to build a forest...

back in January, Conn got excited about trees.  so excited that he applied for a free community tree pack from the Woodland Trust - a pack of native trees for wood-burning: cherry, rowan, birch, ash, and oak.  420 of them.

it fell to Mike and me to carry out the project.  to figure out where to put them, how to lay them out and space them, choose a method for planting, and organize/lead group tree planting events.  and figure out what to do with all of the extra ones!  because what Conn didn't know when he ordered them was that only 200 of them would fit in the field he had allocated for them.  there was a lot of excitement but not a lot of forethought put into this decision...

the trees were delivered on March 10.  it took us two more weeks before we were prepared to plant any of them.  on Monday, April 18th, the last of the trees were finally potted (we managed to get about 300 around the site!  the remainder have been potted).  In between, volunteers and friends of Kilcranny came by to help plant them, and we had three groups from the community: an eco-club from a local elementary school, a pre-school playgroup, and a teenagers in a job training program. 

the group plantings were exciting because i got to use skills that i haven't had a chance to since last summer, and the folks here got to see me in a different role, too.  organizing logistics, coordinating an event, leading a group...none of them was perfectly smooth and flawless, but they all went over well and everyone had fun!  the most chaotic by far was the 4-year-olds playgroup, which included parents and baby/toddler siblings and totalled about 50 people...

we invited people to make dedications, to name a tree in honor of a person, place, or concept, and it's been a really great aspect of the project, particularly to see the young people getting excited about dedicating a tree to someone they love or to their future children, or to peace -- they will not just have a cool memory about planting a tree, they've formed a meaningful connection between themselves and the earth...

so Kilcranny (which is Irish for "church (cille) of the place of many trees (crannagh)) finally has its own Cranagh!  Plus a row of cherry trees near the entrance and a tree-lined path around back.  And two volunteers who have finally figured out how to work together.  :)