Good news is that the Christmas tree is still upright this morning! I put it up last night and as it had been outside for a couple of days it was of course soaking wet. As it had a log 'slice' at the bottom I had hoped this job would be easy - no such luck, as despite all my hammering, bashing it down on the ground the damned thing would just fall over. Then to find a suitable bucket and out into the garden with a torch hunting for bricks and large stones, which were duly bashed in place. It still didn't seem very stable, so I have anchored it to the bookshelves with festive guy ropes. What I thought would be a 5 minute job turned into a couple of hours. This morning I need to clean the wall, windows and carpet where it wreaked its trail of piny devastation. 