A vacuum abhors Nature

Though in fact our vacuum cleaner coped surprisingly well with the tsunami of pine needles I asked it to deal with after we finally dragged the Christmas tree out. 

I got the worst of them up with a dustpan and brush, but I was still about an hour hoovering up the rest - and even after all that, I fear it will be many months before we stop tracking odd needles from room to room via our socks.

I don't know why each year I'm so hell-bent on bringing a real tree indoors to die in my sitting room.