The affordances of pruning

affordances19th September                                     retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life 


Alrighty some more rantings about my relationship with my garden.
This week taking the slant of looking at it from an affordance point of view.
I suppose my gardening activity this week was quite solitary pruning two beautiful gnarly majestic apple trees that i have.
I started of with some important communication with my partner finding time that was suitable for us both ,which we justabout managed.
I then tried some communication with both of my oldest children trying to argue how much fun it would be, even pointing out to my boy we would be using relatively sharp and dangerous tools .
But alas this beautiful teaching and learning moment didn't happen ,neither were interested in the slightest!!
.
I definitely showed respect to the apple trees especially one that I will name Ethel , who shouted at me implored  me to prune her .She hated being so overgrown or messy, with cumbersome suckers going every where .Which especially for Ethel has meant that all these branches  meant all her energy is going into producing lotsa wispy branches supporting lotas small apples and not allowing her to look after herself .
We decided it was a year to be heavy handed and cut some fairly large branches out .Ethel pointed out that this year I may not get as many apples as Im used to but long term she,ll feel better and pay me back in future years .

My above rantings basically convey that especially when working with trees its easy to see when they are happy ,when they are stressed ,when they need feeding .It is also important to show respect to something as alive and spiritual as a tree.
As Norfolk (2000) points out when "contemplating a tree its roots firmly planted in the earth from which it draws it nourishment, the tree then sends it arms reaching upwards to the sky from where it absorbs the life force"p.118.  



Also the trees pay us back we get a load of both cooking and eating apples and especially the cookers are able to pass them onto mates in a sort of swapping way .
I feel i am caring for my family in a small way that they can get fresh food out of the garden although i need to improve this communication cause they love to eat the apples WELL!!! before they are ripe.
I definitely put some of myself into pruning i would like to say it is my aesthetic side although it may jus be my lazy side.


Reference list
Norfolk, D. The thereapeutic garden. London . England: Bamtam Press.
Tree of life image rettrieved on the 19th September 2011 from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life