Bewitched Tree

I almost missed this.  There are many fallen trees in a deciduous-forest-in-the-making.  The soil just along the coast of Maine is quite shallow and it all sits on craggy rock ledge.  Over many years, vegetation has decomposed and built this newborn soil.  The problem is that it is not very deep, so when trees begin to grow, they often topple over in icy weather or severe rains because they do not have enough stability.  Therefore, when I see a fallen tree, I do not not think much of it.  Can you spot the difference here?  This is no ordinary fallen tree.  If you look closely, you can see that it has fallen UP the hill and not down.  Trees do not normally fall upward, and so I knew I was looking at an enchantment.  Was it one of the distractions placed deliberately in the way when I was looking for the fairy barracks, or does it serve some other purpose?  I will check again in the Fall.  If mushrooms grow there, I will have to consider whether or not this is a fairy portal.  I am getting better at spotting their tricks.

March 31, 2014 - A Secret Fairy Fort

I had heard about this, of course, but I thought it was just a rumor.  There were whispers long ago of fairy training barracks, but I always thought they were just gossip.  Today I set out on a quest to prove for once and for all that this place did not exist.  Not long into my journey, though, I knew something was amiss.  There were traps set everywhere.  A seemingly small puddle at the bottom of the ridge went knee deep when I stepped into it by accident.  Freezing mud and water engulfed half my leg, and when I tried to pull myself free with the other foot, it suffered the same fate.  Eventually, I got free.  After many branches and twigs thrashed against my face from all directions, I found the elusive entrance to the underground camp.  The melting snows had torn the tree and leaves away that hid this place entirely in the warmer months.

Finally.  So the stories are true after all.  The question now is how I will ever be able to prove this to anyone else?

March 30, 2014 - The Spring Rains

The Springs rains are finally starting.  It doesn't mean we won't have anymore snow, but it's a good sign that Spring is definitely on its way.  The rains will melt up a lot of the old ice and snow that has already fallen, as you can see, and they form beautiful little seasonal waterfalls everywhere you look.  There's something peaceful about being near these newborn rushing waterfalls.  The sound is so lulling and perfect, and everywhere the scent of new life is in the air.

March 29, 2014 - An Unlikely Table

When the glaciers swept through this land many thousands of years ago, they left some of the strangest rock formations strewn about.  Here and there are the most unlikely natural coincidences.  This very large rock weighing several hundred pounds at least sits poised precariously and yet indiscreetly on a series of smaller rocks as if it were somehow placed there deliberately.  The top is fairly flat and conducive to all manner of work, although it is already heavily covered with moss.  Someday the woods will reclaim this rock entirely.  Until that time, the Good Folk of the woods tell me that this handsome table was set up in a most marvelously gleaming hall, with other enchanting rooms around the hall and a castle around the rooms.  They say you can see it all still if you look at it in just the right light.  I am hesitant to argue.

Another Fairy Home

"Aye, lassie, these woods be thick with 'em, and ye'd better watch yer step!"

That was what I heard as I chanced upon yet another fairy den, but when I turned around, no one was there.  This was a rock den, distinctly different from the tree dens I have shown previously.  The rock dens are more cavernous, and they harbor a darker fairy, one who likes to hide in the earth.  NOT THAT THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT.  (I said that last sentence a little louder on purpose in case the Good Folk were listening.)  I wouldn't presume to choose between the two, you see.  But anyway, gems are what these Good Folk are after, and I shall bring them some quartz crystals.  And I will ask a boon of them afterward, that my garden grow ever more abundant this year.  It's a good thing to happen upon a fairy rock den, in the daytime at least, mind you.  We'll not speak aught of the nighttime.

March 28, 2014 - If I Were an Ant

If I were an ant, I would climb all the way to the top of this tree.  I would look out upon the world with my tiny eyes and see that it was good.  I would look up at the sun and I would kiss it.  From a secret hiding spot, I would quietly adore the birds.  I would feel the wind upon me and I would sing songs to it.  I would taste the rain and dine on the sap at the very tippy top of the great tree.  And when I was finally full, I would climb all the way down, down into the ground, and what tales I would have to tell!

March 27, 2014 - The Old Apple Tree

When laden with flowers, the old apple tree is stunningly beautiful.  When laden with fruit, she is bounteous and desirable.  But in the winter, the old apple tree reverts to her true form of the witch.  She waits on old roads for unsuspecting travelers and reaches into their sacks to steal their gold when they are not looking.  If a traveler be honest and true, he can see her rustling, bony fingers reaching toward him and he can escape.  But if a traveler be untrue and sly, the old witch will have him about the neck instantly, and if she takes only his gold, he will be lucky, indeed.

March 26, 2014 - Fairy Dens

Everywhere, you can find the places where the fairies live.  Some of their favorite places are in caverns under boulders or under the roots of trees, as you can see here.  When the weather is nicer, they will repair their haphazard fences, which have been unattended to this past winter.  Their activity is more noticeable in the summer, but even in the cold months there is a coming and going.  At night, the will-o'-the-wisp can be seen going to and fro, and I wouldn't venture too far then.

Magical Times

The sunsets in Maine are truly magical.  Each one exists in its own secret realm, and it only shows its beautiful face for a brief moment before darting back to its mysterious kingdom.

March 25, 2014 - From Sea to Shining Sea

Sometimes when you hear the old songs, you don't pay much attention.  The words seem old-fashioned, or maybe they were just placed there to complete a rhyme.  We memorize them as children, but we don't really think about them.  Today I couldn't help but be struck by the March sun's brilliance on the ocean, gleaming like a million diamonds.  And they were all mine.

March 24, 2014 - Ice Sculptures

The water runs everywhere down ledges and small cliffs, and then it freezes in its tracks into a beautiful ice waterfall.  It's Spring now, and every day the sun shines just a bit brighter and longer.  He works harder and harder to capture the sculpture and carry it away to his home, and I think he will succeed.  If you look closely, you can see all the iron ore in the rock face.  When the sculpture disappears, the iron will create a beautiful mural.

March 23, 2014 - The Sap is Running

It has been a very cold winter, but the alpacas don't mind.  In fact, they find it downright comfortable.  The sap is finally running in the maple trees, and they are being tapped for their sweet sap to be boiled down into syrup.  The sap started running very late this season, but you can always tell because the animals seem to get friendlier.  They know the flurry of activity around them heralds the spring.

March 22, 2014 - The Frozen Kennebec

The exact spot where the Kennebec River pours into Merrymeeting Bay is a magical spot, home to rare plant life and a stopoff for many migrating birds.  But today it is still frozen, although ducks frequent it even now.  Life is still here.  It is just hidden, perhaps like the seeds hiding patiently in our own souls.  Even though the sun climbs higher in the sky now, we still have a long wait.  Yet experience tells us that the wait is worth every second.

March 21, 2014 - The Tree by the Ocean

The ocean is calm today, and the clouds have come in with a changing wind.  The tree waits patiently for her leaves to return.  She must wait a long time because she is an ocean tree, and the ocean always washes everything bare.  For now, the clouds and the ocean will play, flowing back and forth, trying to outrun one another in their favorite game.  But someday the ocean will go in search for the clouds, lamenting their disappearance, and a songbird will return.

March 20, 2014 - The First Day of Spring

Persephone, the maiden of the springtime, has secretly worked her way back to the land of the living. Although the landscape is bare and bleak, still covered with snow, a soft mist rises from the cold earth as the tendrils of a gentler wind caress the frozen ground and whisper, "Wake up! Wake up!"