On the 27th of October 2018, sometime just after midday, alongside a hardy gang of Treesponsibility volunteers below a reservoir just outside Todmorden, I planted my first tree*.
It was also my first time photographing a live tree planting event. I had photographed a completed tree-planting site in June of that year as part of the set of photos Dongria Kondh wanted for the Source booklet; a pamphlet produced in partnership with Natural Flood Management specialists Slow The Flow. I must have caught some sort of incurable treevangelical-virus that day because here I was, on a sub-45-degree slope in the rain, juggling my camera lenses – and planting trees.
And I was having quite a good time doing it; it turned out.
There was always food, hot drinks, and biscuits. That was the secret.
It was not worth staying out at the pub too late on a Friday night, because if I got up the next day in time to plant trees, there would be some bread, a hot bowl of stew, tea and biscuits coming my way. Possibly even a pint with new friends at the end of it all.
And don’t get this wrong; I wasn’t starving. Though, with nearly a decade’s hindsight, maybe I had been aching for the sort of companionship you get from tree planting – though I didn’t know that at the time. What I did know I needed was wholesome company and a sense of purpose at a particularly grievous time in my life.
To that extent, I owe Treesponsibility, and particularly Dongria, Nagakushla and Jim, a deep gratitude. For mind-expanding conversations, on-the-nose planting-technique explanations, and for laying some straight tracks in front of my life-train for a while.
The following year, I planted a tree on the reservoir above the slopes in these photos, specifically dedicated to my mum, Kim Brasington, who shed her mortal coil in August that year – but in a way, they’re all dedicated to her – all the trees I plant and save.
With thanks always, Daisy.
*It may have turned into a hedge now, but at the time, it was a tree.