Children have been asking this question for generations.
A wonderful book of poems called “Beyond The Mountain” by Sarah Stokes Halkett published in 1917 asks this same question.
Here in Maine on the north side of a small mountain I am Seamstress to a troop of Home Place Fairies.
I sew and weave a very elaborate assortment of clothing for these fairies to suit their needs.
I also create with the fairies assistance what I like to call, “wearable gardens” for human children.
The Home Place Fairies in turn help the Wizard and I care for the orchards on our farm as well as assist bees pollinating flower and vegetable gardens and fields of organic blueberries.
Old Horse is Guardian of the Home Place Fairies and has lived here at the farm as long as anyone can remember.
Long ago enchanted by the Fairies, he ages though he never grows old.
So where do the fairies go when it snows ….
Old Horse knows , but he’s not saying.
This sweet poem from “Beyond The Mountain” was asking that same question in 1917 and well, it’s still being asked today.
The Snowdrops
Where do the pretty fairies go
When the world is white with snow?
I asked the sun, he did not know,
He never saw the fairies go.
Where do the gentle fairies stay
When all the world is cold and gray?
I asked the moon, he could not say;
He too wonders where the fairies stay.
Where do the pretty fairies hide
When on the snow we slip and slide?
I asked the stars, they only sighed;
It’s lonely when the fairies hide.
Where do the pretty fairies go?
I think perhaps the flowers know
I’ll wait until the snowdrops grow,
And ask them where the fairies go.
Fairies are mysterious little beings and maybe we as humans are not meant to know the answer to every little thing.
Possibly real magic rests in faith and believing in possibilities which you cannot always see;
Maybe magic is the same as dreaming and wishing upon stars .