Making miniature homes for wee folk is a wonderful pastime for folks young and old. At our last house, we built a whole fairy house village all throughout our garden under the big old shrubs. We made little houses, roads, gardens, ponds and a dance hall. Interspersed throughout were delicate little plants like Irish Moss, violets, and ferns. It was a great outlet for imaginative play, and always a fun ongoing project. Then we got dogs, and the fairy house fun was all over. I am sorry to report that dogs love to eat fairy houses. It’s just what they do.
This Spring we got wise and fenced off a large part of our front yard and garden from the dogs, and we were finally able to build the resident faeries some more permanent homes.
The kids helped me gather up branches from trimming the mulberry tree one day, and we had a little fairy house making party on our front porch while it rained (it tends to do that around here.) We used florists’s wire to hold them together and set them up with lots of moss, rocks, shells and little tiny cups and dishes for pools. We recovered a few ribbons and beads from the old houses and used them for further adornment.
We tracked down some ivy from an old abandoned homestead so my son could use his basketry skills from the Coyote Kids after school program to make a woven hut. It looked right at home tucked between the artichokes and calendula. My daughter made hers into a little Buddhist temple with a smiling Buddha garden statue. She has been scattering flower petals around it when she finds them around the yard. We have already been so lucky as to find wee folk inhabiting one of the houses, a small tree frog napping under the moss.
I can’t say enough what an absolute treasure and inspiration Barry and Tracy Kane’s book, Fairy Houses…Everywhere is. If you’ve never looked through this one, check out the website through the link, or find it at your local library and let the construction begin!
I love your creations , what fun you had.
I loves your last post about River and the rattle.
River- You are so wise to save your money for so long to buy such a beautiful, unique, magical item. I bet you are proud to own it.
Much Love
Trish
I LOVE making faery houses! It would be fun to do that together. 🙂
Next time I come out that's what we're doing! 🙂