Farley Hill Park--Barbados

Farley Hill  in the north of the island is a beautiful spot.  It is the venue for most outdoor concerts and a favorite place for picnics.  It was once the grounds of a plantation and has the typical double rows of palm trees leading up to the plantation house but the plantation house is now a ruin, festooned with signs to keep out because the structure is unstable. 

I haven't been able to figure out exactly what happened to destroy this graceful old lady.  Perhaps it was something desperate and sudden like a fire.  Some of the staining around the windows seems to suggest that end.  But perhaps it slowly fell into disrepair, wooden innards eaten by the rot of the tropical weather, leaving only a stone skeleton.  Some timbers that stick out of the stone look like broken toothpicks.

But still there is grace in the rows of arches.

After we had haunted the ruins for a while, our friends urged us to the top of Farley Hill.   Nothing prepared us for the wonderful sight.  The island spread out to the east with blues and greens.  They were grayed in the distance and became steadily more vivid as they approached the foot of the hill.

We stood on the top, drinking in the scenery and letting the wind flip our hair playfully.  I could imagine what it must have been like to live the life of privelege on this lonely ridge.  I glanced into the house as we passed on the way to the car and saw a stray cat lounging on a rotting beam in solitary splendor.