Monday, June 24, 2013

COILL NA SÍÓGA: THE FAIRY TREE





It being of a Sunday, we went for a walk before the family came for Sunday Dinner At Timmy and Helen's House.
We drove out to Marlay Park and caught the tail end of the Sunday Market. It was blustery and overcast but at that stage there was no rain.
We walked out to the play area first. Mercedes challenged everybody to climb the SpiderWeb in 90 seconds or less. It took her about 40 seconds to climb about 10 metres. It took me about 10 minutes to reach her at the top.
We took shelter under the trees for about 10 minutes of driving rain (Summer. Ha!)

Helen led us to the Fairy Tree, a magical place for the imagination. The Fairy Tree Man was doing some maintenance. He gave us a tour and told us the history of the tree (Wikipedia's take on Fairy Trees) He started making windows and doors for the holes in a rotting stump of a tree that had been hit by lightening. He added turrets and fairy walkways. People started leaving notes for the fairies and children would leave their soothers when they were old enough to not need them. The Fairy Tree started to take on a life of its own. The Fairy Tree Man takes care of it every weekend. He makes new elements for it with the children of the special needs school where his son is a student.

Mercedes wrote her wish on a piece of paper. The Fairy Tree Man placed it in a hole in the trunk and sealed it up so that it will be there for ever.