For our Yule ritual this year, we planted our new hollies in the Midwinter Grove.


Looking west along the driveway from near the east end of it, you can just barely see the new hollies in the Midwinter Grove, that patch of evergreens on the right side of the picture. Look between the edge of the evergreens and the bare tree in the wagonwheel garden.




As you walk down the driveway, the hollies become more visible distinct from the larger mass of evergreens.




Looking straight across at the hollies, you can see that the female is toward the west and the male toward the east, so they should both get enough sun as they are facing the driveway where the sun falls. This is a "Royal Family" pair that were potted together. I went out today to water them and make sure there's enough soil filling in the hole. I still need to put some compost around them, cover with groundcloth, and top with mulch.




Standing at the west end of the driveway, looking northeast, the hollies largely disappear against the evergreens again. As they grow, though, the display of berries should become more visible from the road.




The holly berries shine bright red in the sun.




That ball of leaves is a squirrel flet high up in the sycamore, which is the emergent tree layer of our forest. You can't really see from this angle, but it sticks high above the canopy of hackberries and black walnuts. We have a colony of fox squirrels in the yard. I mentioned squirrel flets earlier in the year, but couldn't find any to illustrate with at the time, since they're hard to see with leaves on the trees. In winter they really stick out.




Several more squirrel flets appear in trees along the east edge of the ritual meadow.




Here's a closeup of two flets. From the red buds, these are probably maple trees.




As I came around the corner of the house, most of the birds flew away from the feeders, but you can still see several sparrows in the lower left corner of this picture perching in the bushes.