Another Book

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb

I’ve just finished another book. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Cold, damp late winter is perfect for reading books.

This is another fiction. Weaves the idea of fairy tale stories throughout four generations of women. Intertwines actual fairy tales into the connections. And gardens. A perfect book for reading in March because I was transported to the beauty of my forgotten gardens in the depth of this everlasting winter. I know I needed the fantasy of the story because I took it with me to my dreams at night, obviously unwilling to stop the life of the story simply because my tired eyes and brain couldn’t keep going.

The idea of fairies caught my fancy early in the book and didn’t let go. A poster hung on the bedroom wall of a house long ago. It was the house where my sister and I shared the entire upper floor of a small Cape Cod house, half play room and half sleeping room. We were young girls and fantasy abounded in that room. The poster, in my memory, was of dark colors. A beautiful nature scene, at the edge of water. Where you could look into the water and see life teemed below. There were fairies and other beings both above and below the water. Pure delight, with just a small amount of danger lurking nearby. I have often thought of that poster and wish I could somehow find it again. Might make the perfect hanging in my study, where much of my fantasy life lives these days.

With spring coming, it seems perfect to think of fairies living about me. I’ve found, packed away, a couple of fairy prints that I do have, even framed. They must have been waiting for me to wake up, along with the coming spring. Think they’ll be perfect in my study. Who knows what magic might result?