FAIRY HOUSE SALVAGE PROJECT FOR BELTANE 2017
AMBER LOVE 01-MAY-2017 This site is supported by backers at Patreon.com/amberunmasked. I’ve always wanted to build fairy houses, but a couple of reasons stopped me: first, buying premade products to avoid going outside meant spending money; second, saving money by salvaging what’s found outside means skin problems for me. This year I overlooked it. I’ve already been spending more time outside in the yard because of the cats who have taken such a liking to being pushed in their buggies that they jump in them and cry almost daily demanding to be walked. I’m itchy as hell, by the way.
Beltane/Beltaine is a celebration of fire, the heat of the sun returning for summer. It’s on May Day (May 1) and often includes group activities like weaving ribbons around a May Pole. In olden times, one would have a huge bonfire and walk their livestock around it for a blessing.
I haven’t done group pagan activities in a long time except for the #BindTrump global spells done in my home. Living as a hermit mostly and doing my own thing. This year, the tree stump in the backyard finally motivated me enough to do what I’ve wanted to do for a long time — construct an outdoor fairy house. The thing is, I don’t really “do” construction and am so weak I can barely operate a drill with two hands. Lo’ and behold, my father’s penchant for being a white version of Fred Sanford became useful. There’s so much crap around and in his garage or still around the yard from things were supposed to be rebuilt that I didn’t need to shop for anything except pebbles. Oh, and of course my mother hangs on to every holiday decoration even if broken so in her part of the cellar, there were other treasures utilized. I’m not without an ounce of hoarding as all crafters and cosplayers tend to be — the leftover supply of gemstones, artificial leaves, and butterflies were put to use.
The tree stump was from a weeping cherry, I think. I can’t remember. It was either dead from disease or fell in a storm. But this lovely stump was never removed and it had wild looking fungi growing up the side; plus it’s surrounded by moss.
All I expected to find were scraps were wood, but there were a couple of broken birdhouses that were somehow destroyed (hurricane, maybe). I found this one that was train car shaped and had sharp screws poking out the bottom. We emptied the old nest from it and I cleaned it. Then came my usual fight with glue.
I couldn’t get the Gorilla Glue to come out of the new bottle even though it was obviously moving around as liquid inside. I fetched Elmer’s spray adhesive and old fashioned Elmer’s white glue. I hate hot glue and find it doesn’t work well for plastic bits anyway. So I sprayed the birdhouse door in small sections with the adhesive then put white glue on the gemstones and held them in place for a few seconds.
Once I realized sitting on the floor and gluing sparkly shit onto a broken birdhouse aggravated my back and was causing serious pain, I stopped. So the house isn’t as sparkly as I hoped it would be.
In the yard, I found some pieces of slate from an unfinished patio floor and the remains of the shed foundation. I also gathered rocks from that old shed pile and found a few large pieces of tree branches barely holding together.
All I did as far as “construction” goes was pile things up in a way that I thought worked well with the shape of the existing tree stump.
The next day, I got some small pebbles from Home Depot (less than $5). Then I retrieved the three fairy statues with the least amount of damage from the cellar. Most looked like zombies with cracked paint all over and missing hands.
After the fairies were placed, I wanted to take some better twilight pictures (#gloamingpictures) with colored lights around them. I didn’t have any battery operated Christmas lights (shocking, I swear), so I used my bedroom candles for the photos. I set the exposure lower and played around with filters to set the mood better for a few shots.
HAPPY BELTANE!
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.