An Orchard in Awakening

With the arrival of spring the orchard is starting to wake up. New leaves appear like shy smiles. In the plum, peach, and apricot trees, the first to make a show are the blossoms. For a few days, all the branches are bouquets of flowers and the whole place seems to be wearing its best clothes. Perfectly in tune with Holi, the festival of colours. Elsewhere the buds are only beginning to swell. Even those small changes are miracles.

There is a particular pleasure in watching the trees that I planted during their dormancy stir and begin to live. The young ones that stood brown and leafless through winter now unfurl with a certain eagerness. The older trees show the season in a quieter way. If I press my ear gently to an apple trunk on a calm morning I half believe I can hear the sap moving. Perhaps it is only fancy but this notion pleases me. It is easier to believe in small miracles when one spends days close to nature.

I sat for a long time under an apple tree that has not yet come fully awake. The sunlight on my face felt warm and welcome. A soft breeze passed through the branches and sent a shiver despite sitting in the sun. The winter is not yet over. In an age that rushes on and on it is a blessing to sit and do nothing much at all. To be content with one’s own company and the slow progress of the day. I had a fall few days back, so the warmth of sun eases my pain too.

Not far from me, a group of white throated thrushes landed under the large apricot tree. They were busy with the fruit that had lain there through the winter. Birds make use of what the seasons leave behind. These apricots were now little brown shells on the ground with no flesh left on them and their seeds(tiny almonds) had become a resource. One bold thrush pecked and prised at a shell with its beak until at last it opened. It was a small, fierce business. The bird did not even bother to look at me, sitting just a metre away from it. It moved as if I were a part of the orchard the way a stone or a root belongs there. When wild creatures treat us like that we feel that for those few moments we are not separate from the nature.

The bees have begun to notice the blossoms. They come in small, busy troupes buzzing around, and they know where to find sweetness. Each flower that the bees visit is a promise of fruit. The sound of their wings is a kind of music that I associate with the start of spring.

I looked at the citrus trees that I planted a few seasons ago. They do not shed their leaves in winter but they slow down. New shoots are appearing now but the growth is slow. Maybe the soil is not quite to their liking. Perhaps the long cold nights here ask more stressful than citrus normally enjoys. Every plant has its own pace. A sapling that looks sad in one year may find a spurt of life the next. Gardening teaches patience more surely than any other lesson I know.

Plants have also taught me that nature has no interest in conformity. Every plant and every tree is different. And they are happy and useful contributing to nature in their own ways. Quite unlike humans ! Some of them sprout out a lot of leaves and race to reach the skies, others happily laze around till late spring and then give out just a few leaves needed by them.

On the plum tree behind me a small bird hopped from twig to twig. Its movements were a blur but its call was a bright quick note. I can’t name all the birds that I spot. How does it matter? The birds are happy and content. The orchard is working, in its practical way, at sustaining life. I am happy, The nature is smiling.

Time for a short power nap, while listening to the music of nature all around me !

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