The day began just like any other and then something happened and nothing was ever quite the same.
Anniversary: A day of acknowledgement, a special occasion of gratitude or woe.
On the 20th of July, the Home Place Fairies and I celebrate a private anniversary of great significance.
We rise at dawn eager to take part in each and every moment of this day. Together we tend our gardens, softly singing gratitude to the powers that be.
A very Long time ago, my Grandmother Catherine gifted me with an introduction to the inhabitants of the Fairy Kingdom, reminding me to, “Have faith and to believe in that which you cannot see”. Gramma lived her most of her entire life within a garden, just as I do now and almost always have, thanks to her, and thanks to the fairy folk.
Many years ago after a long and wandering time, when I first began transforming a woodland glen into a garden of my own and before even the first of the Home Place Fairies arrived …
my Gramma traveled a great distance to witness the beginnings with her own eyes, her heart wide open and she whispered, ” It takes courage to plant roses.”
After Gramma left I cleared trees and framed up garden beds with old timbers and rocks. I wandered the woodland and filled buckets with rotten sweet smelling stumps which I stamped down fine all soft and squishy and mixed with old dried oak leaves; rinsed off seaweed and soil, creating a deep rich black loam. I filled the beds with seeds and herbs and perennial divisions from Bonnie my dear friend, along with roadside gathered or old home site dug perennials. Which back then there were many of, now there are none or few.
The Home Place Faires observing my hard work and efforts and sensing my sincerity began to hover about, finally introducing themselves; they have lived beside me ever since. With the help of the fairy folk I added herbs and vegetables and our gardens flourished and grew.
Gardens draw all kinds of Wildlings to them, including a wide diversity of butterflies and birds. They also draw children; artists, musicians and poets, adults and the elderly, the sad and the joyous. Stell Shevis was one such artist and painted images of my garden through many years, over time.
In time I met a wonderful Wizard and together we planted an orchard and tended a barren of blueberries that stretches far and wide.
For me it has taken courage and faith to plant a garden just as it had taken Gramma to plant hers, because the planting of a garden signifies letting roots down; believing that I had finally arrived at my own safe home place where I too, could begin in earnest to root, sprout, blossom and grow.
Like my Grandmother, I converse with fairy folk and the Home Place Fairies and I love to garden, cook, sing, dance and sew.
Some fairy fine Lemon Verbena Rose Petal Cake seems like a very good way to celebrate an anniversary.
In loving memory of my Gramma Catherine and her garden.
Big hugs to all those Fairy Grandmothers out there!
The last tears I shed, let them be upon flowers grown closer to the ground.
