Stairway To Fairyland

When I first moved into this house, I often descended this stairway that leads to the woods below my deck to wander happily through dense ferns, remembering. As a child, I knew these woods as Fairyland. My cousins, my brother, and I had picnics beneath the gnarled trees that grew in the shadow of towering pines. There we would assemble feasts for the fairies by placing crumbs from our peanut butter sandwiches, raisons and bits of Fig Newtons on dried leaf plates. Acorn cups held a drop of two of lemonade. We were sure there were fairies and we would be in their favor if we showed our belief by sharing what we had.

The woods were much changed by hurricane Katrina. Many pine giants were toppled, and blackberry briars grew dense and forbidding barriers. I kind of forgot the fairies of my youth.

When I walked out on the deck, thinking to sweep up the large quantity of leaves that had accumulated, I looked down the stairs and the leaves looked rather jewel-like in the stark light of a gray day. So I retrieved my camera and photographed the long unused stairway to fairyland.