At Christmas time, we normally buy a “real” Christmas tree and set it up outside the house with lights and decorations. It’s lovely to see it through the window, and to have it welcome us when we arrive home. But truth to tell, I have long wanted a Christmas tree of our own, to plant, grow and decorate year after year.

Well, this year we found one. Here it is, and my next task is to get it out of that pot and properly planted in the ground.

Back when I was a kid, we had a little baby fir tree in the garden. One day a car came smashing through the garden wall – we think its driver had been racing one of his pals and lost control of the vehicle. The car, and sections of the wall, landed on top of our poor wee tree.

The tree survived the trauma, but the “pointy bit” at the top of the tree ended up being split. I always pictured it as being the tree sticking up two fingers at the driver who had landed on it!