Welcome to the Fairies Blog, sponsored and maintained by the denizens of The Enchanted World of Fairy Woodland. Here you will find a collection of voices – some mortal, some Fairy, some from the animal world. We’ve told the Fairies we’re open to just about anything, so they’ll probably bring crystals and acorns who want to contribute as well!
I’m Bridget Wolfe and I’ll be the Blog’s moderator. I’ll also blog as often as I can about whatever comes to mind, especially my experiences with the doorways to Faerie here at Woodland Springs (The home of The enchanted World of Faerie Woodland) and the endlessly delightful array of characters who slip through to this side to play with us. There are three Fairies who have expressed an interest in this project and they will each have their own blog thread. (I’ll tell you as much about them as they will let me, below.) There’s a family of deer (a doe and her two young ones, one boy and one girl) who come by every day and have started to talk to me. I think some of the things they have to say might be interesting to some of you. And then, of course, there’s Freya, the Muse, a long-haired tortoise shell who loves to sit on the back of my chair and mutter under her breath about whatever I’m writing. She has made it quite clear that, if I don’t want deeper than usual scratches on my hands the next time we play, I’d better let her have her own thread as well. I’m also hoping that John will contribute an occasional image to illustrate the text and keep us all inspired. (Since none of the bloggers except John and I have computer skills, I'll do my best to translate the others' thoughts into words on the screen. It is possible that the Fairies will occasionally find their own ways of manipulating the keyboard but I'm not counting on it.)
These bloggers all have insights, images, wisdom (and sometimes just a lot of hot air) to share. Please drop in often, see who’s been thoughtful, funny, or spouting off, and add your comments to the mix. Perhaps, together, we can find new ways of thinking about Faerie and the world around us and create a stronger bridge between the human world and all the other worlds that inhabit this planet.
The bloggers:
Mortals:
BRIDGET WOLFE is a teacher, writer, myth keeper, and storyteller, weaving stories whispered by winds and Fairy wings into the fabric of everyday lives. Her relationship with the mystical world began in childhood and she has spent almost 30 years studying shamanism’s maps of the Otherworld. She has blended the teachings of medicine wheels and sacred ritual together with MA degrees in English and Clinical Psychology to create ceremonial retreats and rites of passage and has guided learning journeys to sacred sites in the Americas, England, and Ireland.
Bridget’s forays into the Otherworld have found expression through her love of language, first as an oral storyteller and more recently as a writer of mystical tales. In her collaboration with John Curtis Crawford, she has written fairy tale vignettes for more than 500 of John’s fairy house sculptures and graphic images; her first book is in process.
JOHN CURTIS CRAWFORD is a maker of magical creations from puppets to elaborate sculptures of wood and stone. From beginnings as a puppeteer at age 12, to a lifetime in the arts and entertainment industry, he has designed and constructed fantastical creatures and miniature habitats for stage, television, commercials, and feature motion pictures. He has created, built, and manipulated dinosaurs, aliens, and characters for Jim Henson’s Muppets and his work has won numerous awards including one from the Cannes Film Festival for Special Effects.
John’s early training as a puppeteer honed his innate gift of bringing inanimate objects to life; his love of the natural world and of wild places led him through mystical doorways and his creations are the outgrowth of that marriage. His unique sculptural technique animates his magical and whimsical wood and stone structures. His sculptures and graphic images call forth the “intelligent energy” inhabiting every twig and stone and bring the wild places of the Otherworld to life in his work.
The Fairies:
TWINKEY: A young fairy who has written many letters (included in Fairy Woodland mailboxes) looking for penpals in the Human world. Twinkey’s home is in a fir tree in the Fairy Grove at Woodland Springs. A few special mortal children have answered Twinkey’s call for penpals and exchange letters once in a while. Twinkey hopes that this blog will offer the opportunity to learn more about the human world, human children and what their lives are like as well as allowing the opportunity to share what life is like for young Fairies. We haven’t managed to get a picture of Twinkey but here’s a picture of Twinkey’s home.
ELDERHILL: A journeyer between worlds and the Fairy who initially made contact with us and helped us open the gateway between the mythical Otherworld and The Enchanted World of Fairy Woodland. He’s an emissary from the Faerie Council of Elders and he believes that the time is coming when the gateways between Faerie and the human world will open and travel between the two realms will become possible again. He has not yet allowed us to take his picture.
LIGHT THAT LISTENS: Head of the Faerie Council in the part of the Faerie Realm that has jurisdiction over Woodland springs. A wise, thoughtful, and irascible “grandmother” whose insights are often simple and always profound. She has a wonderful sense of humor and infinite patience with those of us who are genuinely trying to learn the Faerie ways. She is beautiful and she loves to dance. We’re honored that she allowed us to take this picture and to share it with you.
Animals:
THE DEER: The doe (Clover) brought this year’s fauns (Rose & Moss) around in August when there were plenty of blackberries. The fauns still had their spots then and the Fairies had a wonderful time playing with them. The deer love our apple orchard and will stand on their hind legs to pick a particularly tasty looking apple from high in the tree. After the trees have dropped all their fruit, we still keep apples around as treats for the deer. This year, it was unusually snowy and cold for many days in a row and the Fairies told us the deer were having trouble finding nourishing food, so we’ve been serving them a meal once a day when they come to the front door. They’ve been grateful and have started talking to us and sharing some of the magic they bring. I have permission to pass what they say on, as long as I give them credit. Figures. Even the four-leggeds want their 15 minutes.
FREYA: This saucy feline showed up on our doorstep almost 3 years ago, wet, skinny, and hungry, but with the sweetest disposition we’d ever encountered in a cat. When I opened the back door she walked right in. Our other two cats were not pleased (one of them still has major issues with her) but she was determined to stay. As part of the compromise with the other cats, Freya’s home base became my office so, although she now wanders around the rest of the house and goes outside, she spends most of her time hanging out with me. At first she just snuggled a lot; in the last year she has taken to sitting on the back or arm of my chair and commenting on what I’m writing. That’s when she’s not walking across the keyboard. She’s usually content to limit herself to criticizing my work but has indicated that she may have a few thoughts of her own she wants to impart to us mere mortals. She loves to pose for pictures and thinks I should publish more of them.
