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Four years ago, when we moved into Winchester road, i took my son to buy a christmas tree. I buy the trees in pots, the traditional kind, so I can make them last several years, if you keep them in a shady part of the garden. I cant bear the sadness of cut trees, and can’t bare plastic either. They first year they will look good, but when you bring them in, they lose needles, those traditional trees. Every year, they lose more needles. The first year they look good, the second year they are getting sparse. After that, you start needing A LOT of tinsel.

Four years ago, we left the Christmas tree behind at the old house because it was so bare it didn’t seem worth the effort. That year they sold reasonable sized nordmann pines, the fancy, expensive kind, the kind that doesn’t drop needles, at the Wilkos for only 25 pounds. I remember how happy Finn was when we said we could have one. I remember how he skipped and hopped a few steps ahead of us all the way to the shop.  It’s what christmas is all about. 

The trees were already in netting. They were half the price of trees anywhere else, and when I unfurled the netting, there was a bare patch in the middle, with no branches. My son didn’t notice; he loved his tree. It was the best christmas tree in the world. He named it Rooty and held it’s branches and promised that when it got too big he would find a place to plant him so he could grow. 

I created fake branches for bare patch and disguised the nakedness with tinsel, and left my son to decorate it. When I came back I found he has put all two packs of the clip on wooden mushrooms on the two false branches because he didn’t want to pinch Rooty’s real branches with the little pegs. 

Rooty has been our christmas tree since then. He’s never made any effort to grow a branch in the bare bit, but as the other branches grow longer it’s harder to create fake branches big enough. I promised myself a new christmas tree next year. One that didn’t have netting on. A nice thick, bushy tree.

Plants do not like moving house, and since we have moved house twice this year, because we were housed in the temporary house for nine months, many of the plants have been unhappy. Rooty was particularly unhappy. Pine trees are not happy here really, its too hot down south for them,  and the temporary house had an unshaded yard where the sun beat down all summer. To make matters worse, the temporary house did not have a working outside tap, so I could not use the automatic watering system. It’s very hard to supply enough water to keep a tree looking good manually. Rooty survived, but he did not look good, and needed planting to recover. We have a big garden now, so it’s not a problem to fulfill My son’s promise.

By late November, I started thinking about replacement trees, doing a bit of research online. I suggested to my husband we check out the ones at B&Q. He said it was much too early. Later in the day I suggested popping in on the way back home to get some curtain hooks; obviously my nut and I investigated the tree situation. The situation was this; all the potted Nordmann Firs in B&Q were £38, and one of them was CONSIDERABLY bigger than all the others. It was bushy! Dense healthy foliage. In fact, it was the same size as rooty is now. An absolute bargain really, really makes sense to get your tree in early if it’s in a pot and can live in the garden for a couple of weeks. 

Mr nut was delighted with his purchase. It stayed in the garden a month and then we brought it in and decorated it with mushrooms. Decorating the tree and fireplace makes me happy because my friends have bought or made many of the foxes and mushrooms and I love seeing them all again! Apart from the silver one that was bought because of its very phallic nature.

And now it is nearly Christmas once more! I hope it is a joyous one, and a happy New Year ❤️




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