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.

Official Summer Greetings

Ahhh! A hammock, a book, and a glass of lemonade....

This weekend marks the summer solstice.
It's interesting how
the first day of summer on the calendar
can be the same day
as Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."
We spent Thursday and Friday
(our summer babysitting routine)
with granddaughters
Anna, five,
and Lucy, two,
and Paul joined us Friday night and Saturday
while Kate was at a conference at NPR headquarters.

School has been out for almost two weeks,
but learning is a daily occurrence. 

Anna learned
the joys of hammock, lemonade, and book
(Boxcar Children's Blue Bay Mystery recommended),
brick sidewalks have patterns,
lifting too many bricks
can make your stomach muscles sore,
life jackets really do make you float,
and some flowers are called "blue-eyed grass."
Really.
To bees, nectar is like lemonade
and pollen is like Chee-tos dust.
Mortar is fun to mix.
You eat Juneberries in June.
Mountain laurel has flower parts
that act like sling shots.
When you get a belly-ache
from eating too much applesauce
with cinnamon and sugar,
you can always play hospital.

Lucy learned
deer eat the corn you throw in the field,
you can sing yourself to sleep
by bellowing "Are you sleeping?
ARE YOU SLEEPING BRUDDA JOHN?!?"
Grammy can do underduckies.
Chee-tos are good
...except for the ones
that have been on the cabin floor for hours.
You can go fishing in puddles.
Squirt guns can water plants.
Bop keeps pretzels in the jeep.
Outhouses are fun if someone holds onto you.
"I wuv dat guy!" melts Bop's heart.
Hickory Dickory Dock cannot be read too many times.

Paul learned
five-year-olds can make your favorite rhubarb pie,
World Cup soccer is available on the mountain
if you aren't picky about which game you watch,
tree stands sometimes blow over...
and winches are wonderful.
Tarps over sandpiles
are good places to find snakes.
Winter-killed ivy
is difficult to remove from chimneys.
Masonry skills improve over time,
and Anna
has inherited
some of his musical ability.

Sue learned
sometimes bears wake you up
by crunching birdboxes,
small children are impressed
by mediocre scooter skills,
and watching for injured chipmunks
to emerge from daylilies
can be calming.
Creek clay can swallow shoes.
When jumping into swimming holes,
it's a good idea
to have your sunglasses
attached to your body.
Fast water can knock you down.
Bruises happen.
Two-year-olds like bug spray, not for its repellent abilities,
but because the lemongrass oil mix
is in a spray bottle.

Bop/Den learned
pancakes can be consumed
as fast as you can make them.
It's more fun to lay stone with a friend.
When Bop needs a band-aid,
everyone wants a band-aid.
Sometimes turkey gobblers
prefer the neighbor's field,
and sometimes
you don't realize
how much you've missed your son.

This first official week of summer,
may your books be many
and your band-aids be few.
It'll be midsummer before you blink.

Blessings,

Sue's scooter-riding abilities are recorded for posterity on the driveway.

Sue and Denny

Lucy caught a fish-leaf!

Bop calls it scaffolding. The girls call it a jungle gym.

Anna reassembles the sidewalk. Re-laying seemed easier than weeding.

 

Did you know that mortar can be called "mud'?