I am thrilled the Norfolk Pine is thriving in our house.  We bought it two Christmases ago and put it outside when it warmed up.  It does not like temperatures below sixty.

It lost quite a few branches when we bought it.  It was our Christmas tree that winter.  I did not entertain too much hope that it would survive another winter inside.  We placed it in another spot where it would get more light.

I was so happy when I observed it was doing well in the new spot.  It no longer was losing leaves.  In fact, it was growing–always a good sign the plant liked the spot it was placed in.

Now we will put it out again when it warms up.  I am so happy it is still alive.  I never expected it to live once we had to bring it in again.  It did so poorly the first year it was in.  This was a little thing but isn’t life composed of many small pleasures?

We love the large pine tree outside our living room window, which is the center of attention.  I placed a suet cage right next to its trunk.  There are a steady stream of woodpeckers mostly downy who feed on the suet.  The squirrels also come.

The downy woodpeckers travel up and down its trunk seemingly at attention.  Only one bird is allowed to feed on the suet at one time.  The others make sure of that.  Sometimes there is as much as two or three downy woodpeckers on the trunk of the tree at one time.

Occasionally a red bellied woodpecker makes its entrance.  The sight of it makes me gasp.  It is a bigger woodpecker with an one inch red stripe that goes from the back of the top of its head to its nape of its neck (at least the male looks that way).  I had never seen one before and now they are regular visitors.

The white breasted nuthatch also likes the suet as well as the Carolina wrens who I have fallen in love with.  I did not know wrens could get that big.  Occasionally a cardinal will alight on one of its branches briefly.

We get occasional visits by the brown creeper who has a long curved beak and is a small brown colored bird who appropriately creeps up and down the pine’s trunk.  And these are only the birds we remember seeing.

This year a large branch was brought down by an ice storm which became our Christmas tree when I cut off part of it.  We used the rest of it for our tree.  It was one of the most beautiful trees we ever had lit up by several hundred multicolored lights.  Both of us love this tree and consider it to be our friend.

We said good-by to our Christmas tree last night.  It was an orphan tree we rescued:  an ice storm brought down a large branch from our large white pine and I sawed off part of it and brought the remainder in to use as a Christmas tree.

We first placed the trunk of it in a base and then we had to prop it up:  it sagged so we ran a rope from it to the ceiling and tied it down to the floor with the help of a basket moored to the floor by some weights.

My wife strung several hundred multicolored lights throughout it.  It looked absolutely beautiful lit up.  And we admired it several weeks.  It was one of the prettiest trees we ever had.

Tonight my wife stripped it of needles dropping them in a bucket.  She wanted to lay them in the flower bed.  We did not want to leave the bare tree naked and abandoned in our living room overnight so I brought it out and lay it outside for its final resting place.  It served us well.

I am still tickled every time I glance at the Norfolk Pine we brought in when it became too cold outside.  It is completely green and growing in the new spot my wife placed it in.

I did not expect it to last the winter.  Last year we bought it for our Christmas tree and placed it next to our large living room window.  It did not do too well and lost quite a few branches and needles, becoming quite straggly.  When it warmed up, we placed it outside.

This year we placed it in a different spot inside.  I did not expect it to last through the winter.  To my surprise the tree is doing fine.  Every time I look at it now I become happy.  Such a small thing but it gives me pleasure.

We have a “rescue” tree for a Christmas tree.  You heard of others adopting a “rescue” animal, well we rescued part of this large branch that an ice storm ripped down from our large white pine tree.

It is kind of funny looking but I am sure we will never forget this Christmas tree.  It droops in one direction despite any efforts of us to right it.  It will temporarily live in our house near the window during the holidays.

The large branch was laying on the ground outside kind of forlorn looking.  Tomorrow my wife will brighten it up with lights.  We gave it another chance.

Watching plants grow still gives me joy.  The latest discovery was observing new growth on the Norfolk Pine we had just brought in a few weeks ago.  I had bought it last year for a Christmas tree and had placed it in front of our large living room window.

It was full when I bought it but over the last winter it lost quite a few branches and became straggly.  When it got warmer (it does not like temperatures below sixty) we put it outside.

At the advent of the cold weather we brought it in the house and placed it in a different spot several weeks ago.  It must like this spot better for yesterday I noticed new growth on it.

It looks like it may survive this winter.  I really don’t take credit for this but this made me happy.  It was just a small thing but it made me happy.