Welcome to Litsy!

Cheryl Strayed‘s Wild meets Diana Melmuth‘s The Witching Year in this messy but endearingly earnest travel memoir. While grieving her father, writer Signe Pike rambles primarily across England, Ireland, and Scotland, seeking out stories and first-hand accounts of faeries, visiting faery landmarks and sacred places, and reckoning with a devoted but angry father she loved but never understood. Slow and not fully satisfying, but worth the read!

I used to enjoy living in a small city, but having my bike stolen the weekend of my birthday, increasingly rude people on the street, and reading this lovely book about reconnecting with nature is making me seriously consider a move💚

Just tryna be heard. #listentothewindblow

Friends came over for a Spring equinox celebration last night. We created a Wish Tree, tying scraps of fabric onto its branches while making “prayers” of thanksgiving &/or supplication. If the latter, we left “offerings” in the dirt at its base (keys, coins, pins). We also tied a length of red string around its trunk as a gentle reminder for Mother Nature. “Hey GRL, it‘s supposed to be Spring!”

Snow may still be on the ground but I‘m thinking Spring. 🌷🌱

Putting together a little ritual for Tuesday‘s equinox, based on an old Celtic practice described in Signe Pike‘s “Faery Tale.”

Fairies aren‘t my mythical, magical cup of tea (for me, that cup is a cauldron & it‘s stirred by witches). So, I was a little skeptical when my book club chose Pike‘s memoir for our October read. That skepticism remained. I appreciate the overall message(s) gleaned from the text: pay attention to the significance of Place; be present - but I would rather have picked up “The Nature Fix” or re-read David Abrams‘ “The Spell of the Sensuous.”

Well, now I want to do this (come Spring) to the cherry tree in the center of our backyard patio area. Question: are the scraps of fabric safe for the birds?

“The more you look inside, and begin to trust what everyone refers to as “intuition,” the more you‘ll become aware of the way places feel.”

Goal: Pay more attention to the way specific places feel. Notice how they feel differently from one another, & the unique character each place possesses: peaceful, energized, golden, dark, green. I want to be more in tune with my surroundings & more consistently present. Sub-goal: put down my phone. 😫

“I began to reexamine fairy tales. I wanted to understand the reality of fairies. I started doing some exploration, reading other people‘s theories...At first I thought, “I don‘t know...all this sounds a bit weird.” He laughed. “And at the same time, a lot of it sounded like common sense. It‘s very typical of faery, actually. In one way it simplified everything for me, & at the same time it suddenly made everything very complicated.”

-Brian Froud

“Oh, yes, of course. Dark elves. Who hasn‘t heard of them?... I pictured an evil Legolas from “Lord of the Rings”, jumping out from behind the washing machine. It was terrifying.”

Happy to be home... but man, will I miss this beautiful, birch tree hammock heaven!

Pure, reading bliss. ✌🏻📚📖☀️🍂

Vacation chill. ✌🏻🏔🍂

Fairy Bridge on the Isle of Man. Every single morning on the way to school, my brother and I would say "Hello, faeries!"

Without. Fail.

It's so magical to be back on the Island reading this book and to be reconnecting with the Celtic wildness I felt in my bones as a kid. #IsleOfMan #Homecoming

💚💙💜

#BookMail just in time for my trip to Dad's in the Isle of Man. Thanks to @booksandsympathy for posting about it and inspiring this purchase! I love a good #blameitonlitsy buy 💜💜💜

In an attempt to find magic in this world, the author left behind a job in Manhattan, and went on a journey to Mexico, England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man in search of faeries. This is the tale of that #journey #jubilantjuly

I've got lots of blue books. I think maybe this was a third of them. #17rainbowbooks #bluecovers