THE DOORS OF THE LITTLE FOLK

When I was a young wild-haired teen in the mid-Seventies I adored giants, kelpies, goblins and faery folk. My bookcase was stuffed full of magical tomes from the likes of Brian Froud.....

.... BB and his Little Grey Men going down the bright stream

Arthur Rackham ....

and of course JRR Tolkien ....

Popular culture at the time, especially rock music, echoed this passion for the magical kingdom. Like Led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop, Rush's Rivendell and Queen's Ogre Battle.

Later when me and the Missus got our first flat in 1980 she subscribed to a magazine called Brigitte and it contained an article about Zwergbergs or Dwarf Mountains. These were tree stumps used for play with little figures of dwarves and gnomes like these pictured. It was the first time I'd seen the magical realm scaled down to toddler size.

Then in the early 90's we first noticed fairy doors appearing in local forests like these. The doors were installed by kind wardens and later families themselves for local children to follow and find with their parents. 

Fairydom had gone mainstream!

Now fairy doors on trees are a real artform and not only building them but also making and taking photographs. One of the best I could find is this beautiful candlelit portal I saw on Pinterest.

So I was really chuffed when I saw a magical doorway at our very own Moonbase Junior's house, a neat little entrance nestling next to the garden path installed by his Mum and Dad!

Photo to follow. It's been swiped by goblins!