Wishing you.....

I love it amazing, and a very merry xmas to you to :0)

Absolutely Brilliant Sticki, Merry Christmas to you, xx

Oh Sticki , I love it LOL ... thank you ! wishing you and your family a very happy Christmas and New Year x

Love it! Happy Christmas and have a great 2013.

Thanks Stickie...have a great Christmas & a wonderful New year x

excellent how you've done that Sticki, hope you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year too :-)

LOL, that's Brilliant! Simple and so effective. Happy Christmas Sticki!

Probably one of the few healthy things this xmas ; )
happy Christmas to you Sticki

Love your Brocoli tree... Happy Christmas...

Just to say it was not my original idea, I saw it on a photo and thought ~ I can make one of those! Thank you for all your lovely comments and merry christmas!
p.s. The green part will be in the soup tonight! [broccoli and stilton!]

Yummy! Well done, and have a great Christmas Sticki. :))

Now Sticki, your'e not meant to fess up like that!!

Wow love it too Sticki very novel too, Happy Christmas to you and al the very best for the New Year;0)

Thats great I love it. A very happy Christmas Sticki x.

Really made me smile! I had no idea what it was in the thumbnail...quite a surprise! :)Happy Christmas Sticki!

Ha ha....I do like your sense of humour Sticki!! Now I'm wondering what your Xmas dinner will look like.....something very unusual...lol. Have a lovely Xmas too. X

That's brilliant - the only Christmas tree to make me feel hungry. Like the sound of the soup too - one of my favourites. Happy Christmas.

Love this 'tree' Sticki ... and I'm with Gee on the soup ... definitely a favourite of mine ... have a happy Christmas ... :o)

Oh, that is so clever and looks so effective!

A very Happy Christmas to you and all good wishes for 2013!
x

Lol Happy Christmas to you
ps I hope you enjoyed the soup :o)

That's clever! Best 'tree' I've seen! Happy Christmas to you and yours sticki! :o)

Clever you, great tree, must be an evergreen brocollatus, and with edible decorations too. Much healthier than chocolate coins LOL.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS Sticky.

Oh, a great looking tree. Merry Christmas to you and yours Sticky.

Many many thanks everyone!
Lulu - I can't help it!
Janey - I'm not cooking this year ( first time in 35 years ) so I'm sure dinner will be good!
Nariz - I haven't got a tree at all yet, maybe I should buy more broccoli!
Neellan, Shirley, Gee - the soup was good! I have a little left if you would like some!

We are off to buy a tree from Westonbirt today...our new plans are that my sister comes for Christmas, Yay!
We are making gingerbread decorations for the tree mainly to amuse Sluggy!

oooooh that all sounds brilliant! a real tree, fun with your sister, sluggy, pru, jazzy and gingerbread = perfect!!

Brilliant Sticki, glad you are making soup with this rather splendid tree or by Christmas it would be rather smelly Lol. :0 Happy Christmas to you & yours Sticki, have a wonderful time.

many thanks GM ~ soup eaten too now!!!

i call that ultimate re-cycling!!

Brilliant.Happy christmas and new year:))))

thank you mark! and i hope you and yours have a brilliant christmas and new year too!

Well that's certainly different ! Brilliant! Happy Christmas Stickie.

thanks Rose! happy christmas to you too, and if you are in touch with Libet please wish her a very happy christmas too

Excellent St wishing you to a very happy christmas.

Yes I will, Stickie. We always text and email and have a very long chat on the phone at a weekend.

I bought some seeds of the broccoli tree,
to plant in the veg plot in January,
I hope they look good as the one by ST,
or is wishful thinking getting the better of me?
Seasonal green greetings Stickitoffee. LOL ;-)))))

many thanks scotkat
thats lovely rose, really good to have made such a good friend
i hope your broccoli tree comes up with baby tomatoes on for its decoration bampy!!

wishing you a very happy christmas too:-) x

thanks summerbreeze, you too

You inspired me to have a go at an xmas button hole Sticki ; )

Brill , Sticki ; Happy Chrimbo to you .

