Weeping Mulberries for the Forest of the Fellowship

As you know I call you the Fellowship of the Farmy  because you have become a strong flavourful scent in the air floating up across the grassy fields.  I say scent because I smell things differently from other people, I can see what I smell as though it is a bar code, (believe me this is not always a good thing, imagine being in a check out at Target and smelling where someone has been, what they ate.. and how recently they bathed) so to be described as a scent means I can see you in a multidimensional way. Every scent is  like a rock formation, there are stratas, layered one on top of the other. If you turn this strata vertically you have a bar code, and I see smells in that code. I guess this is what blogging is. What the inter net is.  You are the words in my day.   Layers of knowledge and loving and care.   It is hard to describe really. A scented hand in mine.

Last night I was sitting at my kitchen table surrounded in the detritus of the day, the asparagus harvest waiting to be graded, the eggs waiting to the washed, bread rising, waiting for someone to walk in the door so I could trap them into churning the cream into butter and thinking about writing to you. What words I would use. You are my words.

I worked in an old folks home once. Well, more than once actually but in this particular place there were 220 beds. It sprawled along under huge trees with 5 wings. And I knew how every single one of the residents had their tea. Tea is very important drink in New Zealand hospitals and homes.  Coffee is for early morning  – tea is for all the rest. I was a very lowly aide, dressed in pink, I would have been about 18 in the place I am remembering ,  and at 9.30 every morning I would load a trolley with two enormous tin tea pots, (that I refilled four times from the various outpost kitchens) so heavy at the beginning of each round that  I would grunt when I picked them up.(I was actually pregnant with my first son at the time so that may have accounted for the grunt but at the time I blamed my skinny arms).

I would push the trolley through the entire home from the hospital wing to the residential wings and dole out cups of tea  and sandwiches (cookies in the afternoon – though in NZ we call them biscuits).  I knew how every single person had their tea (strong, weak, black, white, one sugar, two sugars, no you are not allowed three darling it will rot your fake teeth), and not only that but I also knew how much tea they wanted in their cup, half,  a third (just drink the top half honey).The top of the pot of last when it is really strong.   I only tell you this so that you will know that I read every single one of your comments on the blog, on face book, email and  I feel like I am beginning to know you. Even though I do not get back to the computer in time to answer every single one I do read them and  I feel that I getting to know how you have your tea. And I do remember. I do remember. And from these memories of you I am choose your tree. It may take a few years, to find the tree that is right for you but I will do it.

We have three more trees for the Fellowship Forest, these will be planted a little close to the house. Weeping Mulberries.  Here is a pic of them in the winter.  I promise to prune yours properly!

One will be for Equus she has a cat called Arthur.  Equus, your Weeping Mulberry will be in the garden on the West side.   Equus is from Chicago and has a tree in her garden that is so big and so beautiful and all encompassing that there is no room for another in her garden.

The other mulberry  will be planted on the South Side and this is for Mandala and Mr M. I shall prune this one into a particularly wild and free form because this is how I perceive Mandala to be.

The third weeping Mulberry will be planted just before Sophie’s Garden, so this one will be in your daily view. This one is for Sam and his half blind cat Bug!  This tree will have a special branch  for cats to sit in and hide.

John is home from work today so he  will be digging holes and we will be planting your trees. It is damp and cool … perfect planting weather.  I will take shots for you.

Sad news on the farmy kitten front. One of Author’s kitten has vanished. In fact unbeknownst to me he was gone when I posted his picture yesterday. This is where we all climb into my time machine. How this blog works takes some head twisting sometimes. Every time I post, the pictures are from previous 24 hours. There are no exceptions to this. So when I posted yesterday morning with pictures taken the day before of the tiny kittens,  I was under the impression that all was well in the barn, but now that I think about it there had been a lot of cat- howling  in the night (the night before last) and Kupa (the peacock)  yelling Shut-up Shut up!  Still, it was a surprise when, at the milking yesterday  morning, Author appeared with a kitten dangling from  her mouth and laid it down beside the pig pen gate before running over to drink some warm milk.  She has  slept with the pigs in the past, so I am sure she thought it was a safe place to lay her surviving baby. When I had finished the milking,  I went up to her nest, where she had been with two kittens the night before … nothing.

She is insisted on keeping her kitten on the ground level with the pigs so I gave her a box, outside of their pen,  in a dark corner and she was settled there all day yesterday.

In a minute I will get all my farm clothes on and go out to the barn and see how everyone fared but for the moment all we have is the last 24 hours, the scent of new grass, and crushed freshly pruned lavender and animals on pasture and cats in the barn and trees waiting in the garden for their planting. Life is never still. Sad comes with the joy of this life. You all know that now. My darling Fellowship.

Have a lovely day.

your scenty  friend celi