Archive for August, 2012

Fairy Villages

August 16th, 2012

Since I couldn’t visit anyone we had planned to on our way home from PEI (due to my cold and barking like a seal—no offence seals) we decided to visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. I’d been there once before on a trip with my garden gals but Bob hadn’t.

It’s one of my favorite gardens—a wonderful garden in the first place but designed so it can only exist in Maine. I don’t remember seeing the Fairy Village when we were there before, I don’t think we went that far on the path along the shore. It’s a place under the pine trees where people esp children but not only children have built tiny dwellings out of found forest material.

Shooting Fairy Village

shooting with my iPhone.

The light was bad for photographs under the trees with shafts of sunlight and I mainly had my cell phone with me but I had to take some shots.

These are only four of many, many, many little magical structures.

Shooting Fairy Village Shooting Fairy Village

Shooting Fairy Village Shooting Fairy Village

Wounderful Wee Worlds.

The first time I ever saw a fairy garden was years ago in Nova Scotia.

Fairy Bridges

Fairy Bridges

We didn’t have reservations and were realizing that places to stay were few. We stopped at Liscombe Lodge late in the evening and they had just had a cancellation. We were tired, grabbed a bite to eat and fell asleep. In the morning we discovered a series of Fairy Bridges over the stream we had to cross to reach our cottage.

The next fairy village was an exhibit titled, “Enchantment at the Edge of the Woods”, at Wave Hill Garden in the Bronx, NY. We went to see the wonderful work (“Charion”) on display by sculptor, Helene Brandt. Another artist had contributed a large fairy village to the exhibit.

Since then Fairy Villages seem to be popping up everywhere with every garden shop selling props made in China. BUT… the best it seems to me are the ones made on the spot using found materials and the one in Maine is wonderfully organic and magical.

New Glasses

August 4th, 2012

I don’t like getting new glasses

First I have to go to the Ophthalmologist to be tested. I went last year and was given prescriptions for two glasses; bifocals (I’ve worn them since college) and computer glasses (I work on very large screens and bifocals aren’t the best.) I did get the computer glasses but never got around to the others, so this year I had to fess up and get new prescriptions.

You sit there and are asked “does this look better than this” over and over and I can’t tell! And I know I will have to live with my decision for a year—well they will do a re exam if asked but then it’s the same thing again… But I went and got my new prescriptions and took them clutched in my hand down the street to a store with many many glasses. Again, how can I tell how they look… I can’t see with out the correct lenses—so I make the best guess I can. The glasses came a week ago and I do like them (very much) but the reading prescription had me reading six inches from my nose and the the bifocal was too low.

Sooooo, back to the Dr. for a new prescription and back to the store for new lenses where I asked about progressive lenses. That would allow for a smooth transition from reading to far vision. This sounded good for drawing as well as teaching. I picked up the new progressive glasses yesterday and am trying to get used to them. I’ll let you know…

new glasses

New glasses with progressive lenses.