Wands, of the Goblin variety

 

I've been giving an awful lot of thought to goblins lately. I'm sure the ones who live by the stream are up to something. Last week they broke a patch of ice poor Padfoot was standing on, giving the pooch a bit of a fright and four very wet paws.

Not to be confused with Hobgoblins (which are actually rather nice, often misunderstood creatures, who could be compared to a house brownie in temperament and behaviour) the goblins who live down by the stream are quite mean-spirited. They push and trip anyone who 'invades' their space. They cloak themselves with invisibility and create all sorts of mischief. In the summer, they keep swarms of bugs and mosquitoes, making it very unpleasant to explore their domain.

I wonder if some ale would appease them? Hmmm, I don't know how I feel about having drunken goblins on my doorstep demanding another round.

And the winner is....

The lovely Mrs E! Congrats!

Last day to enter!

Just a little reminder that the Thimble Garden Giveaway is closing today. Check out the original post for details. There's still time to enter.

I'll announce the winner this evening.

xoxo

A hunting we will go...

Tonight, D and I went on a faerie hunt. We weren't trying to capture the wee things, just out to spy clues that they may be around. We set off just before twilight and headed to the field behind our property.

The first thing we found was a lovely white feather in our path. D was sure it was a sign that the faerie folk were welcoming us.

There is a group of strange little trees that sits in that field. They are absolutely brilliant. Old and covered in moss with giant thorns. We decided this would be a good place to leave our offering.

The thorns on those old souls really are amazing.You can just see our house on the right of the photo between the branches.

 

Now, I don't have photographic proof of it but we did have a VERY strange experience back in that small grove of trees. When we were ready to move on we called to our pooch, Padfoot, to join us. He ran towards us and then seemed to get stuck, caught on something and then ran in circles. I moved forward to 'free' him but could see that he wasn't caught at all. I moved forward again and this time he seemed to focus on something in the trees and stood up! Every time we would call him, his attention was drawn away, and he would stand up on his hind legs again and again!

After that spot of excitement D found this little spot which he is quite certain is a faerie home.

We examined loads of little holes that might have led to exciting faerie places.

We found a thin little trail, only a few inches wide, but determined that this must be a deer path and probably didn't have anything to do with the wee folk.

The thing about twilight is that it turns to dark very quickly. Very soon it was time to head back inside for baths, tea and trying to get Dad to believe that the faeries had their way with poor Padfoot tonight.

Nighty night!

How to... Make Mossy Cottages

 As promised, here's a video demonstrating how to make the little mossy cottages above.



Be sure to make bunches, make loads of mushrooms, grab yourself some thimbles and come back next week to see how it all goes together.

If you are very lazy and don't want to make a little cottage just check out yesterday's post and you can try to win one instead :)

Do You Believe? A Thimble Garden Giveaway

Last week I said I'd do a giveaway and now seems like a fine time. I was thinking that perhaps we could follow up D's list of questions with one more...

If you believe in faeries shout it out! You can enter up to three times. Post a reply below, tweet @pixiehillstudio, and hop over to my facebook page and leave a comment. On Friday a winner will be randomly picked and sent the little thimble pictured above.

Be sure I can contact you if you win. Winner will have 3 days to send contact info. If the winner fails to answer a second entry will be chosen in it's place. Please, enter only once per entry type.

Good Luck!

Edited to add: Yes! This is open world wide for true faerie believers :)

Big D's questions about faerie folk

While whispering before sleep last night, my son said that most of the children in his class do not believe in faeries. Certainly he knows they are real (who else would take those treats we leave for them?), but the other boys and girls do not

D had a few questions so I thought I'd share them here... being that he is a terribly bright boy and you might have the same questions too.

(D's Questions / My answers)

What is a brownie?
A brownie is a type of house faerie. They are generally of the 'quite nice' sort. If they really like a family they might fix or take care of things when no one is looking.

Have you ever seen a brownie?
I'm quite sure I saw one scoot under the deck last week.

I thought faeries didn't like to be seen? What did it look like?
They don't. This one was moving particularly fast. I think I caught him off guard. I didn't get a really good look at him but he was wearing brown furs and leather. He was probably about 10" tall.

Did the dog chase him?
No. He was moving very fast and poor Paddy is very dim.

Are there boy faeries?
Absolutely! There are certain kinds of faeries that are ONLY male. I'm not sure exactly how that works but Leprechauns, for example, are only boys.

Do faeries like honey?
Faeries like honey, jam and bread. They also like sweet wine. But they do not like sweets like chocolate and candy. Lots of people say they like milk but from my experience they don't like it at all.

Does a salt ring keep goblins out?
A ring of salt keeps lots of bad things away. The thing to remember about goblins and other 'bad' faeries is that they really just want to be left alone. They aren't going to sneak into the house and do awful things to you. They mostly act naughty when people bother them.

What is a faerie tree?
It is a tree that the faerie folk either like, are attracted to, live in or near. They protect the tree and it is very bad luck to chop one down as it makes them angry and you do not want the faeries angry with you.

Are there any faerie trees here?
Just the other week I discovered a group of strange trees in the pasture behind us. They are very old, but small and have big thorns growing from them. There is something very special about that bunch of trees. I'm sure that there's something rather old that lives there. What do you think?

I think the tree at the bottom of the hill is a faerie tree.
Why is that?
Because there are lots of holes in it and they might lead to their homes.

 (One of the holes in D's faerie tree)

What about giants?
There are loads of types of faeries. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are even human sized!

But they wouldn't tell anyone right? Human sized faeries wouldn't want anyone to know they were really a faerie.
Bingo.

And so today the kiddo plans to come home from school and make a tiny sled because he's sure the wee folk would like to go tobogganing down the big hill if there's another snowfall. And really, is there any better thing to do after school? I can't help but feel just a little bit sorry for all those kids who don't believe.