An unusual house tour

The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:

Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,

Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,

And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames-

These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs

Shady fairies weave a house;

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,

Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown up people's trees,

But the fairest woods are these;

Where if I were not so tall,

I should live for good and all.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

It's December first and, this morning we woke up to snow! Perfect!!! =]

As I say goodbye to autumn and happily step over to the newness of winter - the restart button to the year - I wanted to share one last festive autumnal celebration with you.

...an unusual house tour in the next town over from us - quaintly picturesque Grafton, Vermont.

On the particular day that we visited, though, there were heavy clouds and the rain was barely holding itself back. We wended our way through and past the village proper because this house tour was at the Grafton Ponds nature museum.

Please note barely discernible bubbles flying up over the museum in the upper left corner and, in the lower right, Toby (who graciously said that he would escort my mom and I) with his Nana.

Yes, this tour was of the woodsy homes belonging to the wild cousins of the garden fairies from the poem and as we went through the archway, across the meadow and into the woods, there was folksy hammered dulcimer music floating on the air and bubbles, magically, endlessly flying everywhere.

Once in the woods, we followed the nature path as the rain started to patter on the leaves but we were safe under the canopy...

 ...and this is what we saw...

 

Alas, we only ever heard the curious whisper of the fairies, felt the brushes of their wings and saw one very golden frog hiding in the roots of a tree. And, so, we emerged from this magic woodland and followed the path back to reality just as it started to rain in earnest - back, just in time, to the warmth of the tavern to sit by the hearth and muse over our adventures over paper mugs of warm apple cider ale as the heavens really let loose and the rain outside poured down!

xo