Something afoot!

Bro. Clarence seems somewhat proud of his somewhat primitive, at least I think so, irrigation system that waters his patch of sunflowers, as well as his small plot of vegetables. I think I described his trenching in the earth to provide some channels to his greenery, the narrow aqueduct covered with some old planks of wood, and that covered with sand. All this allows him to pour several buckets of water into a sort of reservoir, which is a bit higher than the plots, thus allowing the water to follow gravity to the thirsty sunflowers. All well and good, Bro. Clarence completes his watering task in no time, and this provides him with a bit of spare time to enjoy watching some of the other not so inventive brothers carrying either water buckets or sprinkler cans back and forth from the one water faucet near the outside kitchen door to their plots. Last night Bro. Juniper revealed to me that something was afoot, for he related to me that in Jean-Jacques Rousseau book “The Confessions” Rousseau relates a childhood prank in which he and friends plant a tiny willow tree, in hopes of some refreshing shade from the summer sun. Of course their willow sapling needs constant watering, so they devised a simple trench from a walnut tree, which is regularly watered by the gardener, to their small willow. All this is done in secret, with the ‘aqueduct’ amply covered over to avoid detection. And soon they watch as the walnut tree is being watered by the gardener and jump in glee when they find water flowing around their willow. This story sparked Bro. Juniper’s imagination, and I understand that water is now being ‘secretly’ diverted from Bro. Clarence’s sunflowers, to the abbot's sunflowers!