A lifestyle question recently came back to us via realtors representing Rosslyn. What do we do for R&R? This website showcases many of our favorite ways to enjoy living on the Adirondack Coast including sailing; gardening; waterskiing; hammocking; cycling; hot tub soaking; meandering our trails on foot, snowshoes, or cross-country skis; wildlife observation; fresh water surfing; entertaining family and friends; windsurfing; rowing the Vermont dory and Adirondack guideboat; boating to dinner; and *SO* much more. Today I share with you another that may not be so obvious. Orchard pruning is one of a favorite forms of R&R! And this is especially so when winter begins to give away to spring time.
This time of year one of my favorite Rosslyn R&R rituals is pruning fruit trees. This meditative reconnection with trees I’ve cultivated for the better part of two decades is a longstanding mindfulness practice for me. Methodical, incremental, and remarkably intimate, seasonal pruning offers a means of reacquainting myself with the character and wellbeing of trees that provide beauty and nourishment for family, our friends, and our wild neighbors. At once physical and visual, cerebral and emotional, pruning fruit trees reinvigorates my optimism and enthusiasm for the incoming growing season. Season after season I collaborate with the forces (and whimsy) of nature to shape, direct, and nurture these trees. Sometimes a branch is snapped off by turkeys feasting on peaches. Sometimes it’s a windstorm that splinters a major limb from the trunk or simply topples a tree. (We will be replacing three fruit trees in Rosslyn’s orchard next week all of which succumbed to severe winds.) Sometimes pest pressure and sometimes infirmity add to nature’s challenges.
But mostly nature invigorates and nourishes. So much so that we’ve been fortunate to practice holistic orcharding (and gardening) practices since the beginning.
In order to maintain healthy fruit trees while improving their physical architecture and productivity it’s necessary to prune the trees during the period of winter [and early spring] dormancy… [But] unlike most chores, pruning an orchard is far more than a line item on a To Do list. (Source: Orchard Rumination)
It’s a discipline and a framework for practicing a unique sort of meditation that is at once creative, environmentally integrating, physically fulfilling, and relaxing.
Creative? You bet!
There’s a creative element, shaping and guiding the trees’ growth habit year after year. And there is a serotonin inducing pick-me-up triggered by dedicating yourself to an activity during the winter doldrums which will increase summer abundance. An investment in future harvests. (Source: Orchard Rumination)
I find this forward thinking process especially useful as March and mud season exact their toll. Bridging this interstitial time to midsummer abundance is surprisingly empowering.
The single greatest reward of fruit tree orcharding occurs during the off-season. My bride is an avid and dedicated practitioner of yoga. Not I. For me it’s fruit tree pruning. I don’t think it’s a reach to suggest that pruning fruit trees in the late winter and early spring is my yoga. It’s my mindfulness meditation. (Source: Orchard Rumination)
I’ve excerpted that from a long ago post that no longer rings quite as true. But it’s not my enthusiasm for pruning that has changed. Susan‘s yoga practice has shifted some due to hip and back trouble. But orchard pruning, for me, remains a sort of yoga practice. And a favorite form of Rosslyn R&R!
Have I inspired you to offer a helping hand?! 
What do you think?