There are fairies among us

I first noticed the fairies a few years ago.

I often head down Dunning Ave. in the village on my morning and evening walks. Shortly after we moved to the village, I began to see fairy doors propped up against several trees in front of the house at the southwest corner of Dunning and Elm, complete with fairies frolicking on the doorsteps. They charmed me so much that two years ago I mentioned them in one of my blogs, where I also wrote about the porches, flowers and other beautiful and whimsical things that make our village so charming.

It wasn’t until a year or more later that I found out the fairy doors are the work of a friend of mine, Peter Elder.

Peter described the fairy-door-making project as an “evolution” which began several years ago with his decision to ring all of his trees with soil and stones. The next step was to plant flowers and various other growing things in the rings. As those gardens matured, he had another idea.

“There are these legends in Irish and Scottish folklore about fairies coming through trees,” he said. So, “I thought it would be a cool idea to do fairy doors.”

That was about five years ago, and the doors stood by themselves for a few years. It was actually his wife Pam’s idea to place fairies near the doors.

What was just a few doors back then has grown to a fairy village of ten doors. Most of them are propped against trees, one is actually nestled in a knot about head-high, and one adorns a butterfly bush in the side yard. Some of the trees have doors on two sides, and most of the doors have fairies in front of them, much to the delight of the adults and children who walk by each day.

Peter tries to get everything planted and set up by Memorial Day, and takes the fairies in at the end of October to protect them from the winter. He’d like to continue adding more doors, perhaps placing a second one at each tree that doesn’t already have two, and finding more hollows to tuck small doors into. There’s always room for more fairies, too.

So keep an eye on the fairies as you make your way down Dunning, because their little village will continue to grow.