Very traditional ...

...not to say old. This is one of the glass baubles I bought for the first Christmas tree I ever had in my own house, 43 years ago. I still have the whole set of six, and they still sit in the same box with the cellophane (remember cellophane?) tearing now on the window of the lid. Three of them have this wonderful indentation in the glass, so delicate that in all three it is now broken slightly, with shards of glass rattling slightly inside the ball. When I was a child, I thought the "dented" baubles had been damaged in some way; later I grew to appreciate the casual intricacy of something that was only seen once a year.

Nowadays baubles seem to be made of whatever they use for ping-pong balls, and they bounce if they fall off the tree, as opposed to shattering. I've put all my glass ones high up, as I am anticipating a visit from grandchildren before Epiphany.

Only one shadow on the tree horizon. There's something about this tree (a Nordman fir, as in the past few years) that we seem to be allergic to. Has it been sprayed? Is there a mysterious mould on it? (Not a sign of that, I must say). We'll give it a few more days, but the jaggy eyes may prove to be too annoying ...

But at least I got a blip on an afternoon that is too foul even for me to take photos.