Im very impressed Stevie ~ you wont be eating the button hole though will you?

thanks driad, happy chrimbo to you as well!

Happy Christmas to you too Sticki:)

many thanks makao, nice to see you back on here! and a very happy christmas to you too

:) thank you Sticki:)

:-)

Such a healthy Christmas - edible art!

It's all gone gattina!

Yes, but not forgotten, Sticki - you could do some more: variations on a theme - a whole new art form!

Merry Christmas to you too Sticki - that's very healthy looking christmas tree:-)

Have a lovely Christmas Sticki <:O)))~ xx

now thats a great idea gattina, you know what im like ~ bit of food and im happy!

oh thanks kasy ~ nice to see you, hope you are not working too hard

many thanks annella, you too

Ha ha....excellent!

thank you paul!! not my idea though!

hi Sticki - just popped in for a sec. I am affraid I am working hard - I don't know how many christmas trees I've handled so far, how many netted and how many bottoms of the trunk I have sawn off with a blunt saw - the last one is a real killer, lol. But I never complain - it's a very good exersise, lol - soon I will be all muscles ;-)
should be back more permanently soon;-)

Very Artistic Stickitoffee! :o)))

oh no kasy!! you will be glad when christmas is over then, but you will possibly be the fittest of all of us!!
are you having a real tree yourself or have you seen enough of them?
be good to see you back!
thanks petal ~ the soup was nice too!!!

I am waiting to sell the last christmass tree to be honest - it's just too wet, lol. I am usually all muscles, but now it's even more;-) maybe I should join women lifting club? lol.
I have an artificial tree - but will try to get a real tree next year. Just 'discovered' a Fraser Fir - lovely blueish, compact tree.
Should be back next week:)

i think you should carry on the training for a medal in Rio 2016!!!

fraser fir is lovely, they have some of those near here, i dont have a real tree this year :-( so i might put some pieces of fir tree in the room and maybe some oranges with cloves to make a nice scent?

I have made a little wreath from branches this year.
But I keep it in the garden so I can see it from my kitchen window. Also thinking about some fresh arrangement in Oasis foam made from fir branches, bit of ivy, holly and whatever I can find in the garden. Maybe a candle as well? Have to wait till my next day off to do so:)

As for the training - I am not that ambicious, lol. But planning on keeping fit, lol. Doing a lot of gardening:)

your little wreath sounds very pretty and what a good idea to put it where you can see it ~ not just visitors to your front door!!

One of the best Christmas trees I have ever seen Sticki...full marks for ingenuity !! Wishing you all the very best...have a wonderful Christmas !

many thanks BB!!! it isnt perhaps something i would put in the lounge!!!!!!!!!

but its an idea i saw somewhere and thought it was fun! the tomatoes were delicious too!!

hope you have a really lovely christmas too!

Ha ha...it appealed to the Scrooge in me Sticki so it was perfect..;)

;-))

even better when you can eat it all up!!! now thats what appeals to me ~ mind you chocolate may be better!! but i thought since it was a gardening web site!!!??

Please dont start me off Sticki....shh.... but I am a total chocoholic ! Gardening site.....hmm...rules are meant to be bent though arent they...;)

i think a good rule is one that can be flexible!!!

oooh chocoholic? sounds like the best sort of addiction!

Agree on both counts Sticki..;)

:-))

I like the sound of that Fraser fir tree, Kasy. The scent of a real Christmas tree just makes the season for me, and though we succumbed to the ease and economy of a big artificial one a few years ago (something I swore I'd never do), we still buy a little real one for the porch, where it'll survive in the cool, and where the scent welcomes all callers. I think the people at Ikea (the only place we found with half decent real trees) thought I should be sectioned, as I spent a good 15 minutes wandering around the car park plot where they were all stacked, inhaling the scent deeply and getting a bit emotional. On the subject of chocolate, Sticki, when OH came back from the UK recently, he brought two big bars of Cadbury's D.M., and we're having the most appalling time keeping our hands off them until Christmas. Not very good where temptation's concerned!

