Homegrown Christmas Tree

First of all I'd like to say thanks to you all for your lovely comments and Christmas wishes. I really appreciate them and love reading them all.

 

We planted these conifers in our garden a few years ago. They started off as potted Christmas trees and we used them both inside and outside the house decorated with lights and so on. We planned to cut the trees, once big enough, to use as our main Christmas tree inside. Then replace with a new baby tree, keeping the cycle going. But we never actually did it. It seemed such a drastic thing to do!

 

This year we looked for a tree to use with my handmade decorations but couldn't find any that we liked. So we came home and the husband cut this one - the one right in the middle of the picture - and brought it inside. It's just as well for, although it doesn't look particularly big growing in the garden, we wouldn't want it any bigger for the house.

 

And here it is - decorated with all my handmade decorations. You can look back at them in more detail here and here.

Here is the finished tree topper.

This is my second attempt at a robin (again based on Jacquie's owl pattern) and I really, really love it. Robins have a lighter coloured underbelly so I just wasn't completely happy with my first robin that had only a red belly.

My hedgehog family have come to live below the tree. They're very happy there; it's warm and dry and they can find tasty morsels of mince pie and shortbread crumbs when we've gone to bed.

We have another real tree (that sounds a bit strange as all trees are real - by real I mean not artificial) in the sunroom. It is decorated with a variety of baubles we've collected over the years. We have quite a lot of Waterford baubles which we bought in after-Christmas sales. They are big so you don't need very many of them. We certainly won't be buying any more!

This is our ancient artificial tree that stands in the hall and is decorated with a heap of gold and silver decorations. Not for any theme's sake but simply because I have them. At some stage in the past I must have gone with a gold theme and then changed to a silver theme for another year.

 





The husband and I both love Christmas though not the commercialism that goes with it. We like it simple and with family and friends. The husband is keen to decorate using simple things like greenery from the garden. This is what he did with some of our holly and ivy ...

 

The carnations aren't from our garden! I bought them in the market in Banbridge.

 

Well, here we are; Christmas Eve! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It only remains for me to wish you all a very lovely Christmas. Enjoy it immensely.

Brandy

Remember I introduced you to Brandy at the end of this post? Here he is, just to remind you.

I mentioned that some more tinsel hedgehogs had since joined Brandy. Well here they are. Meet Ginny, Jack, Maria and Whiskey.

Do those names make you think I'm some sort of old souse? You'll be relieved to hear that I'm not; I'm actually teetotal.

The hedgehogs are knitted using King Cole tinsel yarn. It is very soft and can be used for garments such as scarves and shrugs. When I bought the yarn (months ago) I got brown, gold and green, hoping to use it for crocheting Christmas decorations. Once you start trying to work into the first chain you can't see where to put the hook! The yarn is really only usable for knitting, though I did work out that it can be crocheted along with another smooth yarn. Why you'd want to do that, though, I haven't really worked out. I also managed to weave a tiny sample with it which I might use to make a Christmas brooch. Again, why you'd want to weave anything with this is beyond me. However, I am sure someone, somewhere will think up a good way to use it.

When I was making the hedgehogs I couldn't help thinking that it would be easy to turn the body up the other way and make an owl. Well, would you believe it? King Cole have introduced another pattern for owls. They're basically hedgehogs the other way up with large eyes, a beak and bigger feet. I'm going to use my green tinsel yarn to make a couple of owls and will let you see them when they're ready.

I'm off to crochet more snowflakes. I'm crocheting up a blizzard for Christmas.

Wet and Windy

We've been having some remarkably clement weather here recently, bearing in mind that we are now into November. Today, however, is far from clement. The wind is howling and the rain is lashing against the windows. I'm so glad I don't have to go out in it.

When the weather was nice I had a walk round the garden to take some pictures for you. Here they are and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did remembering how lovely it was such a short time ago.

Birch

Crab Apple



Willow

Birch



Copper beech

There is still plenty of colour in the garden. Some from late flowers ...

 

... and some from the magnificent display of berries this year.

I brought some of the hop vine into the kitchen.

It looks a bit random up there!

Before leaving the garden there's one more thing to show you. A special visitor!

This is Brandy the tinsel hedgehog. He has since been joined by four small gold tinsel hedgehogs but they are very camera shy so far.

Bye bye for now. Take care of yourselves wherever you are. Thank you very, very much for your truly gracious comments on my mini makes, especially the heather bowl. You are all very kind. Please go ahead and leave more comments as I love reading them.