The Phantom Planter

 Sad day for this big oak tree which was one of my favorites, you can see from one of the pics where I used to climb up and sit in the middle of it. Now the old oak tree has been shattered from a massive fallen beech tree after the storm we had. It looks like the oak tried to catch the beech tree and is still holding onto it. Cant believe though that the oak is still standing and the base of the oak is still looking strongly rooted into the ground, it hasn't budged one bit! As I've been out and about observing the forests after the storm I can see why the Druids called the oak the king tree. Not one veteran or ancient oak tree have I seen fall, not even slightly moved at all.  All of them are firmly into the ground. Druid is also supposed to mean oak. The oak was a very sacred tree to the Druids and was a place of worship for them, I can see why.  Most of you probably know that I have a selection of oak trees growing from acorns collected from many of the oldest oak trees...

 Planted the 25 Robin Hood oak trees yesterday at the northern perimeter of our Lisnabreeny Community orchard. We planted them fairly close together as I want them to become sort of like a hedge for sheltering the orchard from the northerly winds. The trees closest to the fence are all fruit trees with a row of mighty Robin Hood Oaks behind them. I was just standing looking over the whole orchard yesterday thinking that every tree here has been grown by us from seed or cutting and now they are all planted up! Now just a waiting game watching all these hundreds of trees grow. The oak trees I collected these acorns myself from Sherwood forest, the native cherry trees I picked the berries down near the phantom planters HQ in Belvoir forest, ate the berries of course and just popped my stones in a pot of soil right after eating and they grew into cherry trees. All the 274 apple trees are all native Irish apple trees that we went out and selected the scions/cuttings from old orchards al...

 Was watching Countryfile last night and it was about the Mourne Mountains aka Narnia and they were saying that Northern Ireland has the lowest native tree cover in Europe with something like 0.04 percent tree cover. Considering a squirrel could have went from one end of the country to the other across the treetops as 80% of the land mass of this island at one time was forest, the fact we now have the lowest tree cover is so sad! Somethings not right, we are the home of the ancient Ogham tree alphabet, our ancient culture is steeped with trees and nature. I remember reading also that the majority of our town and street names are named after trees in English or in Gaelic. I always find this sad too that when I'm out delivering I get to know street names quite well and when I would drive into an area called say the hawthorns or the oaks, never do you see hawthorns or oaks planted here. You'd think someone would twig that when building these new developments and naming them after ...

 We planted another load of trees yesterday, mostly fruit trees, apple, pear and cherry, we also planted some black walnut too. We planted these on the northern perimeter of our new Lisnabreeny Irish Orchard. To the west of this new orchard in the field next to us there has been thousands of native broadleaf trees planted over the past couple of years. These will grow up at a faster rate than our orchard creating shelter for our fruit trees. We are then intending on filling up the northern perimeter with whatever trees we can get to really try and close in the orchard making it a south facing sheltered catchment area, like a walled garden but only with trees. The field our orchard is in even slopes downhill to the south facing side, making it a real heat trap in the coming years. In the years ahead this is going to be something really special, we have 274 native Irish apple trees at our new orchard already with many more to be added next year when we get them grown. There'll probab...

 I've been on one the past few days about water, the magic and God like powers it holds.  I was talking with a friend yesterday and he had lots to say on the water topic also.  About how it is the centrepiece of churches and also he mentioned about healing wells in Ireland that had been closed off by the churches to stop people drinking from the wells as so many people were getting healed from Irelands wells. Then I had been thinking back at some of the greatest spiritual moments in my life and it has always been lashing with rain.  The day I jumped off the Viking boat and found Jampa Ling Buddhist monastery it was the the rain that made me jump. I had just finished my last beer and it was pelting down that heavy I said f**k this and off I went over the side and landed next to a Buddhist monastery which was the moment my life changed. The monks took me in in despair and my life changed from that day!  Then I went to this Buddhist stupa in Spain as in one of the ...

 Was back up at the Holy Well yesterday getting my weeks supply of water. Brought my mate with me and he couldn't believe how crystal clear the water was and also how good it tasted. Throwing this water around my face felt amazing, was so refreshing and purifying, we both were practically baptising ourselves in it. Water is the God of all Gods, you want to pay your respects to something that creates life everywhere it goes, its water. Water is Holy in itself. Everywhere it flows it brings life and nourishment. Its the liquid spirit that even we are made off. No other life form known in the Universe can survive without water. This is going to be a ritual of mine from now on going and getting my own Holy Well water for drinking, coming straight out of Slieve Croob Mountain which has been an ancient holy site for thousands of years. This is what I would call Northern Irelands very own Mount Kailash! Mount Kailash is where the Hindus believe Shiva lives and is one of the tributaries to...