15 minutes gattina? I think that's a quick glance! I have to get every tree out to make sure it's the right shape!! I have to confess I don't like someone to help me, I just have to decide by myself!

As for the chocolate......award yourselves a medal! It's the type of medal I shall never receive!!

It should be a medal for fortitude and courage under conditions of extreme adversity, Sticki - i.e. a C.A.C. (complete absence of chocolate) Unfortunately, all the Ikea Christmas trees were bundled up in netting, which no-one was about to remove to let us see what we were getting, so we played eenie, meenie, minie, mo. It's not a bad shape, but dropping needles already, despite the cool porch.
The day before, there had been demonstrations and clashes between Ikea staff and police, as customers were led out through the warehouse into the car park. Nothing to do with Christmas trees, just working conditions, but it made us think twice about arguing with anyone, though. Two protesters were hurt, and six policemen, after trucks were driven directly at them. Who'd be a policeman, eh? You can never say this is a boring country to live in.

Great pic Sticki, a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you and yours:-)x

the season of peace and good will eh gattina??!!

oh, thanks BA, and a very happy christmas to you and yours too!

What a beautiful veggie Christmas card, Sticki :))
It is very original and pretty :) I found it just today. But looking at it, I am sure you had very healthy Christmas diet.

Oooooh, very thanks kat!
actually i ate what was in the card the same day i made it ~ broccoli and stilton soup and the little tomatoes as snacks!

christmas dinner itself included a very tasty and large turkey ~ cooked by my son and daughter in law!

You will have Twiggy sizes after X-mas, that´s for sure.
We had kapustnica and halibut fish with salad on X.mas dinner, but turkey must be fine too :)

once i was slimmer but never as slim as twiggy!

what is kapustnica katarina? i havent heard of it. we had salmon in pastry on christmas eve but usually we have turkey for christmas day, not everyone likes it but i do

You never heard about kapustnica, because it is our traditional feast food - something like a very thick soup containing - sauerkraut, dried plums, sausuage (from deer or pig), one smoked rib, mushrooms, laurel leaves, potatoes, red sweet paprika, doublecream.
It is eaten with bread.

dried plums = prunes?

sounds very tasty! but im wondering if laurel leaves have a different name here? laurel here is a hedging plant [here] with very tough leaves and heavy trunks/branches, the berries are poisonous i think?

Prunes. That´s it. Sticki, laurel leaves are used widely in European cuisine, are you joking...

You mean maybe cherry laurel. I mean bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).

ah, sorry i always forget that bay and laurel are similar but no im not joking, this is what is commonly known as laurel:
https://www.evergreenhedging.co.uk/garden-centre/hedging/

the first section talks about common or cherry laurel

OK. I know it about Prunus laurocerasus. Laurus nobilis is used for soups and kapustnica, of course. In old Greece and Rome they used to make wreaths from them, too, for winners :) I once saw in a friends´ kitchen laurel wreath and asked him where did he win and he said - it is permanent source of leaves for cooking, lol.

oh, thats right i had forgotten the laurel wreath ~ for the victor of the ancient olympic games? or was it for the Roman victors?

That is a rather good idea to decorate the kitchen with a bay/laurel leaf wreath, this is a rather nice one:

http://pinterest.com/pin/35465915786466053/

Yes, very nice. Missing some snail caravans on them :))

oh yes, i forgot the snail trail!!! maybe you could make the wreath and add the snails?

If we have snails, I will do. This summer I have almost any in the garden. I wonder, where my friends hunted them in their wreaths, :))

Loads of snails in my garden!

Looked delish! I will have to remember that for next year!

I pinched the idea from a photo on a website Readby ~ always good to find new ideas i think!
thank you!