Busy day with the trees.

 Busy day yesterday with the trees. We planted two Bramley apple trees at our new Lisnabreeny orchard, one was a memorial tree for Albert Thorne and the other was a celebration tree to mark the birthday of Big D aka Dalai Lama.

We then spent some time thinning out some of the trees at our other orchards, taking off some apples from branches that were about to snap with the weight of apples on them and staked up some others.

In the evening I went to water and mulch about 20 or so fruit trees in another part of the estate. These were potted fruit trees that we phantom planted last year and during summer months its important to water potted trees for the first couple of years to get them off to the best start. Bare root planted trees dont seem to need it though.

The amount of ladybirds I've seen this year around our orchards has been unreal, its so good to see. Maybe fruit trees attract them or something as nearly every tree I visited had ladybirds on them. There was even one at the gate of the Lisnabreeny orchard making its way in. They must know this is the place to come.

Someone seen me walking up the street last night with a 20 litre drum and I was heading in the same direction as the bonfire.

He said to me, "your not going to set fire to the bonfire are you"?

I said no, this is full of water and I'm going to water some apple trees here.

As I walked along the road with one side full of apple trees that I've phantom planted and the other side a mass of mess with rubbish from the bonfire, it was a moment of reflection right there for me. One side destruction and the other side creation.

I had my own 11th of July bonfires when I was a kid and in my buyers of anything sellers of everything superstore that was my main business for years I had a furnace the size of a small bedroom for burning waste. It was big enough to throw sofas and mattresses on and we burned everything we couldnt sell. I was part of destruction for most of my life and still am in many ways with basic living.

Just by living in the system we are in we all our part of destruction. Our economy is consumption based at the expense of mother nature.

But as I walked to water my trees last night looking at all the destruction to one side and all the green trees with fruit on them on the other side, I felt I was on the right side of life. You know all of the Buddhist practices, prayers and rituals are about two things. To see the delusions of life and to live in virtue. I seen a big delusion last night as I went and did my virtuous act.

Peace and love 

The Phantom Planter