Thursday 12 December 2013

It's Getting Nearer

As I'm sat here, reading some of your posts, I am wondering if I should just keep including things about our own Christmas preparations, as some people can, I expect, get fed up with it.
I gave it all of about a minute and a half and thought well, I could show another garden, but there is plenty of time for that. Christmas comes once a year and is gone again before you know it.
 
 
There are subtle signs in the gardening world that festivities are nearly upon us. Other companies have adorned their vehicles with little illuminated trees in the windscreens. I have seen tree surgeons working on trees with bright red Santa hats pulled over their hard hats. During the week, whilst dumping another trailer load of rubbish, it was very apparent that the workforce there had been on their 'works' Christmas party the night before. Lots of slow movement, dark eyes, and long faces.

 
Heather on the weighbridge however, was her usual cheery self, controlling the whereabouts of every vehicle coming in and out, and where they have to be within the site. She is quite remarkable in the way in which she keeps things moving smoothly and calmly. She introduced me to Rudolph here, made by a friend of hers. As the wood dries out even more, the bark at the bottom of his head will peel, revealing a kind of open mouth....cute! She is getting the tree surgeons number for my next visit.

 
Yesterday morning was a little tense and stressful, as we had to travel out to see the accountant. Things hadn't quite gone to plan over the last financial year, and strange as it may seem, the problem was that we had earned much more than we thought. I won't go into the details, but suffice to say that our January tax bill was going to be five grand more than we had planned. We arrived on his doorstep a little depressed, as he then led us into his kitchen while he nade coffee and we talked about his own garden, which is rather nice, but in quite a mess.Thankfully the accountant is a bit of a whizz, and with a date change and a bit of number crunching, we have found a happy medium. We came away a little happier, and during our drive back through the forest, stopped off at the Cloud Hotel for a lunchtime cream tea.
 
Last night was time for both daughters to drag their reluctant other halves out to get their own trees. We had volunteered the van to get them home, and simply enjoyed watching the whole selection process. A brief stop off at Rebecca and Matts place first, for all of us to have tea, coffee and mince pies with cream. All was very yummy!

 
 As it should be, the tree selection process is a long and important one, and I lost count of how many were pulled out and compared with one another.
 
 
We were able to advise on the pros and cons of the various types, and the two guys looked on, sort of  mystified by the whole process, as the girls made their selections.

 
We got there in the end!


 
Were Joshua and Ella there? Oh, yes.....most definitely!

 
I hope your own preparations are going well...........TTFN.
 


12 comments:

  1. It was fun seeing parts of your Christmas holiday season and I hope you will share your decorated home. I love Christmas and I love gardens and never tire of either one.

    Love and hugs to you and Amanda ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Hi Lorraine,
      We have done the outside of the house, but the inside is for this weekend, and yep, a grand tour is planned.

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  2. Am loving the boyfriends's hat
    I got to get me one of those

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  3. Looks like a fun time was had by all. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas.

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    1. It was kind of fun Doc. Thanks for the wishes....same back to you.

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  4. It is nice to hear about your Christmas preparations. It looks like you had a good time selecting trees. We used to make a big Christmas but now that we are always visiting family at this time of the year, we let others do the decorating. We used to have a friend who worked in a large nursery. He was entitled to one free tree but did not want it and would give it to us. We would always end up with the best tree in the lot!

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    1. Hi Alain,
      It sounds as though you have a really lovely, and people filled Christmas. As for having that friend in the nursery, lucky you, as with the price of them nowadays, a second mortgage is needed.

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  5. The kids are just adorable in the trees!

    Good trees chosen. Keep enjoying those preparations.

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    1. Good morning Sherlock,
      They are cute aren't they? Hard to believe they were told off five minutes before the picture was taken. I hope all is well at your house.

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  6. What an interesting outing! Since we technically had our Christmas at Thanksgiving (long story), MY Gary and I are kind of "under the radar" when it comes to Christmas this year. Under SNOW, too - as it turns out today! Merry Christmas to you and yours. Looks like you have a fine beginning.

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    1. Hi Rebecca,
      It sounds like you two will have a lovely time over the Christmas period regardless. Good food and good company are the main ingredients. I do hope that your early festivites weren't due to some misfortune within the family though.

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