Alyssa Milano

Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

Roald Dahl, ‘The Minpins’.

It’s Autumn ad our weather here in Charleston has entered that golden period where for many months the skies will be blue, the days cool or slightly warm, and the nights just cold enough to make it feel like winter is approaching. We live for Fall. Winter and Spring here.

Several times a week I walk at the beautiful wooded city park not far from where I live. It is filled with flower beds which bloom in all seasons, ancient tall oak trees , and several old camphor trees, the significance of which is a key to this story.

As some of you may know, camphor trees are favorite arboreal havens for the wee folk who visit the park from time to time. These gentle fairies come for the overall beauty and tranquility of the place, but also to enjoy and play among the many flowers that entice them here — all kinds of flowers. It seems like every time I’m there, I spot a new variety and have to look it up in my plant identifier.

As, I said, these wee folk don’t come often, and I have not personally seen one of them — yet. But when they do arrive in Spring and Fall, there are always gifts for them at the base of the large camphor tree where their Charleston home is located.

A year and a half ago, I was surprised and delighted when, after I decided to step off one of the park’s paths and walked into a grassy, wooded area which includes the camphor tree, I came to the tree I always head straight for, and saw that the door had been painted yellow and there was a beautiful pink camellia and a geode crystal in front of the base of this entryway. What an absolutely marvelous and wondrous sight. I returned a few days later and the gifts were gone.

That was in April 2021, and there had been no signs of a visitation since then, until a couple of days ago when I made my usual visit to the tree and saw a little fairy figurine in a small opening in the middle of the door, and at the entrance, a collection of some of the most beautiful rocks, maybe even gemstones, that I have ever seen. It was quite an exciting and uplifting moment that recent afternoon at the fairy house, and my somewhat dulled imagination was rekindled by a beam of sunlight that had illuminated those rocks just before sunset.

Soon it would be dark, so I continued my walk and left shortly thereafter, once again gifted with enchantment in a world where it is so sorely needed.

Here is my April 25, 2021 entry on my first acquaintance with this magical little bit of fairyland:

https://www.prosebox.net/entry/1249486

The fairy tree with colorful rocks and miniature figurine:

The fairy house and camphor tree on my April 2021 visit: