We head out to Dartmoor and walk along the river Dart lined with arching beech trees....
Waterfall - a white-toothed comb at Fingle Bridge...
Blackberries - ripening....
Dartmoor and rowan....
Rowan and bracken....
Sunday supper - sweetcorn, grilled courgettes and allotment tomatoes....
Summer returns - bank holiday Monday at Knightshayes Court near Tiverton - thank you, National Trust.
Leaping topiary hedge-dog in beautiful gardens surrounding the house....
This afternoon a late summer rose still rambling in our garden....
On Saturday we return to a picnic spot we found last time we did this long walk - in the shade of a huge oak tree with a wonderful view of the Dart valley below us and Castle Drogo - wreathed in scaffolding and white plastic sheeting - high on the hill beyond. After our Brie and egg mayonnaise salad picnic I say I'd like to take my shoes off, lie back on my cagoule ( in the absence of a picnic rug) and just rest a bit. My father would have called it taking 40 winks.
My husband would prefer to keep going. He asks me how long I'll be. I don't want to put a limit on it but I've learned that he likes more certainty around time than he used to.
Why don't you have a wander, I say. I want at least 5 minutes.
I close my eyes against the brightness of the afternoon. I can hear my husband near by - feel him waiting for me....After 5 minutes he comes back with a cluster of blackberries in his open palm and a big smile.
Look what I've found, he says, offering them to me - a prize.
Shall we go now?
Yes, I say. Although I could have stayed there forever under the shelter of that giant oak tree, the warm silk air on my skin, looking up beyond the branches...and pretend for a bit longer that everything was normal and I had all the time in the world.....and an unlimited future - blue and clear as the sky above me....
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