After our rather medical day on Wednesday (thank you, the stitch-removal and intranasal vaccinations went well), we spent yesterday in a magical, mysical Wee Faerie Village at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme.
It was a beautiful, colorful fall day to wander the grounds of the museum on the banks of the Lieutenant River. After checking in at admissions and receiving our map of the houses and our twinkling, beaded bracelets (so much more fun than an admission ticket or badge!), the kids took off across the grass searching for more than 30 hidden houses constructed by artists out of found objects and natural elements. Under bushes, up in branches, in the hollows of trees, amid the flowers, the kids found a variety of hidden houses, with tiny baskets, little ladders, miniature furniture, and all matter of accessories. Sis's favorite house was filled with white bunnies! Bud preferred the "faeries working" house hidden in a basement window because harp music from the parlor upstairs filtered down. Mama liked the little mill set on a rock in the stream. And I like the giant tree whose hollows were filled with houses and doors, whose trunk was covered with ladders, and from whose branches hung numerous wee baskets. We all liked wandering the huge stickwork sculpture, The Rambles, which was like an oversized faerie house for people.
And then we got to build our own faerie dwelling in a cluster of trees near the stream. Having had lots of practice building faerie houses for the last year, the kids set to looking for building materials--bark, sticks, chestnuts, leaves, branches, all went into the making of our house. Such fun! The kids were so excited to add our own house to the woods. But then they started asking if we could come back to visit our house and all the others. And so we told them that the magical houses would disappear after this weekend (when the exhibition closes), fading away in the mist until they were invisible--and maybe we could come see other houses next year or find different houses in other places, including our back yard.
We distracted them by touring the galleries of American Impressionism (which had a great gallery activity of finding paining details) and then visiting the house of Florence Griswold which was the center of the Lyme Art Colony at the turn of the twentieth century. I enjoyed seeing the paintings, especially in the famous dining room filled with panels contributed by resident artists such as Hassam, Chadwick, and Ranger) but didn't have much time to linger. Off to the shop where Bud got blue faerie wings and Sis got pink. They danced around the grounds some more and we headed to lunch.
Lunch was almost as exciting as the museum because we ate at the train station at Pizza Works, which has a model train set up on the second floor. Sis loved the focaccia; Mama and I loved the dipping marinara. And the baked potato pizza with red potatoes, broccoli, sour cream, scallions, and bacon (on half). But best of all, beside the trains, was the Kentucky Derby Pie, just like a warm chocolate chip cookie. Mmmmm. Both the kids loved it, even with the pecans (which they can have now).
We headed home with them jabbering the whole way about faeries. Sis put her wings on Amy the Bunny and flew her around the backseat; Bud followed with Penguin. And the fun continued at home. Donning the faerie wings, they pretended their igloo tents were faerie houses. We also acted out the story from Tracey Kane's Fairy Houses, the book that galvanized the current faerie house obsession (which got it's start here on an island in Maine). So, I was the little girl in the woods building a faerie house and they were the faeries who come to thank me. And Bud, when telling me about himself and his fairy sister, said they were "spreading magic all over the world."
And they still are this morning, asking for their wings and to play faeries first thing upon waking. I think he might even switch to being a faerie for Halloween, at least for the party at Mama's office this afternoon.
May the magic continue . . . . (pictures to follow)
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