Robyn and I spent a good part of yesterday, steering 80 schoolchildren through the fraught process of grafting an apple tree. All succeeded in cleaving their Peasegood Nonsuch, London Pippin or what ever scion they chose, to their apple rootstock and not a single finger was sliced, nicked or pricked in the process. Miraculous, really. A similar group of adults would have used-up half a box of bandaids :-)
Dozens of seedballs were rolled as well. I was mightily impressed by those children.
Friday, October 30, 2015
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2 comments:
I think those in charge can take a bow, 80 children, sharp knives and no blood spilt, close to a miracle or very good processes and health and safety policies
And the focused assistance from several parents and Regional Council staff as well. The children too, it has to be said, were there because they chose those activities and were themselves a "select" group, having volunteered to be on their school's "enviro-team", as part of the Enviroschools programme. Even so, no wounds was an achievement. And everyone knows, greenies don't like the sight of blood :-)
I was talking with a 'retired' surfer this morning, who was describing his epiphany around blood-sports, experienced when he was a boy, gutting fish beside a river, when a huge eel which had come out unseen onto the shore and came from behind, between his legs to get the guts, when my surfer friend hacked its head off, instinctively. Then his higher mind kicked in and asked, why? He still fishes for trout and whitebait and hunts deer today, but does so with some reverence and never gratuitously. He has become, incidentally, a priest in the Anglican church. Good gardener too.
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