Outside in

    If you step back and think about it for a moment, bringing a large tree into the house for a week or two does seem quite a strange thing to do. I've been looking at the history of the custom, and I followed the link to the entry about Hans Christian Andersen's story The Fir Tree - note the commentary which suggests "the tale portrays a certain psychological type (like its author) who cannot be happy in the moment because he expects greater glory just around the corner and then is overwhelmed with regret"; you can read the story here, and having done so, I see our own tree (a very fine specimen from Dalmeny Estates) in a new light!