Fairies

The beginning of a Great Adventure

We love James Barrie's Peter Pan.
His fairy,
Tinkerbell,
was a nasty little creature
but since 1904
most fairies have become beautiful
and kind.
The Rainbow Fairies books by Daisy Meadows
are perfect for many beginning readers
and five-year-old Anna has read most of them.
Though she is a realist in most areas,
she believes in fairies.
"If I saw a real fairy,
I would be scared,
but only for a little while."

Last Friday afternoon at the swimming hole
Anna and I went for a walk down the creek.
I have been going to the swimming hole since I was a little girl
but only this month
have I explored below the bridge.
It's one of my new favorite places.
(Lucy was not interested in joining us--
it was past nap time
and all she wanted to do
was find a cuddly item,
in this case, a sponge,
and fall asleep in the jeep.)
We held hands as we trudged down the creek,
Anna in all the deepest places
until she remembered
that fish live in water.
"Are there fish in here?"
Not wanting to lie,
I replied,
"This water is very clear.
Do you see any fish?"
"No."
She took a few more tentative steps.
"Let's walk on the rocks instead."
We found rocks
that reminded us
of dog heads
and dinosaurs.
We found a peeper frog
the size of a pinkie fingernail,
so tiny
that when we held him
we could not feel his weight
and carried him along the creek
until he made a brave jump
and disappeared.
As we rounded a bend
where twenty-foot-high rhododendrons were in flower
and a fallen tree
made a bridge across the rippling water
I heard Anna's breath catch.
"This is where fairies would live."
As she looked around
she became even more quiet and serious.
"Let's look for their houses."
"Aren't their houses invisible?"
"They build them in hidden places."
We peered in the tall grass on the creek bank.
No houses.
We crossed the creek on stepping stones
and peeked into a hollow
beneath an enormous rhododendron.
No houses.
We looked down the creek
at a big rock
in the center of the stream.
"If I were a fairy, I would sit there."
Anna gathered up her courage
and crossed the potentially fish-filled waters.
"Anna, I don't see fairies,
but I do know birds have rested here."
Anna thought a bit,
then giggled
at the bird droppings.
"Let's go tell Bop and Lucy."

"...Bop!
We found a place where fairies live!
And birds sit on the fairy rock
and go to the bathroom!"
Bop replied,
"How do you know those weren't fairy droppings?"

May you have a blessed week,
may you recognize magical places
and not step in any fairy droppings.

Unfinished Conversations

This weekend
we had interesting conversations
with two-year-olds
and thirty-two-year olds
and seventy-two-year-olds,
with local friends
as well as friends visiting
from faraway places like Kenya
and Tanzania
and Indonesia,
conversations about Kenya's tribal hierarchy
and sparkler safety
and beets
and how the blunt people from the Netherlands
can't understand why the USA media
doesn't question the actions of our government,
how the center of a wheel of cheese
is called "the virgin's nose"
and how tongues
turn different colors
depending on what color of popsicle you eat,
and is it better
to have a hot shower in cold air
or a cold shower in warm air?

...but our friends departed
before we finished the conversations.
Why "the virgin's nose?"
What have you learned from failures in your life?
What is your favorite popsicle flavor?
Are there any English tripthongs?
Or is it triphthongs?
Or are both spellings acceptable?
Are band-aids an essential part of childhood?
Why do some words end in -ent
and others in -ant?
What life-changing things
did you learn in college
that were not curricular?
How many of Dr. McCallum's psych principles can you list?

Anyone want to pick up these conversations?
Come out for a popsicle.

Evidence of a blue popsicle

Sparkler fun with Abigail and Anna

P.S. Kyle! Come back!

Anna,s sugjeststons

This week's guest blogger is our granddaughter Anna, five.

1/you shod NOT talk To strangrs! NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2/stop and look booth ways 2 time,s befor you cross the rood.

3./keep yor hands on the stearign weel all the time

4./ do not eat ice creem on A/a new rug.

/5.do not drik juse on A/a new carpet./

6./you need to folow ruls

7/wene you cook you need to now the resepee.

Happy Birthday, Canada!

Happy birthday Canada!

We have heard your friendly seagulls
and your ferry whistles
and the french accents of young girls,
the midnight cries of mating cats
and the quiet sound of knots of ribbon snakes
slithering away into the woods.

We have glimpsed your seals
and puffins
and sea urchins
and lynx
and dall sheep
and wood bison,
and found grizzly scat in the middle of the road.

We have waited at your borders to be scrutinized
and questioned
and be taken apart. 
Advice: Never say
"What's the matter lady,
you got PMS or something?"
like Uncle Dick did.

We have felt your whale splashes,
your cold nights on Lake Huron,
your tidal bore,
and your mosquitoes.
Our feet have waded in your tidepools bare
because we left our flip flops on PEI.
We did not wade in the Yukon
after we saw a huge tree appear
and disappear
from its muddy flow.

We have canoed to your pictographs.
We have looked for tiny moonworts
and found old bottles instead.

We have tasted your snails
and seaweed
and mussels
and lobsters
and fresh strawberries
and a bucket of perch.

We have sung,
rather well,
on your public radio station
near the Plains of Abraham.

We have tried,
unsuccessfully,
to count your fireweed
and to make a fish harness,
and have helped sink a boat called "Dundee."

We have seen the underwater lights of night divers
and the twinkling lights of fireflies.
We have seen the rocky cliffs
that used to touch African shores.
We have seen the maple leaves
on the haunches of the horses
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
We have seen your canola fields
and are glad you changed the name
from "rapeseed."

We found the snake you hid in our stove.
We have worn our honeymoon jeans
to one of your proper churches.

We were reminded of Aslan
singing Narnia into existance
at the foot of the mighty McKenzie mountains.
Primal.

We have climbed your trees
and a few cliffs
to find perfectly cubed rocks.
We will climb your Rockies next year,
God willing!
We have loved it all,
mostly.

We are comfortable to be your neighbor
and happy to be your friend.