A Cathedral of Trees

We have now been at Rock Cottage for just over a year and a half, a period of time that seems to have both zipped past and stretched out endlessly.

In that time, besides settling in and all of other life's commitments we have managed to have a relatively successful vegetable harvest, put up the yurt, and begun our first small into the start of the Rock Meadow community project by bringing people here with my storytelling sessions and Maria's weekly yoga classes.

Last Saturday we held our first community day, to invite people onto the land to plant 500 native trees, supported by a council grant. Lots of people, from the school, local community and my family came to help. Maria prepared a big chickpea curry for lunch and everyone got stuck in to getting the trees planted, each bringing their own skills. By the end of the day we had planted 340 of the 500 trees, a mixture of oak, rowan, hazel, hawthorn, walnut and birch.

We began the day with a small ceremony to mark the occasion, and then lit a hearth fire in the centre of what will one day in the far future hopefully be a grove of towering ancient oaks.

There is something beautiful about planting trees. Not only do you get to be outside with your hands in the soil, you are also doing something that will hopefully not only long outlast you, but that you will never see in all of its mature glory. I remember the first time I visited Barcelona and stood staring up at the weird, organic towers of the Sagrada Familia, and being struck by what Gaudi, or indeed any of architect of a great cathederal, must have felt when designing such a feat. Knowing that the final stone will not be laid until centuries after his death. Knowing that this is a project for future generations, that you yourself will not step foot in the completed building, and neither will your children.

Planting trees feels like this to me. Planting a new ancient woodland. Sure, I will hopefully have the pleasure watching the trees as they grow, feel the sorrow of the ones that don't make it, the joy in the ones that do, but I will never see it as a mature woodland. I will never witness these saplings as gnarled old oaks. That is something for someone else to enjoy, when you and I are long forgotten.

Hopefully this will be the first of many community days. It felt really good to watch people as they spread out across the field and got stuck in. This is the first big step we have taken in our dream to restore Rock Meadow, from grazed pastureland, to a beautifully rich and biodiverse habitat, full of life and a haven for wildlife.

It is really uplifting to see people getting together and rallying around something that will help, in however small a way, to help create a more resilient ecosystem.

We are currently also exploring the possibilities around rewinding that may be possible at the site, alongside our explorations into permaculture and restorative nature practices and are excited to see what will unfurl over the next few years.