1074. It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or at dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. ~James Douglas

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The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression,
and their author always has a niche
in the temple of memory
from which the image is never cast out
to be thrown on the rubbish heap
of things that are outgrown or outlived.
~Howard Pyle

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The “shy presences” of which Douglas spoke can be very real ones, like toads or snails or garden snakes and such; however, the “shy presences” for an imaginative child are often both real as well as make believe. For themĀ the real ones might be shadow dancers,Ā enlivenedĀ dollopsĀ of light, or glisteningĀ drops of dew whereas their make-believe ones might be the fabled “wee folk” found in stories they’ve heard or read. Gardens in and of themselves are naturally enchanting places,Ā and tales of “fairies, elves, and leprechauns” can’t help but addĀ an irresistible dimension to that enchantment, at least in the mind of a child or in someone with a veryĀ healthyĀ inner child. And as Mr. Pyle so aptly put it, childhood images are never cast out onto rubbish heaps but instead leave “indelible impressions in the temples of our memories.” That’s whyĀ in early spring findings such as grape hyacinth, daffodils, crocus, snowdrops, and tulips can openĀ doors in revered temples of memoryĀ and thus release cherished phrases such asĀ “fairy woods where the wild bee wings,” or Ā “tiny trees for tiny dames,” or “tiny woods below whose bough shady fairies weave a house,” or “tiny tree tops, rose or thyme, where the braver fairies climb” as found inĀ poems byĀ Robert Louis Stevenson and others. Or maybe they come from aĀ poem like this one below:

THERE are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
It’s not so very, very far away;
You pass the gardner’s shed and you
just keep straight ahead —
I do so hope they’ve really come to stay.
There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
They often have a dance on summer nights;
The butterflies and bees make a lovely little breeze,
And the rabbits stand about and hold the lights.
Did you know that they could sit upon the moonbeams
And pick a little star to make a fan,
And dance away up there in the middle of the air?
Well, they can.
There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
Now you can guess who that could be
(She’s a little girl all day, but at night she steals away)?
Well — it’s Me!
~Excerpted lines from a poem
by Rose Fyleman

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**Image via Pinterest

18 thoughts on “1074. It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or at dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. ~James Douglas”

  1. I was always a sucker for Leprechauns …and the fairy rings of mushrooms suddenly in a circle where the day before there were none…and as I now wait for my little clubs of things I forgot I planted or to see what may have survived last year’s landscape overhaul—will be a bit like searching for fairies to be sure—and not, on to that pot of gold!

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    • Me too! And I love the rings of mushrooms or toadstools. We haven’t had enough rain lately to have any, but I hope we do soon. Oh that could be fun waiting to see what pops up and where. After there built on Natalieworld, there were places I thought would be bare after months of having debris thrown upon them in the heat of the summer, but oddly enough my hellebores and oxalis actually survived and since have spread and are filling up a space where little else would grow.
      So I hope you find some good things that make their way back into existence. Love and hugs, N šŸ™‚ ā¤

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  3. Lovely and enchanting post, dear Natalie. It brings to mind the magic I experienced the first time I read “The Secret Garden”. I’m enjoying spring flowers in my garden and feeling some of the same magic once again. ā¤
    Blessings & hugs ~ Wendy

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