TREES

 This tree stump is just around the corner from school.  I think we should get it chopped down and moved to our new woodland so it can rot down and form a habitat. It looks like it must have been massive at some point and there doesn't seem to be anything similar it was never part of an avenue. Be nice to know how old it is.  I am now working on getting positive about the trees project,  It is strange as I have become a grumpy person when it comes to climate change.  Perhaps its because I was doing projects about carbon and global warming in the early 90s and I have come to the end of things.  This does not feel like me really- I still should have some bounce left in my bungee. I have thought about what has changed for me and it relates to the scale of the actions which seem to often come down to personal decisions and the scale of the problem.  In some ways I have fallen out of love with the idea that doing something is always better than doing nothin...

I remember the 1987 storm. I was up in an attic room in North London in my communal house and all night the wind screamed.  In the morning I wandered into Russell Square and the pavements were full of twigs. It was like the trees had taken over London. Lots of trees that people were really fond of had fallen down and it was a moment when the trees really became in the news.  The storms now are more about water - Hebden Bridge floods because the deforestation on the tops has led to fast water flow down the hills - the snow melt on Saturday led to the flood on Sunday.  I am on strike today which is good as then I can mess about and think about trees. 

  This week was all about children and trees. On Monday and Tuesday we went into the school and here are some of the things I learned: 1. Insects and trees are something related. We talked about mosquitos and bees living in trees. Also streams and bridges and slides. Trees are related to activity.  2. Trees shelter you and bugs sit in trees. Cockroaches and spiders encircle them. Trees are for day dreaming and also for shelter and shade and picnics and running and tag and hide and seek.  3. Trees are spaces for meditation, wishes and blossoms. They might have fruit. They contain and encircle us and also provide something to go up into and sit in.  Following on from our conversation about new materialism and trees I am wondering if we could start writing about trees, but drawing on some of the children's ideas, and write some of it with them, using our Research Creation article as a starting point? This could also be another team blog - I haven't been on the Trees200 ...

 it was nice speaking to Johan yesterday he has a strange calming effect on me.  I'm enjoying the tree project and having the two strands of doing something a bit arty as an intervention Point de Caption quilting point and doing something practical like making a documentary carves out a little space for me. I was a bit sad you didn't listen when I suggested we went to Betty Kennys tree. I think you thought I was joking or talking nonsense but I think a few pilgrimages to specific trees of note would be good for us - it would as Sarah Trueman says queer the trail.  I was taken by the story of Artuads s taff of Jesus and the st Patrick that he tried to return to Ireland and started thinking about sticks and staffs and how once they are in the hand they are more human than treelike.  The project in the school seems to be evolving, I really like the idea of thinking about growth and time and planting.  I want to push for some large dead tree trunks to be delivered...

  Talking to the children on Wednesday prompted the question what are trees for? The children started with Blossom then Food then Mangoes.  They also talked about seeing the cranes over Manchester stop the trees being planted.  One of the things they saw is that trees are connected to what we eat and how we are as humans - they are more than just oxygen.  This made me think about the human and the non-human and how trees are connected to humans in different ways. They are part of the landscape both imagined and real. 

 I eventually got the stump out of the ground over Christmas, it was not easy. apparently it was one of two large blackthorn trees that used to sit on the boundary of our garden. There was a thought for the day on radio 4 this morning I only caught the end of it but it seemed to be about tree planting.  The speaker said that in both the Jewish and the Muslim faith there is a reference to  trees.  If you are busy planting and you hear that the messiah is coming you must finish the job before going to see them.  I liked the idea that tree planting is important and is future orientated, it made me think about our project and young people and priorities.  Planting trees especially slower growing ones such as oak and beech  is an investment in time and care that is both real and symbolic.  It also requires levels of optimism and resilience that will be really necessary for the future. Perhaps this could be what our film is about and what we aim to capt...

It was fun going into the school today. A lot went on, and the children were very self-directed and independent, working without much direction to explore what trees meant to them.  There were a couple of moments when I realised film would have been good. There was one moment when one of the children was describing the roots of the tree and her hands waved together to enact the roots. The wave action was really interesting.  Another was when the same child used her hands to describe the way in which trees moved in and out of windows in London. The urban tree was evoked through her hand actions.  This made me see how film could capture small, embodied moments within tree experiences, that audio could not capture.  Guess where this is?