Fire and Brimstone

If you cast your mind back a year you will remember that I went bin digging at the local garden centre to obtain a "dead" tree to paint for Christmas. Except it wasn't dead when we got it home there were tiny green shoots appearing. We potted it up with the usual attitude i.e. it's got two chances!

Well it took the living option and has flourished all year. This contorted willow became known as the "Phoenix Tree" and I always intended to turn it into a feature.

A couple of days ago we found just the right pot to permanently plant it in, so of course I had to get cracking. The idea was to paint the dead branches to look like flames and let the new growth grow up around it. To our surprise this years branches turned red in the Autumn adding to the effect. Actually I had to cut much of these away to get access to the dead wood to paint it.

 

 

May be not to everyones taste but we like it.

To continue the burning theme, we got up this morning to white frost (minus 4 degrees C) but the hills were on fire.