Last Saturday we went out to join in and plant our tree for the Jubilee. Our village has been marked as one of the 60 sites around the UK, and the only site in Northern Ireland, for a Jubilee wood to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 years on the throne. This site when finished, will have 60,000 trees planted for future generations to enjoy.
As life with kids goes, the day didn’t quite go according to plan when our morning errands were delayed by the later than expected opening of the Carrickfergus museum for a visit to see the Titanic exhibition that is currently there. Then the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. By the time they woke and we had lunch the day had sped by. Unfortunately we missed the face painting, crafts and other activities they had earlier set up, but we were able to plant a couple of trees before they ran out. We were lucky, I suppose, as we weren’t allowed to roam too far as the ground was very saturated and people were getting stuck in the mud and it was becoming treacherous. So we were happy to plant our trees in the area we were assigned to.
First Daddy dug a hole with the spade into the clay-like ground.
Then he put in a sapling and did a happy dance around it, tapping the earth back into place while singing a song to the tree. Ok, maybe he didn’t do this part, but the rest of us did! It was in the official planting procedure to sing to the new tree! Honestly!
Next Kallista and I gave it a go. The stroller wasn’t fit for the conditions so I was happy to use a sling to keep Kalli out of mischief.
Tristan and Kallista weren’t quite sure what to make of the new trees; I’m sure they’ll ‘grow’ to like them!
In May Tristan and I will be back to go on a walk to learn about the bird species that will be likely to make this new wood their home in future. Keep following our blog to learn all about it.
