Summer Magic

Greetings Everyone!

Summer has been flying by here in the Northwoods! I've been making new houses and making new artwork out in the woods. The summer has been kind and sweet... there are more wildflowers in the fields and meadows than I think I've ever seen before - the abundance is overwhelming sometimes!

  After the firefly Faerie house project I got busy on several others I had been planning to make. I am focusing on making as many special new houses as I can while the warm weather is here. 

First up is a special house for all the Beach Faeries out there, since this IS summer time! I had planned on having this one done in time for the July full moon and on the one day of the month when the moon is full, I loaded up the canoe and paddled down the river and out to the sandbar that gives me lovely views due East. The sun was warm and golden in the late afternoon light but it also was dodging large puffy clouds at times so the quality of the light was changing wildly. I hurried to get everything set up:

When I first arrived and took the house out of the canoe and began to set it up, the gulls that had been resting on the sandbar got a bit alarmed and rose up into the sky all at once, but soon they realized I meant them no harm and they settled back down and looked lovely in the distance. I was using a lot of gull feathers in the piece so I was pleased to see them there in the background.

This house is all about the gentle wind and life that lives near the water, both salt and fresh. There are loads of delicate shells and feathers all hanging from strands of raffia grass to blow in the wind. There is a collection of small Paua shells (NZ Abalone) that I brought back from my trip there. Some fabulous dried grasses with seed heads that shimmer in the light danced in the gentle breeze. 

 

As the sun sank lower behind me the light on the Beach house got more and more golden...

Everything was all set up and I had the alignment figured out as to where the moon was supposed to appear... only it didn't! As the sun set in the west, it revealed that the eastern horizon was not clear and blue as it had seemed, but rather, it was filled completely with far-away thunderstorm clouds which were not going to allow the moon to be seen for many hours to come and by then it would be too dark. So, reluctantly, I began to pack everything up in the canoe to get ready to head back home. But there was one final little surprise. A distant thundercloud was suddenly illuminated in a strawberry glow and for an instant, it almost looked like the shot I had hoped I could get with the moonrise...

close, but not quite! So fingers crossed that the full Moon of August will be the one for this Faerie house and I'll once again set it up and hope for that magic moment when everything lines up!