The UK government has declared climate emergency, from this week first/second week of May. Many have named this before though now following a few weeks where climate change has become mainstream news due largely to Extinction Rebellion , David Attenborough’s BBC Climate Change Documentary and the visit of the Swedish teenage environmentalist/  school strike activist Greta Thunburg

I wonder how this is be acted upon in the coming months/years.

Writing Oak Tree at new year brought together some threads I’d been contemplating, the relationship to those we can’t talk to (of course you can ! but in terms of a verbal exchange!) but are in relationship with and what this means for climate change. It felt important to contemplate that, the wisdom thats there, the experience, lessons possible to receive from life as it’s happening around us.

I heard once, ‘trees are the biggest living thing you can hug’ I like that -I’m a tree hugger sometimes 🙂 . Mostly though I like being beside them and head for woods if I need to clear my mind. I’ve heard it’s the oxygen that draws us there and I like the feeling of there being roots underneath me.

The CO2 – breath exchange I find a wonder – 1 tree provides that relationship for 2 humans.

One thing I do everyday for the love of trees is this …I wonder if you’ve seen Google search engine alternative Ecosia affectively everytime you search trees are planted.

So I wondered about collecting tree stories – a way of being in touch with that respect and reverence – care to send me one?

or songs for this playlist

Charlotte, Vancouver, Canada

Monks ordaining Trees and Climate emergency declaration in Vancouver

My friend is driving down an old highway in Chiang Mai to Lampang there are some very loved trees there and he told me the local monks have ordained the trees as monks to prevent them being chopped down by the promoters of an extended highway ..apparently this is happening quite a bit – Deforestation is a issue for Thailand as it for many places and the move to ordain trees thus protect them is very important. The Buddist monks have been wrapping the trees in orange material to protect them from harm .Whilst it doesn’t guarantee there safety the majority in Thailand are Buddists and their trust for the monks better judgement is high .It is a unique idea originally started by the Thai Forest monks and has spread .Of course often elsewhere a colored ribbon is more harmful than good and can mean a untimely end or signify a property line – so it is a very positive move 🙂 You are very welcome to post the story .  I did read that -about the UK declaring a climate emergency – kinda bittersweet isnt it ! I mean its great that they recognize the need- its very sad that there is a need . I also read that there was a protest outside of Ottawa City Hall in Canada demanding the mayor join some other municipalities in doing the same – a motion was made and I believe that they did declare it 🙂 .. Vancouver city has already declared a climate emergency which was done in January, I am on Vancouver Island ..which is an extension of .. and a ferry ride from Vancouver

Charlotte x

Kay, Cornwall

An acorn growing in Cornwall from where her father passed away during the war in Germany

My Fathers name William Henry Tanner, he was in the Devon & Dorset parachute regiment 6th Airborne , he was 29 years old killed crossing the Rhine on 24th March 1945

Thank you Joe, trees have always been a great source of joy for me, alongside of rivers, growing up by the Thames. Yes you can use my picture, I’d be proud of that .

Francie, Germany

Onbeing episode with Wangari Maathai.

Wangari Matthai is a nobel peace prize winner, the first black woman actually to win it for community work around conservation- I loved listening to this woman and felt you would too the episode is called Marching with trees

love from here

francie

Miranda, Manchester

Heritage tree project

https://heritagetrees.org.uk/ in case of interest a project that finished last year x

Heritage Trees ran from January 2015 – December 2018 and aimed to celebrate, record and protect our local tree heritage – the trees, woodlands, hedgerows and orchards which are part of the fabric of our towns and cities. Watch the video to find about the difference the project made.

Charlotte, Vancouver (again, thank you Charlotte)

Story of Piplantri in India 

This amazing village in India plants 111 trees every time a girl is born

Kim, Canada

Tree houses and the ‘seven sloughs’ (marshes)

As a kid I had a pretty intricate and impressive treehouses. I grew up in a huge yard with a backyard slough, and my brothers and I built a suspension bridge that went over the water and into the trees in the woods across.  There were a lot of sloughs wrapping through the woods until they met up with the river. We called them the seven sloughs and spent loads of time adventuring around them, and skating along them in the summer 🙂 Once on a school trip we went out and planted trees.

Davide, France

Grandparent and oak tree picnics

Each Summer at the start of the holidays we’d go to a park near where my grandparent lived and have a picnic there – pretty sure it was an oak tree, it looked like it had an old face, my sister, my mum and I could hold hands around it. Early tree hugging memories !!! We continues after my grandparents passed away until we moved from there.

thank you I enjoyed remembering that

Idan, Israel

Be like a tree

I was feeling down, sad and down a few years ago and a friend sent me this picture. I made a drawing of it and had it in my diary since then, there’s something about that makes you feel ok again with all that goes on sometimes inside your life and outside in politics and the landscape. I come back to it often and if I feel sad again I remember it, look at it or find a tree, or imagine a tree – I can always do this

Paula, Spain

Mary Oliver poem

(I love this poem too Paula thank you , Mary Oliver , who passed away this year pictured with her dog Percy  )

My favourite poem about trees by Mary Oliver When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks, and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,”
they say, “and you, too, have come
into the world to do this, to go easy,
to be filled with light, and to shine.”

Br Dao Kein

thoughts from my friend, monastic at the Plum Village monestry in France.

Kim, London

people as trees

I always thought of my partner was like an Oak tree. I always felt compelled to buy her images and jewellery of The Tree of Life. I have a similar feeling and compulsion with another friend.

Also Some people have something of trees about them. Feel free to share this,

http://soultravelrules.com/2018/09/29/study-says-trees-have-feelings-like-to-cuddle-and-look-after-each-other-like-an-old-couple/?fbclid=IwAR2cnddzS_sq6cf61hW955rFl6uvJflkgG-_ETlu0SFaFecu2iEJPU5sVxY

Joe (me)

a new song release -this was from time spent at the anti fracking site in North Yorkshire, I had friends who were there the best part of a year – the peaceful protest to protect the ecology of the area from Ineos the fracking company, cost Ineos more money than they were prepared to deal with and the project folded. On Friday nights people would gather with song sheets and candles in jars and sing together – it moved me to write this song:

I also recently discovered this book by Hiba Noor Khan, ‘Our Home- 18 stories of hope’- ‘young activists from Finland to Ecuador, Iran to New Zealand’ out end of June:

so looking forward to reading