We had a Golden Crest tree with beautiful conical foliage in the southwest corner of my garden. I said in the past tense "we had", because the tree was trimed into round shape. Well, this is because typhoon No. 18 hit Oita area on 24th last month and blew down the tree from the root. As the tree was almost uprooted, it would die if left without any care. Yes, the tree undertook a heavy operation, the tilted trunk was erected straight again, and cut short so as to well resist against possible storms. I hope it will survive.
In my mother home in Tatsuno City in Hyougo prefecture, there was a tall tree called "Christmas Tree." When we children were small, my father brought it back wrapping its root with straw mat. The small tree was planted into a pretty ceramic pot.
Whenever Christmas season came, I used to decorat it beautifully together with my two younger brothers and an elder sister. My mother put pure white cotten snow on the tree. On the wall of the living room was a large paint of a window. We invited many nearby friends to play a drama of Jesus Birth and kept Christmas.
The tree grew high and transplanted from the small pod into the garden. The tree in the garden was again decorated with beautiful red or golden braid, cotton snow, and flickering bulbs. Nearby passers-by looked at it and called up us, saying it was very beautiful. All the children left the nest, married or entered universities. Aged father and mother kept decorating the tree even after they were left in two. The tree still continued to grow. It grew too high to be decorated by old parents, and it finally turned a mere tall tree.
Here in Oita, I had been longing to have such a tree in my garden. I bought a seedling of a golden crest in pod and soon transplanted into my garden. It grew so quickly. In evry December, a big golden star is set on the top of the tree together with many flickering bukbs around the folige to keep Christmas. Although the height was cut into one-third, I hope the tree will make us enjoy by beautiful decoration in Christmas season, this year and forever.
