I started out my day allowing myself to be a tourist and to sit upstairs on the open air seating on the bus! I loved this as I could see over the hedgerows and into people's home, gardens, and then into fields and over to the sea. As we got close to St. Buryan, I saw the circle of stones called the Merry Maidens, named after the maidens who were caught dancing on a Sunday, and also the Blind Fiddler standing stone, standing alone in a field. He was caught and turned into stone when he ran away from the maidens when the devil came to join them.
Even a small town like St. Buryan, and I still had a little bit of a time finding the path to get out. My first stop of the day was at Boscawen-un, an ancient circle of stone with a very phallic stone in the center. I was there by myself, and even lay down on the ground. I felt as though I was in the center of a perpetual dance between the masculine and the feminine. In light of what I just wrote about above, here the masculine stayed, and kept his presence in the middle without ever leaving. There is a different energy here, somehow more dynamic. The Merry Maidens circle somehow feels sad, and as though the dance has been quiet for a long time. Not so at Boscawen-un. It is alive and its energy is deeply rooted in the earth below its circle. To walk around it, and in it,was profoundly moving for me, and invited in a depth of integration of my inner feminine and masculine that I had not experienced before.
It took a while to leave, yet I got to walk out via a small and narrow path surrounded by wildflowers. I felt protected and held as I walked back out into the world, and even had to cross over the busy main road.
The Mary Line walked north here to a sharp point, yet somehow I missed the path to the village of Creede, and so missed the sharp point. My walk became more of a soft bend in the road, down through some fields and back up to none other than the Blind Fiddler himself! Having seen him from the bus and now getting to experience him directly was somehow so perfect! He too felt lonely and as though he regretted leaving the merry maidens behind!
My next few miles were a little confusing as I couldn't find the path out of an old farm that I walked through, and inadvertently ended up at the busy road, which I thought was a different road. I knew that the path was quite matching the map, but I surged on ahead anyway. Something didn't feel right, so twenty minutes later, turned around, went back to the farm and found my way back on the path. All went well after this!
As I came through the village of Kerris, I met Farmer Jeffrey Jiles. He wondered if I was lost, and now back on the path, I knew that I was not. We talked for quite a while. He's been a farmer all his life, and is tired. He's about my age,and while he loves what he does, he says that it is hard work and so different from the days of grandfather and father. Jeffrey is doing the work of 4 to 5 men, while back in the day, there were men who were "salt of the earth" and came to work on the farm. Jeffrey imitated how they walked and talked and reveled in the kind of quality people they were. He said that they had your back and you knew you could count on them when you needed them. He feels very alone now, and that he may have overdone it. He wonders how it could be different. We concluded our conversation with our both doing what we do - he farming and me walking - to experience a quality of life that we both know is possible. A sweet moment with another in his fifties!
I continued on from here feeling ready to be back in Penzance. And of course, I once again had to take a path less travelled and ended up in a dairy farm because I couldn't find another way out of the fields! My willfulness can sometimes get in my way!
I soon came to a delightful village called Tredavoe where two very nice women, sisters-in-law, walked with me to help me find Trevadoe Lane and my way back to Newlyn and Penzance. So good to come down the hill back to the bay and walk along the coastal path, then up through Morrab Gardens to my sweet little home in my room at Morrab Place.
Went to dinner at a meadery with Julian who also lives in this house. Had blackberry wine with chicken and chips. Loved the blackberry wine - it tasted like port!
Today I walk away from the familiar and leave my room for a few nights in my tent. Get to carry a light pack again today as Julian is heading to Truro and is willing to take my pack and drop it off at the campsite where I will be staying.
How does it get any better than this?
So blessed.
Solvitur Ambulando!
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