magical little houses

a tiny rock and birch bark hideaway

many years ago, a couple of trees fell during a january snowstorm. by the time we got to cutting them up, pieces of bark were peeling off the trunks. i saved some of it and made these little houses to put in the garden. when hannah was little, dressing up in fairy costumes and flying around in fairy wings was a fun pastime for her and her friends. she loved to make little houses out of sculpy, too. at some point, these little homes all turned into fairy homes.


i still have them today. it is fun to visit other people's fairy house creations. they are located on monhegan island, squirrel island, mackworth island, and in boothbay at the botanical gardens.

a fairy house at the botanical gardens. photo by robert mitchell.

a good little book with great photos is fairy houses of the maine coast by maureen heffernan. it is interesting to see how tiny, ordinary, bits of bark, sticks, leaves, moss, pinecones, acorns, rocks, sea glass and seashells can be combined to make these quite unique creations. i think i'll gather up some birch bark, acorns, pinecones and sea glass and make another one someday soon....perhaps a rainy day project.....