We use the rest of the 15 cm strip of fringe for the central and longest branch, but not completely! The branch turns out to be 5 cm long, and the rest of the fringe is about 4-5 cm, we do not cut it off! We'll still need it.
This is how everything we put on looks like this moment. It remains to put everything together to make a spruce foot.
Just for this purpose, I use a thin wire
We wrap all three ropes tightly with wire
Cut off the excess rope and bite off the tip of the wire.
Now we grease the surface of the branch with pva glue, as in the photo below,
And wrap the tip with the rest of the fringe.
