I was a day dreamer in school. Many teachers have said to me over the years ‘you’re wasting your time staring into space Edwina’. Was I though? I was always quite happy in the places and situations I had travelled to in my head, excited about the plans I was conjuring. That space I found myself staring into was and is my creative space. Time is a wonderful gift and I’ve been very grateful for it this month to have time to day dream, think, question, explore, breathe and “waste” it in whatever way I wanted. I spent much of this time amongst trees this month.
Growing up on our farm in rural Leitrim where wandering across the fields to your neighbour was actually 5 mile away and nothing thought of it, I’ve spent quite a lot of time amongst hedges and trees all my life. I’ve always been fascinated by them and their individual characteristics and abilities. I just wish I knew back then what I know about them now.
This month my amazing neighbour; musician and community activist, Natalia Beylis organised a tree festival which was hosted on www.thedock.ie called “Whose Woods These Are”. A joyous celebration of trees in music, talks & films featuring folklorists, historians, scientists, activists, foresters, artists and visionaries. My mind was buzzing with all I learned. It was phenomenal and greatly influenced the path I’m travelling with this project.
I was really interested in storyteller Eddie Lenihan who recorded a podcast about tree folklore for it.
““Their roots go deep into the other world. Druids in Ireland believed the trees embodied spirits and were a source of wisdom. “”
Éist Anseo
Ash - Blackthorn - Willow - Alder- Hawthorn - Oak -Hazel - Holly - Yew - Pine - Apple - Rowan - Birch - Cherry - Whitebeam - Arbutus - Juniper
The tree festival sent me on many space staring wanderings, so many, in fact, that I had to watch the same episode of Tree TV 7 times to catch it all.
When people think of trees they most certainly would not associate them with having the ability to create thought processes. But maybe we need to re-evaluate how humans can interpret the world.
We breath in. Trees breath out.
Do trees dream? Do they fall in love? Do they have a language? Do trees have accents? Do the show emotion?
Are they happy to see me coming?
Can they hear me?…
““Listening in wild places we are an audience to conversations in a language not our own.””
