trees

Everyone is turning to nature. Nature is free, and we have a lot of it. Larry, the engineer who did our soil test (for the planning application for the farm café) is doing what everyone is being advised to do, retraining or ‘up-skilling.’ He is doing a course on herbs at the weekends. So far he has done two full days on dandelions- no shortage of those… The pre Celtic Tiger generation had quite an amount of knowledge about herbs and such, so when he added chopped nettles to his parent’s cabbage (for the vitamin and mineral benefits) they took it in their stride. A pint of bright green seaweed smoothie now seems more acceptable than a pint of the black stuff.

I met three beautiful trees over the Easter weekend, a vast beech, over 100 years old, in her prime. I sat below her on a bench and strained to see the sky through the depth of her fresh new foliage. Each young, lime green leaf vibrated with existence. Thousands of tiny solar panels converting light into chemical energy…an oxygen spa… a long cool drink of nature.

I barely noticed the tall birch beside the lake, she was that polite. Her narrow trunk was soft and papery and it was comforting to watch her thick swathes of feathery leaves gently wave in the breeze.

The pink cherry stood alone like a piece of Japanese art. The angled trunk somehow balanced in perfect symmetry by three slanting branches. Petals applied as if by a master Zen painter, on her branches and on the grass below to mirror her shape.

’If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.’

Lost ~ David Wagoner ~

 We were staying in the Breaffy House Hotel (2 nights bed and breakfast one dinner for 2 adults 2 children, free kids activities all day including a pirate disco until 10pm and use of the leisure centre €219.)