roots

We're doing a bit of gardening now that it is rainy.

Ben especially wants to plant everything. He came home with a pocketful of tree seeds at the end of the term in April.

He asked me to cut the top off of a water bottle for him to use to plant the seeds. I suggested planting them in the ground because there were so many, but he wanted them together. So he dropped 32 tree seeds in the bottom of the water bottle, dumped some dirt on top, and started watering it.

I was doubtful, but weeks later, one sprouted. A couple of weeks after that, there were a few more. Finally, I decided to separate the 5 or 6 seedlings so that they could grow better. I discovered that 15 others were putting down roots! Now Ben has a legit little grove of trees he's tending to.

Rodgers is cultivating a little jungle of our own around The Coffee Cottage (our tiny house on his family land). He pays 350 shillings a piece for seedlings like Ben's. He was very excited to see what Ben grew and has already acquired permission to add them to his jungle when they are ready.

As a nomad, I don't remember ever planting a tree before. Trees take years to grow, and I've never stayed anywhere that long. Now I fully expect that we won't be in this rental house for very long. But, The Coffee Cottage is ours for...ever...which is weird to me.

Just think that a decade from now, we won't drive past these trees, amazed at how big they've gotten, and wonder about the people who live there. We will watch these trees grow to maturity. It will still be our house when they begin providing shade from the setting sun. It actually kind of freaks me out a little bit.

I've lived more like a wildflower: shallow roots, sprout fast, here today, cast my seeds to the wind, put down my shallow roots somewhere else next year. These seedlings had long, thick roots before anything was visible – before the stem even started growing toward the top of the soil. What is it like to live firmly rooted in one location?