A Tree for Sadler's Wells ...

Should you ever want to make an artificial snow-covered hazel tree in February, take it from me - you'll have your work cut out.

The shops that, during the summer months, stock any number of plastic plants and shrubs (why on earth in summer, when you've got real ones then?) run right out of them after the holly and ivy of Christmas, and there is a very, very paltry selection left.

So, after a frustrating afternoon trailing round depressingly empty shelves, all I could find (and was grateful to find too!) was THIS beautiful creation ... don't ask me what it's meant to be, but once it was de-petalled and de-leafed, the stems weren't bad and, several hours later, a bunch of them was transformed into this ...

... which, though I've seen more robust trees, will hopefully work under stage lighting - and it EVEN has hazelnuts (they're the middle bit of the flowers painted brown).

Let's hope it, and the mouse from The Gruffalo's Child, breaks a leg!