Seedpods of a female lineage

[June 2026]

Recently my young niece has been learning a lot of words, and one of these is “gum nut”. She has begun the joyful activity of popping small pieces of nature in her pockets. Some of these gum nuts and pinecones have made it to a basket in my mum’s hallway. We were reflecting on the basket recently. Most of the seedpods here were collected by my mum and me on walks when I, myself, was a preschooler. Seedpods tend to evoke a moment of curiosity, which was a quality my mum always fostered. “What’s in there? Where did that come from? What could it become?”. Years later the seeds were placed in this basket of banyan roots I wove in my 30s. Like a babushka doll; seeds held within pod, held within a basket. Only recently my mum pointed out that she has placed the basket on this chair that she restored, which was once owned by my grandmother’s mother. Dolls upon dolls. There are many ways one might track their lineage. I have sat with many people as they track their patterns and inheritances. I enjoy this simple thread of the tree. Trees and their seeds.