Lift Up Your Heads

Today is Christmas Day in New Zealand. We walked a track new to us, Gabriel’s Gully near Lawrence, South Otago. Love these new fern fronds that grow upright but also bow their heads, reminding me of a church song:

Lift up your heads to the coming king, bow before him and adore him, sing…

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Detail of young fuzzy fern frond, growing upward but bent over just before the curled-up head.

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Large group of new fern fronds reaching high into the air but bent downwards just before their curled-up heads. The stem and heads are a ginger-brown colour and their developing foliage is light-green, contrasting against the dark green of mature foliage.

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A view down on a lovely display of rising new fronds that are holding themselves high above the old dark green mature foliage. The new fronds look very pretty with their light-green foliage and ginger-brown stems and bowed heads.

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Beautiful big fern plant in a bush setting. Large dark green mature fronds lie close to the forest floor while the new fronds are growing strongly upright and look resplendent with their fresh light-green foliage and ginger-brown stems and heads.

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All except the first photo were taken in what used to be an earth dam back in the gold mining days.

This web page from New Zealand History about Gabriel’s Gully is good

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Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2022)