Despite an attempt to cancel of the major tree plant, many rocked up, a heartfelt bucket of friends came with their spades. What a glorious site. I was unprepared. As my cousin Charlie advised me some years ago while writing OU essays, 80-90% is in the preparation. I was unprepared with spades, plants, protectors, areas. While the priority was getting the stakes in the ground, a breakaway group formed who wanted to plant – who could blame them!
After Goz transported the stakes down in his trailer, Sam took charge of the staking out with Joe, Jannine, Jerry and Theo to help. A stranger from Southwold came, Jennie, who it turned out had experience of mass planting in the north, and she took charge of the impromptu planting of the hornbeam hedge. Hannah and her family came complete with spades, and they planted beside the spindle group in the southern corner, appropriately as her father had gifted me a spindle tree. Andrew and Alice rocked up with their family tribe, daughters husbands and children – ah those little people: ‘It’s quite interesting’ one said. The hedge along the southern side was suddenly complete. MJ on her birthday came, along with Tom, tantalising Sam with their prospective travel to Vietham. Flying by the seat of my pants, when Jon and John rocked up, I suggested they plant the first alley of Hazel. Marked out with skill by Jon, they completed it that day, forfeiting lunch. The last to remain on the land was Reuban who planted the last of the hornbeam. With the arrival of Theo, we had the 3 brothers together: Mossip, Ruffio and Brow. Ruffio running like the wind, Mossip temping people with stick to throw, and Brow, antisocially escaping to dig. And what was I up to? I spent the day making up for my unpreparedness, fetching tubes, more hornbeam, and finally heating chai and soup back in the cabin. The workers arrived for lunch just as the weather began to cloud over. We ate, chattered, exchanged and left just before the rain came in. Perfect to help the saplings settle in to their new home soil.
Kaliwood 