ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS
Earth Pathways is planting a Peace Grove
We are very excited to tell you about something wonderful that is happening on February 3rd in Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Earth Pathways is planting a Peace Grove of 50 native trees in collaboration with the Wild Maple Trust. Any nearby Earth Pathways readers who would like to come along to the event are welcome to join us. Please see THE PLANTING OF A PEACE GROVE event on Facebook or contact Earth Pathways’ Annie for more information.
This special event is taking place because of the generosity and kindness of a wonderful woman named Dorothea Breitzter-Kings. Dorothea had bought our diary for many years and last year she wrote to us. She told us that our diary had become her all-year-round companion and that it had brought back many rich memories of happier times when she would be out in Nature enjoying the beauty of the land, the birds, and the wildlife. Dorothea also revealed that she was terminally ill and hadn’t got long to live. She said ‘I so much wanted to leave you a little donation for all the admirable work you have initiated and for planting more native trees, a project particularly close to my heart…’
We were bowled over by Dorothea’s generosity and we pledged to use the donation exactly as she had wanted – to plant native trees in her memory.
Dorothea died on 17th August 2023.
The Wild Maple Trust
Sometimes the hardest part of planting trees is finding the land to plant them on but that’s when synchronicity stepped in. As some of our team live in Wirksworth we were familiar with several community-driven environmental initiatives already active there. There you will find a community garden and orchard, a rewilding project called Wilder Wirksworth, and Stoney Wood an amazing community woodland reclaimed from a disused quarry. We also knew that a group of committed local people had recently come together to buy 11 acres of former sheep pasture on the edge of the town for rewilding. The land has been named Wild Maple, after a lone Maple tree was found growing out of a rock there.
So we approached the trustees of the Wild Maple Trust who manage that land, to ask if we could partner with them and plant a Peace Grove made up of native trees in keeping with their plans to restore biodiversity and encourage people to reconnect with Nature. They agreed. So on Saturday the 3rd of February 2024 a group of us are gathering to plant 50 trees in a section of the Wild Maple field. We hope these will grow into a small woodland sanctuary, a tranquil place bringing comfort to the mind and fostering thoughts of peace and healing in the world, as well as enhancing a deeper connection to the land. This will be a fitting tribute to Dorothea whose wild spirit loved being in nature, and her lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy.
From Dorothea Breitzter-Kings' book "Meditations through the Year - Nature’s Cycle of the Seasons in Guided Visualisations:
"For each of us to help respect and care for nature we can work on getting more in touch with it, learning to feel and understand it more intimately, opening up to the experience of this wonderful life energy within and without us which flows through all of creation. Attuning ourselves to nature can be very healing. It can put us in touch with that great underlying oneness that our planet shares with all its amazing diverse plant-life and creatures. It can open us to love; for ourselves, for others, for this beautiful planet as a whole…"
Our deep gratitude and love to you Dorothea.
We’d also love our wider audience who are not Derbyshire-based to enjoy the progress of this project so we plan to post regular updates and photos, beginning with our Spring Equinox newsletter.
Want to volunteer with the Wild Maple Trust? You can sign up on the Wild Maple Trust website.
Our dedication
Photos of the day
