Got it
It's not really sunk in. There's details to discuss.
My hut on the hill is now legal. Approved. I can stay here when I am working on the land, which is every time I'm here, even if I work leisurely.
A large part of me never expects to be heard, to be seen, and to be understood. I have watered my aloneness with self pity all my life. To be appreciated causes me to curl up in tears. I take that as part of the formula of dreams and doing that drive me.
Am planting trees. We are in that crazy dry bright spell we get nowadays at the beginning of the Spring. in many ways it's a mad time to plant them, as they are in leaf, but I get them at trade price from the local nursery. Also it's after the starving time for rabbits and mice, when they scratch away at anything edible.
My arm hurts. I think I've been too enthusiastic with the planting spade. I will try to use the other arm today, which will be interesting..
The rabbits are starting to chomp off their tips already.
I concluded years ago that they think with their teeth.
Also that they are a reflection of the richness of their territory. The top land rabbits are a desperate crew, scratching up roots, and intolerant of planted trees. The bottom land rabbits are more likely to leave trees alone, unless they actually like eating their bark. My young ash trees are losing the battle.
Also, that they are individuals. One adolescent bunny can shred up years of supposed accord in one night.
I am for ever learning. Painfully.
Some trees take one fatal chomp to become a dead stick. Birch and Hazel must be tasty and don't fight back. Rowan seemed pretty immune from nibbling, but today I found one totally beheaded.
One answer is taller trees. That though implies more cost, and larger rootstock, and a seedling perpetually rocked and chivvied by the wind.
I feel like a general, forever sending bright young recruits to the Front, to be slaughtered by a hail of rabbit teeth.
I love my hut. This task would be hopeless without it.
I feel a new lease of enthusiasm, after last year's despondency.
It's good to be seen. To be heard. To be trusted.
