I don’t know how it happens, but I start telling Iain about the state of the trees and the overgrown hedges while Fergus hands me a tray of neatly wrapped gingerbread … llamas. Llamas in biscuit form. I have to blink a few times to make sure I’m not mistaken as he directs me to put it on the stall. While I help them unload the car, Iain talks about cutting trees and keeping the weeds down, and the heady scent of all the gingerbread makes me take leave of my senses, because before I know it, I’ve offered him a job and he’s starting on Monday.

‘There you go, that wasn’t so difficult,’ Noel says when I go back across to the pumpkin stall. ‘You’ve got your first employee. And if you come and talk to my seasonal workers this afternoon, you’ll easily have two more.’

‘And suddenly I’m an employer.’ I feel a bit shellshocked. ‘I wasn’t expecting this. I intended to plod along by myself, learning as I went. I didn’t expect to be employing three people. That’s quite a responsibility. Don’t I need some kind of insurance? What if I can’t pay them?’

‘You need employers’ liability insurance, and public liability when you open to the public. It’s easy enough to sort out. And whatever you’ve got left of the budget has to go on the workers’ salaries. It’s going to be a vicious circle otherwise. Without help, you won’t be able to get the trees anywhere near sellable or the farm anywhere close to opening standard, so you won’t sell any trees and you’ll be in an even worse position next year. This is great. You’re off to the right start.’

I wish I felt as confident as he sounds. Instead, I feel overwhelmed again. I glance back towards Iain, who is now giving his father an animated demonstration of shearing Christmas trees. He was so happy about the prospect of working there again, and Noel has made it sound so magical and loved by so many people … I can feel the pressure building on me. What if I let everyone down?

‘You should go and introduce yourself to everyone, start getting the word out that Peppermint Branches is opening again.’

‘Talk to strangers? Just, like, randomly go up to people and tell them I bought the tree farm?’ My heart jumps into my throat and my palms start sweating. ‘You are joking, right? People don’t actually do that, do they?’

He laughs, not realising that I’m not joking. ‘Everyone’s very friendly. And Peppermint Branches was really popular around here, people will be overjoyed to hear it’s opening again.’

‘I can’t just go up to people I don’t know and tell them I’m opening a tree farm!’