B is for Baubles!

Well, I know it's ONLY November, but time marches on and waits for no man, and the bauble season is a funny one, the retail sector like these cleared well in time to set-up for the Boxing Day sales, so the season is really now, and has been busy for three or four weeks.

Also one of the nicer thing to come out of the combination of the soviet-hegemonic 'wall' falling and the move away from plastics (odd combination but bear with me), has been a real resurgence in the blown-glass ornament, the art of which excels in those parts of Europe which were behind the Iron Curtain!

See, method in the madness; Poland, Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech and Slovak republics) are the real home of fancy glass baubles, and their migrant decedents - once 'illegal's' (ask the Natives) - have taken the skill to North America.

One of the stores leading that move back in recent years has been good old TKMaxx. This set was a bit brash for me, I like the soldier, he's a little smaller than the shelfie I took in TKMaxx's household subsidiary last year, and better decorated, but the other three would look a  bit daft on a tree I feel, still - probably aimed more at tourists?

But I bought both these without a second thought! Also in TKMaxx and - like all their stuff - limited. The soldier is smaller still, and when I get around to setting the tree I'll get him out and compare him to the others, while the tiger was simply irresistible, with his enigmatic yet slightly threatening smile and golden shine!

My mother has a small fairing-like, porcelain, pill box with an equally wonderful tiger, so I introduced them and fired-off a few shots. I took these shots on the 27th of October and I'm still finding bits of glitter in the counterpane!

The Devil's tree wears Coco Channel! This is hideous! Overblown, fabric and faux-jewel draped, tasselled piece of jet-black nastiness, it was in an 'advertorial' in last year's papers (possibly the Metro) and I scanned it because I scan anything figural.

The best thing you can do with this is take it out the back and put it out of its misery with a sledge-hammer! If you put it on a Christmas tree kids would have nightmares, it's evil - look at its eyes!

I won't tell you what it cost because I've forgotten, but if you recognise the logo, you'll be able to have a good guess how many £3.99 tigers you can have instead - I think it's more than ten, many more!