A most unusual doorway

For years I’ve taken walks at a nearby city park that is a quite an astonishing and magical place. It has towering old oaks and magnolia trees, an abundance of azaleas and camellias and flowering trees and shrubs, and a circular garden full of flowers year round: roses, day lilies, snap dragons, petunias, amaryllis, camellias, azaleas and daffodils, among just a few I can think of.

This Spring has been especially beautiful and enticing for me to be able to visit there because of the long months of relative isolation during the pandemic. And, this park is slightly more than a five minute drive from where I live. I am so fortunate.

I’m always looking at and admiring the many specimens of old trees. One is a camphor tree, the name coming from a Japanese word meaning “tree of medicine,” noted for its oil which has anti-inflammatory properties. It is relatively short but has a huge and interesting gnarled base. I almost always pause to look at it because it’s well, so unusual. I also walk by it a lot because my little afternoon sojourns take my through the fields and wooded sections of the park instead of the well-beaten paths. That way I also can avoid running into people since I go there to be alone with my thoughts, and the fewer people I see, the better.

A few months ago I noticed something especially interesting and eye-catching. What looks just like an oval tree-bark doorway was painted yellow with a crack or opening left unpainted.

Well, that’s pretty cool, I thought on numerous occasions when I passed the tree in recent weeks. However, about two weeks ago I noticed upon closer inspection, a single camellia bloom and half of a geode crystal, with the tiny crystal cavern exposed, both sitting together at the entrance to the “door” that led into the tree.. This just really took me aback. I was quite surprised and delighted. Of course I took a photograph of it.

My guess is that fairies or wee people were only temporarily using this tree, maybe as a fairy Airbnb because the door and base of the tree were not concealed. This led me to believe it is not a permanent home for “wee people.” Some little fairy, gnome, or naiad (water nymph) had dropped by unexpectedly, and seeing that no one was home, left their gifts at the entrance. When I went by yesterday there was no trace of them.

Interesting, too, is the fact that about 20 years ago I bought the exact type of crystal geode at a rock shop, and camellias are my favorite flower to photograph.

Below are two photos of the old tree. If you enlarge on your screen the one with the little objects visible, you can see the camellia and geode.

The best place to find fairies is in an enchanted forest, where one might spy them reclining on velvety mats of soft moss…or darting about the silkiest, most fashionable flowers or lolling within the petals to inhale their rich perfume.

Carolyn Turgeon

Snap dragons at the park