The Silvery Trail

SATURDAY - Husband in the Fernery at Canonteign Falls on the Edge of Dartmoor. These tree ferns  were imported from New Zealand in the 1880's. Apparently the Victorians had craze for all ferns which became known as pteridomania -  a kind of fern madness....

In their own home - in the Volcanic National Park in Rotarua, New Zealand.....

and in Te Anau, NZ where the tree fern is also known as the Silver Fern because the underside of the leaves are silver. In Maori legend there is a story of Ti Ara the beautiful wife of Rahi who was abducted by an enemy tribe.....but as she was being taken away through the forest she folded back the leaves of the tree ferns leaving a silvery trail shining in the moonlight for Rahi to find her.

This is the view once we climbed up the 220 feet to the top of the  highest waterfall in England -  the Canonteign Falls....

 and the cascade from the shute jutting out over the valley.

The story of the falls....but possibly print too small to read...

 We walked back down to the cafe past these ducks and Canada Geese 

on the luscious green water of a lily lake.....

There is something about the bouncy waterproofness of ducks that I love....

We spotted these black swans on a second muddier lake...

 which reminded me of NZ again and the pair of black swans we watched on the lake in Rotarua...

and this solitary one on Lake Taupo...

where we took an evening stroll on our first night there.

Back at the cafe in Canonteign Falls we ate our picnic under a mulberry tree...

which took me straight back to the tree we had in our garden in Lusaka, Zambia where I grew up. And then to last summer when we were in Armenia with my husband's cousin and his family and we were  greeted on our first morning with this bowl of sweet black mulberries....

and later on in another home, these white ones - just as sweet.....holding memories....holding us together.

Today it's been hot enough to melt tarmac. My washing even gets dry in the shade of the buddleia tree at the bottom of the garden.

These last few days I think my husband is better - more positive, more energetic. Yesterday he managed some short time with sixteen of our friends at a tea party in a beautiful home and garden high up on Dartmoor.....talked, listened to a few people, ate a plate of meringues, slices of delicate rose pink chocolate cake and my coffee walnut cake.

Today he says he enjoyed the two short walks he had with friends this morning and this afternoon..... he slept a while after lunch....and came to the allotment with me for an hour this evening watering all the beds, picking onions and blackberries ( one hundred and six he said) while I weeded the beans and the spinach beds.

I wonder if it's the anti-depressant pills kicking in - the ones he doesn't like....he blames them for everything not working - tiredness, negativity.....while I imagine them making things better for him......like today when he seemed lighter, more cheerful. 

But I think something more powerful is at work in this dance between us - beyond the ups and downs of his moods....beyond the mysterious medicine of this brain disease....in both our lives. I'm still following the moonlight trail of the turned down silver ferns........getting glimpses of rescue....knowing in my heart the place to start is with me....loving me.....loving me more.....which means him too.