THREE happenings arrived right on cue for Christmas – two most certainly welcome and one most definitely not...

Flu blighted our festive season AND my birthday and prevented even the thought of gardening or doing anything at all — except lying in a bed of sweat and decrepitude.

But, two happenings brightened our gloom — the blooming on Christmas morning of our amaryllis and the lighting by Island Roads of our community Christmas tree, at Bullen Cross.

Each year we have hauled the Nordman spruce in its tub up to the cross and my electrician has plugged it in to the electrical supply box — but this year it (the box) was disappointingly dead.

The spruce had been kindly gifted by a Nettlestone resident three years ago, after it outgrew his garden and, thanks to very careful transplanting, has flourished.

Large Nordmanns, with their deep taproots, are notoriously difficult to transplant and it would have been a great shame if it had stayed in the shade at Bullen.

But, hats off to Nettlestone and Seaview Parish Council, local member, Cllr David Adams and Island Roads for promptly supporting the community Christmas effort.

The tree looks grand.

If you have the opportunity to try to move a large Nordmann, preserve as much of the root structure as possible, including as much of the tap that you can salvage, and water copiously, especially during its first year.

Our cheapie amaryllis also came up trumps, blooming on Christmas morning.

It can be almost impossible to get them to bloom to order, taking anything between six and eight weeks from planting, so to have it — highly unusually — poke up two flower spikes with no less than eight flower trumpets, cheered our wilting spirits.

No such luck with the hyacinths.