December Leaves

Do you decorate your house for the seasons?  Here in Los Angeles, the reality of our natural world bears little resemblance to our "seasonal" decorations.  Back when the kids were painting Fall leaves in school, outside the trees were green and blooming.  We picked strawberries and went to the beach.

Now that it is December and the school children are making cotton-ball snowmen and construction paper evergreens, the few deciduous trees that show color are giving us their muted reds and yellows, while the chilly winds kick up their fallen leaves and swirl them about.

It won't snow here.  People are just now harvesting the last of their tomatoes.  In winter our hills are green and in summer they are brown, but our seasonal decorations carry on with daffodils, ice cream cones, falling leaves and snowmen as if the whole world was New England.  I don't mind.  I want my kids to know that in December, children somewhere else are sledding and having snowball fights.

But, last week we gathered some of the prettiest leaves on our block and found a sycamore branch that fell in the wind, and I made a Los Angeles style December decoration for our living room.


Falling Leaves Mobile:  Sycamore branch, Liquid Amber & Ginko leaves dipped in beeswax, transparent thread.