On Saturday Bracken and I popped over from the Black Sheep Gathering to Nearby Nature to build fairy houses that morning. I saw that they had a summer nature quest where families could come for an outdoor play day building fairy houses and I knew Bracken would love that (and so would I!) That morning the children sat around in a circle, raising their hands to share what they knew about fairies. I loved that part, hearing all they had to say. Fairies can fly. Fairies come out at night. Fairies can breathe underwater if they want to. Fairies are shy. Our guide that day said that children are the ones who know the most about fairies, and I would agree with her on that.

After we talked about fairies, we were set loose in the surrounding area to build our houses. On the table there were baskets of sticks, leaves, pine cones (the ones that looked like roses were so pretty!), straw, hazelnut shells, lavender buds, bark, and more. We took some building materials from the baskets on the table and then we were all welcome to gather more materials in the garden. Bracken picked flowers and I picked some herbs. Once we had gathered our materials, he chose a building spot at the edge of the garden where some California poppies were blooming. He constructed a frame with leaves and sticks and then decorated all around. When his fairy house was complete, we wandered around to look at the other children’s fairy houses.

I loved seeing what they had all done. A few little girls decorated a sage plant with calendula flowers and then had offerings of hazelnut shells filled with lavender buds for the fairies. One house was built with flowers in an oregano plant, another was built with bark and twigs, and one had a single stick with leaves on top and mushrooms around the base. Each house was unique, simple, and sweet. Many of the houses had gifts for the fairies- flowers and petals, raspberries, and other garden tidbits. It was sunny and beautiful that day and it brought my heart joy to see so many children frolicking in the garden, picking flowers, and having big smiles on their faces while they fully engaged in their fairy house building.

After that we went on a hike through the forest and to the river. Bracken and I were delighted to see rock temples in the river because we love to build those wherever we go. Bracken and I have made little fairy gardens in our yard for years and last weekend inspired further fairy creations. I was chatting with two kind moms that day who highly recommended the movie The Gnomist. They said it was impossible to watch without crying. They were right. We watched it the other night and it was so touching.

{Before with Nearby Nature: Bug Sufari and Wow Newts! Nature Quest}