St. Lucy’s Day
A favourite Christmas carol of mine is ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’, and when I picked up some Everlasting flowers today to brighten up the dark Hellebore in my tiny vase, this line popped into my head:
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the EVERLASTING light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight
Well, as I join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden on one of the darkest days of the year, I will light a few candles and try to imagine what my damp and grey garden will look like in Spring! (There is always HOPE)
🌷🌷🌷
Do pop over to Cathy’s blog to see what she has found in her garden to bring indoors. And I do hope your St. Lucy’s Day has been brighter than ours!
Words and Herbs 
Lovely Cathy! Here’s to light and hope. It’s surprising to see hellebores so early. I need to inspect mine.
This was cheating actually, as the hellebore is a new one I bought already in flower! 😉
Whatever works, right? I bought my flowers in a pot also.
What an uplifting post! Thank you. 🙂
I am glad, Sandra! I was feeling dreary, but with a little effort to post a vase I feel much brighter. 😃
Beautiful post.
Having lived in France for many many years I don’t often feel overnostalgic for British traditions EXCEPT when I hear Christmas carols. All the excitement of my childhood Christmases come flooding back to me.
As for hellebores, today I was in my local garden centre for something else and as I wandered by the hellebore counter an Ice and Roses Red just seemed to leap into my basket as I remembered your recommendation of it a few days ago. It’s already in the ground and I’m hoping that it will be happy in its new home 😉
By the way what are everlasting flowers ? From the photo it looks like stachys byzantina.
Oh, Hellebores do have that habit of jumping into shopping baskets… 😉 It obviously knew it would be going to a good home! Everlasting flowers are Helichrysum… or straw flowers. They are the dried flowers around my vase. But well-spotted – there is a Stachys leaf in the vase too. 😃
Yes the garden is full of hope. Your little everlasting flowers scattered on the embroidered star together with a mention to dear St Lucy…is an uplifting composition.
Thank you Noelle. My garden is a soggy mess under melting snow today, and not at all endearing, but I know my little spring treasures will be peeping through before I know it. 😃
Ha – I was going to comment on the earliness of your hellebore too! I like your link to the carol – no doubt it will be an earworm for the rest of the day! 😉 It’s one that always comes to mind as I approach our local (small) town, as it lies on the floodplain of 2 rivers and from most directions of approach you see it nestling a little way below you ps I have ordered seeds of about 6 different colours of helichrysum for next year!
That sounds so idyllic Cathy. Where we used to live we were also nestled in a valley and driving down to it from the hills above on a winter’s evening reminded me of that carol too. I have ordered Helichrysum too, but could only find mixed colours, so we will see what turns up! 😃
Plants of Distinction had several. I still need to look out for Bright Rose from a repytable supplier though, as the ones I had last year were too pale
It’s wonderful just to see a pretty hellebore this early in the winter season, Cathy. My own usually don’t show up until early spring. I planted a few additional specimens this year and I’m looking forward to seeing them in bloom next year.
This is a new one, bought recently already in flower, but I do have buds showing colour on a couple of my older plants. 😃
How big is that hellebore flower? It looks huge, unless the everlasting flowers are small.The dusty miller leave suggest a combination of both.
I suppose it is a out 10cm across, so fairly average. The Everlasting are quite small.
Average?! Goodness, that is almost four inches! They are mostly about two inches wide here. I know the perform better in other climates, but I figured that the flowers are typically not much more than two or two and half inches wide.
They clearly are winter flowers, preferring cold weather!
They likely prefer more humidity also. They bloom here, but not so well.
I love that dark hellebore… it’s a beauty!
It was one of those impulse buys a few weeks ago, but I found a perfect spot for it! 😉
Gorgeous hellebore, and beautiful, peaceful words. Thank you, Cathy. Perfect!
Thanks Debra. 😃❄️🌨
Oh Cathy, that is such a lovely combination of flowers and light. I love the deep-colored hellebore, and you make me want to try my hand at growing everlastings again.
It’s a good time for hope…
These Everlasting are actually from summer 2020 and have lasted so well. So I would definitely recommend them!
What a richly colored Hellebore, I was wondering what on earth that was – love the star linen and the arrangement of the elements. Lovely and light!
Thank you – light is scarce right now, so thank goodness for candles! Much less harsh for photos. 😃
Wonderful Cathy Hellebore and divine lighting and wishful thinking words of the Christmas Carol – I love it all. I love your Christmas decorations. Cathy, you know that I feel very bad from depression and Christmas makes me worse: today I took the computer but I don’t know when I will take it again, so I want to congratulate you on the holidays in advance. Cathy I wish you a Merry Christmas full of love, peace, illusion, health and joy with your family. And a Happy New New Year 2022 in which all your wishes and illusions are fulfilled and you are very happy all year with health and love. Happy Holidays!!!! With love and best wishes, Very affectionate greetings from Margarita 🎄🥂🎁⭐✨😘🤗
So sorry you are feeling so bad Margarita. Take care and look after yourself. I wiish you all the same lovely things for Christmas and the New Year, ❄️☃️🤗
How beautiful !
Thank you Gwennie! ☃️
I see that Phillips Brooks wrote the words that popped into your head:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Brooks
Oh, thanks for the link and the prompt to look it up Steve. I have been meaning to do so all week, as I knew there was another tune it is sung to and could not quite remember how it went. 😃
Gern geschehen.