Rick went to vac up (Hoover for my Brit friends) the needles before I said "Stop!" There were so many needles they would fill up several of the bags in the vac.
"Besides," I said, "I want to take them down to the river and return them to nature."
He gave me one of those looks that said even the word "what????" was too much to utter.
I tried to explain that it was a nice ritual. The tree had been brought in to help the sun return after the solstice and now that it had died we were returning it to the earth to nourish nature. The tree would have served many purposes: bringing shade, beauty, happiness and now it would add to the richness of the soil.
I'm not sure he bought any of my reasoning. My first clue to his doubts, was he sat down shaking his head back and forth and back and forth.
When he regained his composure, we swept up the needles, which I pushed into a tree-shape design.
He added a leaf that had fallen on the patio as a star on the top before putting all the needs in a blue plastic bag.
"Get you coat on," he said. He seldom has an order tone in his voice. This time, he did. "We are going to the river."
We carried the bag to the river, although he mumbled about security cameras and littering, but he didn't sound all that sincere. Argelès does not have security cameras. Meanwhile he walked ahead of me filming as I carried the needle-filled bag.
There is water in the river at this time of year.
"Maybe our needles will float all the way to Africa," he said motioning that I should go to the middle of the bridge. I could tell he was getting into the idea.
He had me open the bag and the needles floated down to the water. They glittered in the sun and floated with gracefully onto the water.
As I write this, Rick is at his desk, writing his version of today's Christmas cleanup. I hope the word "insanity" or the phrase "what have I got myself into" do not appear.
http://lovinglifeineurope.blogspot.fr/ is his blog. I'm sure it will be up today, Jan. 2 at some point.
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