Christmas has long gone but the streets are now piled up with discarded Christmas trees, some blocking the pavement, some blocking the roads, waiting to be taken away by the cleaners.  How sorry they look!

Some people have been clever- they’ve used up the needles which drop out anyway for mulch or in their compost.  So these trees look like this-

For the last seven years, I have been using the same tree, rather the same artificial tree.  Agreed that perhaps it doesn’t smell the same, although a clever trick of putting some pine scented oil around does the trick.  All I have to do is put it up, put up the decorations and then take them down again for next year.  There is no waste and no nuisance.  No needles to sweep away.  And it doesn’t look too bad, I have to say!  When I don’t use it anymore, I know that it will be good to go to a charity shop for someone else to use.