The Willow and the Poplars
Map
Map
Story & Experience
Once upon a time there was a garden, planted at a great Mansion at the foor of the Cheviot Hills in the South of Scotland. It had a wall surrounding it, and in the beginning of the garden some Poplar trees and a Willow tree were planted. This was done out of an interest in nature, and in the connection with nature. Several decades, or almost more than a 100 years have passed, and the trees are still there. But neglected…seen as “just trees”, and the rest of the garden is treated in an ambivalent feeling of loveliness and nuisance. From an almost lost Victorian view the garden must be neat; no weeds, no moles, no other nuisances like wasps, or mice. As the garden centre is close by, weed killers and mole traps are purchased, and used, on a regular basis. Wonder and connection turned into control, disconnection, and threat. And we can feel it in the air, and in the soil. There’s a sadness here, and an unrest. So, it was time to restore some of the beauty. We came together under the old Willow, and sat with him, while there was a high wind rustling through the leaves of the 5 Poplar trees at the corner of the garden. We sat; and we sat; and we connected; and we listened. And these were our experiences, written down in our journals: we, the kin of the garden, have almost always had people being superior over us. There was no connection; we were neglected. The abandonment of our relationship, our kinship, with people is our biggest hurt.
The Willow said: I am the guardian of the garden and all that is happening underneath me; I am of solid build, and solid character. And despite the fact that we feel abandoned, all of us, we are also US, and ALIVE, KIN.
Together with the Poplars, who are forming a grove on their own to be a safe place for stories, I am ancient, and we have ancient stories to tell. We are friendly, but also fierce!
The soil said: we may be polluted, and exploited and poisoned, but we can still clean ourselves; so many critters, the mycelium, the moles…we will be recovering, and we will be returning. Nothing can stop us. We won’t give up. Look around you, and underneath your feet: so much life, and so much beauty. We will be speaking to human beings, until they will return.
After we listened so deeply, and communicated with the garden, we felt there was more unity, mainly within ourselves. As if the garden healed us from our own pain in how she was treated. I guess that’s what places can do…
Once upon a time there was a garden, planted at a great Mansion at the foor of the Cheviot Hills in the South of Scotland. It had a wall surrounding it, and in the beginning of the garden some Poplar trees and a Willow tree were planted. This was done out of an interest in nature, and in the connection with nature. Several decades, or almost more than a 100 years have passed, and the trees are still there. But neglected…seen as “just trees”, and the rest of the garden is treated in an ambivalent feeling of loveliness and nuisance. From an almost lost Victorian view the garden must be neat; no weeds, no moles, no other nuisances like wasps, or mice. As the garden centre is close by, weed killers and mole traps are purchased, and used, on a regular basis. Wonder and connection turned into control, disconnection, and threat. And we can feel it in the air, and in the soil. There’s a sadness here, and an unrest. So, it was time to restore some of the beauty. We came together under the old Willow, and sat with him, while there was a high wind rustling through the leaves of the 5 Poplar trees at the corner of the garden. We sat; and we sat; and we connected; and we listened. And these were our experiences, written down in our journals: we, the kin of the garden, have almost always had people being superior over us. There was no connection; we were neglected. The abandonment of our relationship, our kinship, with people is our biggest hurt.
The Willow said: I am the guardian of the garden and all that is happening underneath me; I am of solid build, and solid character. And despite the fact that we feel abandoned, all of us, we are also US, and ALIVE, KIN.
Together with the Poplars, who are forming a grove on their own to be a safe place for stories, I am ancient, and we have ancient stories to tell. We are friendly, but also fierce!
The soil said: we may be polluted, and exploited and poisoned, but we can still clean ourselves; so many critters, the mycelium, the moles…we will be recovering, and we will be returning. Nothing can stop us. We won’t give up. Look around you, and underneath your feet: so much life, and so much beauty. We will be speaking to human beings, until they will return.
After we listened so deeply, and communicated with the garden, we felt there was more unity, mainly within ourselves. As if the garden healed us from our own pain in how she was treated. I guess that’s what places can do…
Why this Place?
Town Yetholm, The Scottish Borders, Scotland
We chose this place as it is right on our doorstep; it looks really beautiful, is nicely maintained, but maintained in a way where everything that isn’t wanted, or isn’t neat enough, will be destroyed; i.e., moles will be killed by traps twice a year, mice and rats will be fought by placing poison, weeds will be killed by poisonous weed killers, wasps and bees will be destroyed when on the “wrong” spot, waste is just dumped at different spots, and the main parts of the garden are mono culture of grass or gravel. There’s a lot of unrest in the garden…
Act of Beauty
First of all there’s a poem:
This is a place of rubble
Of poisonous pain
And slow decay
Still…there’s the feeling
That each
Individual
Of the vast amount of species
Is carrying each other
Forming a web
Of support
Of kinship
Of community
Of life
There’s a stillness
In the wind
And a peace in the air
There’s the feeling
Of fellowship
In the swaying of the trees
And a caring attitude
In the chattering of the birds
It’s like they all
Are saying
To Earth: we’ve got you!
After that we wandered around through the garden, asking permission to take beautiful things to make an act of beauty, out of honour. Together we made a garden bird under the Willow tree of Rhododendron, Conifer, Fern, Daisy, Feather, and Willow leaves and Poplar blossom. To make it a sacred place we encircled the bird with Willow Twigs. After we offered this as an act of beauty to the garden, we took our drum, and together with the sound of the drum, we made the infinity 8 shape around the Peace Bird and the Willow tree. We then bowed, and thanked the garden for her story, and the beauty given to us.
Additional Photos
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