Walnut tree
I can see a walnut tree outside my bedroom window. The tree was given to me as a tiny sapling nearly thirty years ago. It was a gift from my mother in law. She had dug it up from underneath a big walnut tree in the kitchen garden of her family home in Co Cork.
I planted it carefully in our then home in Co Cork but it did not thrive. There is an old saying in Cork about a walnut tree which would be considered most politically incorrect nowadays that goes
– A wife, a dog and a walnut tree, the better you bate them , the better they be. –
Well I clearly was not nurturing this tree in the “proper” way at all. When we moved to our home in Co. Kildare I transplanted this sapling to a large pot and brought it with me. The tree still did not respond to my loving care and continued to be a weedy thing in its pot for some time. We moved into our present house over twenty years ago and I set about creating a garden from scratch . I found a spot for the tree and replanted it with a slate under it to restrict the roots as I had been advised.
For a number of years it continued to be a weedy thing barely clinging on to life at the base of an incline in the garden. Then ten years or so ago it started to grow and is now a substantial thirty foot tree. I think it looks magnificent as I watch it from my pillow. It makes a wonderful sound as the wind blows through it. It sheds its leaves for the winter and then I can see the garden behind it. When the new year starts I can see first the snowdrops, then the crocuses, followed by daffodils and then tulips. When these last come into full colour the buds on the walnut tree have started to open and I love the tapestry of colours with the vibrant red tulips still visible through the branches.
Last year for the very first time there were two walnuts on the tree. I was amazed to see them after so long but when I picked them there was no nut inside the outer shell. This year I see lots of nuts forming and I shall wait to see just what the tree will produce. I have squirrels visiting my garden and I rather fancy that they too will have taken note of the growing nuts. They are such delightful creatures that I will not begrudge them a walnut or two. They help themselves to the nuts from the cones of two fir trees . We share the crop of chestnuts from a Spanish chestnut tree and they may do somewhat better than me as they climb up into the branches and help themselves.
My garden continues to gives me enormous pleasure. Illness has taken away the ability to tend it in any meaningful way. However, I love the beauty of it and the wild life that visits and I appreciate the vista from each window in all the seasons. The walnut tree has a special place because it was a gift from my mother in law and it is a link to her family home. It is also a demonstration of perseverance. It , like me, has been a late bloomer, and I feel a special bond with it.
I look forward to the next nut harvest and perhaps I too, may also surprise myself with unexpected produce. In the meantime, I rejoice in the beauty of this view from my pillow.