Gooseberries

I arrived at my second Wwoof destination last Thursday. I have been here a week and it is very different from my last farm. My last placement was a farm called Mill House Farm and it was run by a little family with two small sons. It was an actual organic farm with six tunnels where they grow in the winter and several outside fields filled with row after row of potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, lettuces, spinach, carrots, turnips and chard, all of which I had a hand in planting or picking.

Where I am now, Dunbrody Country House Hotel is a little different than Mill House Farm. Here we have a little Kitchen Garden which grows some of the organic produce that they use in the Hotel’s famous Restaurant run and owned by Kevin Dundon a celebrity chef here in Ireland and around the world. The garden is quaint but it is no farm. There are also an herb garden, a fruit garden and extensive flower gardens around the grounds. Irene is the head gardener and Seamus is the grounds keeper and helps in the garden. I am the only wwoofer at the moment and it has been very fun to lean from Irene. She has extensive knowledge about plants, vegetables, fruit and flowers. I know I will learn a lot here not only about gardening but about myself.

A few days ago Irene asked me why I am doing this trip. She kind of figured it was the cliché of finding one’s self and a direction in life. I was telling her how difficult it is for me to figure it out because I enjoy so many different things. I have noticed that I have an ability to easily mesh into a situation and make a place for myself even if is not entirely what I desire. I was telling Irene about my previous job and how I enjoyed getting dressed up, wearing a suit and heals to work, chatting with customers and getting a thrill at the look on someone’s face when you have gone above and beyond to help them with something special. But I also am not sure if I want to be stuck in customer service where it can be grueling hours that get old fast.

Today she turns to me with a laughing look in her eyes (while we are standing under a tree to get out of the sudden down pore) and says "I just can’t imagine you in a suit and heals every day. I just can’t imagine it." I smiled and replied that I have had a really hard time choosing what I want to do, and what path I want my life to follow. I love to get dressed up and look good and go to work in nice cloths but at the same time I do enjoy doing what I am doing here, in my jeans and boots.

Later on I was pinning up the gooseberries and Irene was pruning. She turns to me and says, "Ok Oceanna, it is your turn, you have to prune these and only pick one stalk to train to grow." She smiles and laughs and says, "you have to be decisive about this."

I started by asking her questions and she just repeated that I must pick one on my own. Finally once I got the hang of it, it was rewarding and fulfilling and even though it was hard to whack of those berries it made me think that the ones left will grow and flourish into something beautiful. No matter what path we choose we can grow into it and grow from it. After I was finished she said, "It use to terrify me to prune things, but really the plants want to grow."

I know that no mater where I go and what I end up doing in my life I will continue to grow and I will think about those gooseberries and how maybe it will be a struggle for them to climb up the bamboo. They will try to grow different ways but if they follow their path they will always have something to help and guide them. Eventually they will grow strong on their own, their support will be taken away and they will produce beautiful fruit. As in my life I will have struggles and it will be difficult at times to follow my path but I have strong support and the will to grow.