Nothing like a little bubbly out on the point at sunset to celebrate today’s completion of planting out 1,500 trees; around four times the norm. Visiting resident artist, Melanie, joins in with a deserving glass after having taken time out from her studio throughout the week to give a helping hand with over 300 trees. Three cheers.
This was an immense project and my body feels it. Even after four massages, countless mornings with a hot water bottle strapped to my back and 15 hot baths (outside under the eucalypt), I might not be able to walk easily again until the weary body gets a few weeks rest.
So why the obsession? Why put myself through such physical pain?
The simple answer is that I love doing it. There is a positive emotional pay back that far outweighs the wobbly walk back home pushing the empty wheelbarrow. For an obsessive six weeks I have been obsessively smiling (well, almost). I mean, how much more honest can a day’s work get?
This afternoon, when Melanie and I placed the last three trees in the ground in a special triangle configuration, we knew that something special, something of real significance had happened. The land also knew.
And the reason for the large number this year is that I want to have already planted out 6,000 trees when I celebrate my 60th birthday in 2006 in the 6th month. Something about being able to walk with authenticity as one enters the elder years.
May all the 6,000 trees now planted at Windgrove have healthy, long lived lives and may each “tree being” see many years of sunsets. Knowing that there are two she-oaks on the property that are over 300 years old as well as a few silver peppermints that are considered “pre-European”, I would guess that these young seedlings have a long life ahead of them.
May the pagan in each of us blossom.
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