Yeah, this Age really isn't big enough to merit another full day of exploration at this point. I'm really only still here because it's such a nice, relaxing space, though 200 years of neglect has made it grow a bit wild. Nothing is even remotely interested in being contained by the boxes, fences, flower beds, and formerly-sculpted topiaries. I imagine it used to resemble a bizarre formal English garden back in the day, but right now it's closer in appearance to some sort of crazy alien jungle. I think it's clear that this was a private garden Age for a wealthy member of D'ni society who either had a green thumb themselves, or paid a number of others who did to enable him to enjoy the fruits of their labor. It's got a very different feeling from the more unbridled and open "garden Ages" of Eder Kemo, Gira, Delin, or Tsogahl, all of which feel more like parks than gardens.
The whole Age – which my KI tells me is Eder Deeahno – seems to consist of an island with some pretty clear signs of heavy D'ni-made efforts to sculpt its final appearance away from a purely natural design. There are terraced rows of plants in one area, and a long-overgrown waterway wide enough for a small one- or two-person gondola cuts its way through the landscape at hard angles, now softened by years of growth and decay. The gondola itself is a small pile of rotten timber at this point. There's a hedge maze (for lack of a better word for it) that has almost completely choked itself shut. The waterway leads into it, and from the faint glimpses I've gotten through the slightly thinner hedge overgrowth around the entry point, there seems to be a fountain of some kind inside, with small stone bridges criss-crossing the waterway which are presumably retractible in some manner.
Other features include a small orchard of citrus-like fruit trees – which is good news and means I'll have some fresh, seasonal fruity additions to my collection of MREs, beef jerky, and canned goods. Elsewhere a waterfall that runs down the steep side of the island and into a series of stone waterways that at one time seem to have featured mechanisms for making sound and moving small art sculptures around, but the mechanisms have been totally frozen by rust. A wide stone walkway arcs out at a downward slope to sweep through the air around this installation, providing what I imagine are some really nice views. I opted not to tempt fate by walking out onto it without some closer structural inspection. The walkway then carves into the terrain, providing a colonnaded walk around the backside of the waterfall. This continuing downward spiral finally terminates in a small balcony at the base of the artwork that is built into the falls.
I can tell there used to be a Linking Book in a gazebo not too far from the link-in point, but it's mostly been decayed down to the binding at this point. Luckily, in addition to the Linking Book I brought with me, the DRC saw fit to put a Nexus Book on a second, covered pedestal to shelter it from the elements.
The weather here is pleasantly mild, and the sky has been relatively clear of clouds so far. The sun set a couple of hours ago, and the fireflies have come out to play since then. For as overgrown and wild as it is, it's still a nice place. I can see myself coming back and probably trying to re-tend the various gardens as a side project. Tending plants is a lot easier than shoring up buildings when you're all by yourself. I do think it would make a nice retreat, and I can see putting links to it in a public space once it's been cleaned up a bit for folks to visit and relax.
I don't think I'll be spending the night here though. It's too open to the elements, and I don't have my tent with me because the sand in Er'tsuda beat the crap out of its weatherproofing.
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