Finding Magic in the Most Unusual of Places

Sessi found a tiny envelope by our back door.  Inside was a note....from the fairies. They would like to come and live in our garden. They have asked us to collect leaves, twigs, and pieces of moss.

Sessi was very excited so we set off to the park with little sister Oona, who is too small to understand but any opportunity to rummage around on the ground was very welcome. It was a perfect Autumn day and the sun was shining.  With a basket on my arm we set off to collect all the things we could find that would help the fairies build their homes.

Sessi looking for moss

We searched high and low for anything that might be useful.

Oona gathers mud

We noticed so many more things, little green bugs hiding underneath leaves. Ladybirds were busy scurrying around, squirrels were guarding the acorns and spiders were content in spinning their webs.

watching ladybirds

I think the fairies have already been here!

Other homes we found

finding bugs

our gatherings

The excitement of gathering ordinary objects that suddenly seemed like precious treasure was wonderful and the girls ran around back and forth to the basket until it was almost overflowing. We found an abundance of leaves of every colour and shape, twigs, berries, tiny fir cones, acorns and even a piece of broken tile .."it will be useful for the fairies mum" suddenly the fairies were going to have tiled floors!

The walk home was a slow, hushed, meandering stroll, pausing for more finds, laughing at how incredibly mucky Oona had become....like a forest urchin.

Then, last night after dinner, after bath time, after bedtime stories having waited until the sun had gone down and it was starting to get a little dark. We lit tea-light candles all along the walls in the garden.



sessi decorates the wall

 Sessi picked flowers and placed them between the candles along with all the shells she had collected from our beach holiday, she became completely immersed in it all and couldn't believe how lucky we were that they had chosen our garden to live in!

 When we were sure the scene was set and the garden felt like a warm welcome we left the basket with all the treasures we had found.



anticipating fairies

 The garden came alive with magic. The hushed evening air and stillness of our little walled London garden suddenly felt like a picture from a fairytale book. We stood in pyjamas and wondered if the fairies were there right now, could they see us, were they watching, all the time whispering so as not to scare them away.

We tip-toed off after whispering goodnight and made our way to bed, peeking out of the windows on the way to see if we could see any movement in the garden. Sessi watched the shadows moving in the flickering candlelight and was certain she saw a fairy there.

The girls went to bed with their heads filled with images of fairies busy building their dwellings and flying around carrying the twigs and leaves. It was so beautiful to watch them fall asleep and as they slept I watched a while trying to picture their dreams.

our fairy dwelling

Hanging lantern at the fairies house. You can just make out the white door.

This is what I later discovered!

I can't wait for the girls to see them in the morning.

In the morning we raced downstairs tiptoed into the garden and with finger to pursed lips there hidden amongst the geraniums and clematis we discovered ………………

I’m not sure how long they’ll stay but they seem very ready to spend a beautiful winter in our garden.