Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01275)

When I moved into Summerfield 5 years ago, I chose an apartment way in the
back of the building, because it had a view of grass, trees, brush, a bench
& a little path going uphill to an apple tree, left over from the times when
the Summerfield property was part of a farm. Sooner or later people start
taking walks around the building, and they most often take a rest on that
bench, which I can see from my window. First time I went to rest at the
bench from my walk, I discovered why. It's an especially peaceful spot. You
can sit there and meditate peacefully for a while, or have a chat with a
friend, or listen to the birds. Well somehwere in Leadbeater it says that
evergreens and eucalyptuses have an especially calming effect, & I think
anyone who's ever stood underneath a pine tree realizes that this is so. So
I decided that I'd try to make this bench into a very peaceful place where
you could come to recollect and recreate yourself. For that purpose I
decided that I'd like to put a pine grove around the bench. I got permission
first from Palma, the administrator, but then it took me all this time to
really get the project started. Pine trees are expensive. So the first tree
I planted to the left of the bench, or rather, John, the maintenance
mechanics director did it for me, late in the Fall, when our best garden
store was selling out its trees. I got a little pine, dunno what variety it
is, but it now reaches to over the top of the bench.  The next year, I
decided to try putting in some seedlings from the School of Forestry. I
think I got something like 35 seedlings of Austrian pine, for $25.- I
bartererd the labor of my friend's sons against 10 of those seedlings. They
came & dug in 6 of the seedling around the back of the bench. We put the
rest loosely into a pile of top soil, & various relatives of Summerfield
residents took them home to plant in their yards. Unfortunately, at the
time, there was no way of watering my seedlings, so only one survived. After
it's first winter I found it growing along the ground, but now with the help
of a stake it's growing straight up & tall, &, I think, is maybe a yard
high. That year my son Bob helped me weed around the trees, & put down
fertilizer & mulch. The next year, I was sick in the Spring, so nothing
happened. But this year, when I went back to the garden store for cat food,
here was a tiny inexpensive blue spruce just waiting for me. My favorite. By
this time, John had acquired a helper, so Joe dug in the little blue spruce
to the right of the bench. It's very tiny. Joe also put in some fertilizer
spikes for me, and lots of mulch, and I've discovered that I can take my
large watering can out to the little blue spruce on my new electric skooter,
so it will survive better. Hopefully 10 years from now, Summerfield will
have a restful pine grove around its favorite bench. Isn't that a nice idea
I got out of my theosophical books?


Liesel