Well, now that we've gotten to the bases for the trees,

It seems to be like this: the base, as much as any other part of the tree seems to need to be related to the spirit, theme, of the tree. Hence the above piece of wood, cut suitably to capitalize on its "nebula-ness" (and nebula mirrors what goes on at the atomic level in my mind) is for the daughter-in-law-who-is-an-atomic-physicist's tree. . . . My grandson Tonio's tree needs a base from some African wood. The granddaughters, both, I think would be perfect for a sassafras base. Someone I adore has a spiritual connection with redwoods, so -- you can see where this is going, eh?

Finding the right wood/base is problematical, however. For instance, that piece pictured above is in an auction, and there is no guarantee that I'll get it, though I *am* going to try my dangest. . . .