During a trip last month to the west side of Washington, I discovered that all my close friends like walking, hiking, and beach meanders.  I was good with it.  We walked a lot.  During an evening walk through the maples and Douglas firs near our friends’ Olympia neighborhood, we saw an area where neighbor children had  built and decorated little fairy houses in the woods.  I loved it!  For the rest of our trip, on our many walks across prairies, forests, and beaches, I was looking at the little things.  What would a fairy need in a fairy house? 

When I went bird watching (and walking) with my friend John at Scatter Creek Wildlife Area, in addition to learning about birds and bird songs, I noticed the fungus on dead trees (maybe a table?), the trillium flowers (a little rain hat?), and the purple and blue swales of blue-eyed Mary and camas flowers blooming across the prairie.  So many things that a fairy might use.    

At another location I noticed the lichen growing on the roof of an old lean-to.  The little flowering or fruiting bodies were gorgeous.  I could see that tiny roof garden being tended by fairies.    

Later, when we headed out to Port Townsend to visit another friend who enjoyed beach walks, I was proclaimed the goddess of shells.  It goes well with my nickname: Shell.  My husband Doug looked for agates while my friend Sandy looked for shells.  Not just any shells, but shells with texture.  Sandy creates art using macro-photography.  She has found landscapes, alien worlds, storms, and mystical creatures in the zoomed-in images of tiny bits of shells.  No fairy houses yet.  My job on the beach was to rinse off the shells in the gentle waves, to get a better look for potential photography.  I got this job because I was the first person in our group to accidentally get my shoes wet.  It is normal for me to explore the wave edges on a beach.  I can’t help but go out just a bit further, looking for sea creatures and shells, and misjudging the extent or the depth of the waves.  And once one shoe is wet, you might as well go all in. 

Sandy kept a few promising shells to take home to examine more closely under a dissecting scope.  A few would be photographed to find fascinating scenes.  Afterwards, she planned to return the shells to their original beaches, to avoid offending the shell goddess. [You can see some of Sandy’s macro-photography here: https://www.facebook.com/sandy.tweed.7/]

While at the beach I gathered a few small shells and bits that might be used in a fairy house.  Then I found a large broken ocean barnacle that was shaped a bit like a teepee.  It would make a perfect little house for a fairy.  Or better yet, a tiny mermaid.  It came home with me. 

A few weeks later, my mom, sister-in-law, and I had a craft day.  I tried to create a fairy, but that little doll wanted to become a sewing machine mechanic wearing Peace Corps clothes.  You must go where the art takes you.  If you look closely, you will see that my mechanic has a tiny screwdriver in one hand, and a thread spool in another.  Also, his face turns around with one side grouchy and one side happy, depending on how the sewing machine repairs are going.  Of course, my artist sister-in-law made a gorgeous doll that she named Witchy Woman.  She doesn’t have wings either.  Instead of flying, she dances.

I will have to keep working on creating fairies and fairy houses.  Because I need more hobbies.  Oh, I should make a shell goddess! 

For now, here’s a picture of a decorative bird house we keep in our yard with little fairies in it.  Okay, there are no fairies in it, because the one fairy flew off to live in the barnacle house. There is instead, a Lego construction guy, a Lego warrior, a dragon reading a book, and a few others…  I’m sure they all have many stories to tell.