Ada Mulhern describes a time of growing up in the countryside with family and a giant Beech Tree. Ada is a volunteer with An Gairdin Beo community garden.
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Ada’s words:
When I was a little girl I lived in the Carlow countryside with my parents and siblings.
One of my favourite memories is swinging on a rope swing in Summer .
A red plastic disc shaped seat with a rope coming up from its centre and attaching to the beech trees first branch way way above my head.
The breeze on my face , the sun on my legs as I flew through the air .
This beech tree was so big and majestic even with myself and my three siblings standing at the base of the tree arms wrapped around its trunk our fingers could not reach eachother .
It was big and majestic and old.
We had picnics under that tree, took many family photos.
We played chase around it .
Mam calling me in from the kitchen window for dinner as the wind whipped through my hair on that swing.
Walking on the beech nuts in Autumn and hearing them crunch in the grass under my feet.
When I was fourteen my mother died not long after that the dear old Beech tree fell in the dark during a storm with a thunderous crack.
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Open Call for your tree story on video
Memory Palace of Tree Stories is a socio-ecological art practice which invites you to tell a story or share information about trees . It is a creative-led social enquiry of how we can live well for both personal and collective wellbeing. Your story can be any kind of tree story , a personal tree story, an ecological tree story , an environmental tree story, an historical tree story or even a botanical tree story. I do hope you can contribute a comment on how we can live better with the greater community of life.
The year 2023 we continue to gather your stories in the form of one minute videos and we are really looking forward to hearing your tree story . I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the contact page on this website.
Niamh Cunningham
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