Christmas savings

This year, instead of buying a cut tree and feeling more depressed each day by its slow demise, needle by needle, until all was left was a scratchy corpse to be hauled outside and dumped on the woodpile, we bought a tree in a pot. It was a good quality tree which cost a fair bit, but we rationalised that this would be good; one less tree thrown away, and in a few years we would have a happy little forest out on the piece of land next to the railway where it is sadly empty.
The tree duly survived, thrived even and after being stripped of festive stuff, we planted it.
Each dog walking day I've smiled at it and thought what an excellent idea it was, until . . . today when some ****** dug it up!
I stood in the drizzle staring at the space for a while thinking how mean it was, and how odd as we are (thankfully) many months away from the red and gold madness.
Oh, well, we'll do it again: a much more satisfactory tree solution, avoiding also the dreaded pot, stones, sand, wobbly tree and swearing. And I'll plane the next one IN the garden.

Post-mat lad

As featured on Mark's site — noise in the hothouse (link through main Hothouse site to hear the result) Ezra's fabulous noise box, created for Mark for Christmas.
Fabricated totally out of found materials, it's my idea of a real Christmas present.
Ezra is a budding electronics wizard, but interested mainly in re-using knobs, switches, motors and all the other detritus he winkles out of old abandoned radios, cassette decks etc from our local dump and the Aude's cathedral to recycling — le parchemin.
For some years we cowered downstairs while the small mad professor upstairs shrieked when something didn't work; soldering that fell apart, the LED that failed to pulse in the right sequence etc etc. Now, it's mainly calm up there, a more sanguine air about him when something fails; a new more dogmatic urge to keep trying until whatever it is succeeds.
We were walking the dogs the other day past a decrepit but attractive stone warehouse and Ezra informed me that he could imagine working somewhere like that in the future; taking in unwanted old electrical equipment and making useful needed items.
I for one can see this being very much the reality at some point . . .