family had lived in the house since it was built, I knew there were bound to be some vintage treasures among the tinsel and tree decorations. I wondered if he would mind if I had a peek in the boxes when I dropped them off.
‘Now, that would be grand,’ he said, ‘but to tell you the truth I only really want the wooden nativity set my father made and the angel for the tree. She’s even older than I am!’ he chuckled. ‘I was thinking that it might be nice if everything else stayed at the house.’
‘I see.’
‘But only if you don’t mind,’ he rushed on. ‘You don’t have to do anything with them, but if they’re taking up too much loft space—’
‘Actually,’ I quickly interrupted to stop him fretting, ‘I was wondering if you would mind if I carried on using them to decorate the house?’
‘They’re all a bit old-fashioned,’ he warned me.
‘That’s just what I like,’ I told him, as his eyes moistened with tears. ‘The house is still a bit old-fashioned, isn’t it? So, they definitely belong there.’
‘Well,’ he sniffed, ‘that would be wonderful.’
‘And when I’ve got them up, you can come and see them.’
‘Only if you’re sure. I wouldn’t want to intrude.’
‘We could have some of the cake I made at Carole’s Winterfest session,’ I told him, ‘and tea.’
‘Well I’d like that,’ he said, reaching for his handkerchief as Finn looked at me and smiled. ‘I’d like that very much indeed.’
‘That’s settled then,’ I said, bending to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
‘Hey now,’ he grinned, ‘don’t be doing that, not with your strapping great fella sitting right next to me. I don’t want him getting ideas that I’m trying to pinch his girl!’
Finn and I looked at each other and shook our heads. So much for keeping our relationship under wraps.
* * *
Even though I was keen to get ahead in the garden, Harold’s kind gift of his family’s festive decorations had me yearning to clock out on Friday. I was planning to get the decorations down and start going through them before buying a tree at some point over the weekend.
It was going to be a busy couple of days, what with helping my beloved with his Winterfest session on Saturday and saying a few words of horticultural wisdom before the start of Graham’s on Sunday, but I was determined to squeeze buying a tree into my already packed schedule.
‘Ta da!’
‘What on earth?’ I gasped.
‘It’s your tree,’ came Finn’s voice, from somewhere beyond the mass of beautiful pine branches, filling the porch when I opened the door to him that Friday evening.
‘But I haven’t ordered one.’
‘I know,’ he said, sounding more muffled than ever, ‘I did. It’s a present.’
‘Oh Finn,’ I laughed, clapping my hands. ‘It’s beautiful, thank you.’
‘It’s also heavy,’ he said, ‘so are you going to let me in, or what?’
‘How far have you carried it?’ I asked, opening the front door as far as I could in the hope that he could sidle in without knocking off too many needles.
‘Only across the road,’ he told me, carefully edging in. ‘I had it delivered to Prosperous Place so I could surprise you. And it’s container-grown, which is why it’s so heavy.’
He’d barely got it into the sitting room before I flung my arms around him and kissed him deeply.
‘I take it you like it then,’ he said between kisses.
‘I love it,’ I told him, ‘almost as much as I love—’
‘Come on then,’ he said, denying me the chance to say it again. ‘Let’s get it in position and then we’ll get Harold’s decs out of the loft.’
The tree fitted the space in the bay window beautifully. It was a little on the tall side, but I didn’t mind that. I’d never had such a beautiful tree and the fact that it was going to be returned to the grower to be re-used again next year, by me if I wanted it, made it sustainable too, which was even better.
‘Look at this,’ said Finn, diving into another box and pulling out a bag of old-fashioned crêpe streamers.
‘Harold’s saved everything, hasn’t he?’ I laughed, looking at the eclectic collection we’d unearthed so far.
There were seasonal treasures of all styles, spanning many decades, contained within the cardboard boxes we had lifted down. Even some of the carrier bags that the foil ceiling decorations and streamers were stashed in were historical artefacts. It had been a while since Woolworths and C&A had graced the