Wonder in the Garden

It is the season of enchantment. With Halloween comes talk of spirits, witches and magical creatures. The leaves start to turn color and fall, carpeting the ground with soft layer of orange, red, brown and yellow. While the air cools and the nights grow longer. The squirrels are in a panic burying and unburying their acorns trying to find the perfect spot. Birds migrate through or show up to spend the winter.

In the forest, the moss turns green and squishy with the Autumn rain and mushrooms start to emerge from tiny ones to huge umbrella caps. Lichens show their most vivid colors making boulders and logs appear decorated for the holiday season.

It is not so strange the we should think of the forest and flower fairies this time of year. They always seem to be right at the edge of our vision there but not visible. The breath of the cool breeze carries them up into the trees, or sends them dancing among the flowering borders. As the leaves gently drift down from the overhead canopy and the wind stirs up dust and pollen laid down in the Summer, the tiny fairies seem just the right magical being to flit through the dust in the air at the change of season. Sun streams down through the tree tops and shines on the particles in the air. Might some of those little bits of duff be a fairy?

Little children make houses for them using found items from the forest, garden and even the sea shore.

These particular Fairy Houses are made by the community of Groton, Massachusetts and are displayed in an annual fairy house event that raises funds for the Natural History Museum.

I love the intricate detail and ingenuity of these projects. Some of the materials are absolutely surprising! It is pretty clear that there are some very clever kids in this town. Actually folks from out of the area are allowed to enter their fairy house too. It would be interesting to get the fairies critique of these! They all seem to be a similar size so the artists obviously have an idea of a fairies size.

I had a client once who asked me where she could get a fairy house for her children. I was a little taken aback. I had not thought of purchasing a fairy house, and I thought that most folks knew that they are homemade, and are made of natural materials. Of course I am wrong about that and I should have known better. Children are the inveterate inventors and use whatever they think would appeal to a fairy for their houses.

My grand-daughter made kind of a mud pie as the base for her fairy house then set up a small cardboard box, carefully cutting out openings for entry and light. She used her doll furniture as a picnic set then added sea shells and beads for the fairies to lounge on, then she cut out felt squares for blankets in the house. She is an urban girl and doesn’t have acorns, bird feathers, moss and twigs in her backyard so her choice of materials made perfect sense. And that is really the fun of it.

In some of the public gardens I visit the idea of children making fairy houses has really caught on and they provide an area with materials and space for the children to make their creations. The Fells in New Hampshire had these cool signs with specific directions, which I thought were a tiny bit bossy, but helpful none the less. As a child I definitely thought there were imaginary creatures in the woods but didn’t feel the need to make them a house. There were so many hiding holes, tree crevices and secret spots that I reckoned the fairies, or whoever, had plenty of choices.

My daughters were very enamored with flower fairies as young children and loved the illustrations of Cicely Mary Baker. We had fairy costumes for Halloween several times.

When I started my cartoon, Tomben Twerls, I thought he probably had fairies as friends. Since he is a Wood Sprite, which is a kind of a cousin to fairies, and being only 10″ tall I gave him some activities with the fairies.

I even found a neat house for him at one of the nurseries I visited in Exeter, NH. It is a little big for him but has the right feel.

Tomben, like fairies, doesn’t really need someone to make a house for him but, its the thought that counts.

I saw a few more tiny houses in my travels that looked pretty good for fairies or wood sprites.

Seems there’s some whimsy in the gardens!

I would need to be careful not to trample them in my garden maintenance forays. I am sure insects appreciate having a cozy den in the winter.

Now if you want to go all out and make this a big hobby, then you can invest heavily and have a whole fairy playland.

You probably know that there is a slew of fairy figurines available from the never ending supply of cute items coming in from China. I found these in the gift shop of the same nursery that had the Tomben House- Churchills in Exeter, NH.

It is quite the scene and a little busy to say the least. I actually couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The fairies of my imagination are shy creatures with all of the outdoors as their playground, so to see them amassed on a table top was beyond anything I had thought of.

Another example of anything is possible.

So what is the point of all this jabber about fairies. Well, there is no point and that is the humor involved in the whole thing. It is all just for fun with absolutely no expectations, long term goals or concrete evidence. Like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Great Pumpkin, fairies are just sparks for the imagination.