The first week in December was tree week and we started a new tradition. When looking for a Christmas tree I knew I wanted to get a real tree and also it had to come from somewhere equivalent to my previous Cheshire tree stop at Delamere Forest. It couldn't just be a shop or a farm where they had bought them in.....I know, super picky!! So I found this gorgeous place on the outskirts of Shrewsbury called Leaton Forest, an estate where one of the enterprises are Christmas trees with a plantation where you can pick your own and have it cut down for you.
We walked along a very muddy squelchy path, so oozy that Toby fell splat in! A few wipes with some grass and the mucky explorer was on his way again. We wanted a Nordmann fir as I like their shape the best and they don't drop needles. Passing the Norway spruces and the unusual Korean firs, we came to a plantation of firs. So many to choose from, some already reserved with tags, including the most perfect one I'd ever seen. Alas, we had to pick another, 7ft, 8ft too tall, keep it in budget, walking around and around, do we give up? A forester told us of a couple who had been there hours trying to choose. This could not be us for the teenagers wouldn't allow it although I think Toby would have been kind happy, oozing the mud, touching the piney branches, turning in circles and hiding, breathing in the fresh forest scent.
Eventually, we made our choice.
And now I didn't know if to feel happy or sad, the tree was leaving its friends, that's how it felt to me. How long had it taken to grow this big. One would be planted for each one cut so that helps to think it's an ongoing process. And then off we went, back through the plantation with Sweep carrying it on his shoulders.
Were we being watched, like we were looting the forest of their tree family.....
Past the mistletoe boughs and holly wreaths off the shop, we loaded her up onto the van. Ready to take home and decorate and for Christmas to start.
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