Away With The Fairies. A Tale of Inspiration

I've had this dainty piece of drilled beach glass for at least a year. It's a little small for a pendant. And as white seaglass is common enough and I have plenty of bigger, more exciting pieces to work with, this little fella was lost and forgotten in my bowl of beach finds. I didn't feel inspired to do anything in particular with it.

Maybe it was my hike to Fairy Castle in Ticknock (which may look like a big pile of ordinary rocks, but is apparently the remains of an ancient cairn or tomb.)

Or perhaps it was this pretty fairy village I found in my cousin's garden? ( How cute is that?!)

But most certainly, it was my 5 year old niece who took me fairy-watching in the park over the Easter holidays and filled my head with stories of goblins, witches and fairy princesses....ok, maybe it was me who was telling the fairy tales, but all that magic had to go somewhere didn't it?!  TADA! And so appeared the Blue Fairy:

Blue fairy bookmark

Thank you to Alannah, for sprinkling a little magic dust and inspiring me to create something pretty. Oh to be a child who believes in fairies again.....

Inspirations II. Ticknock Forest & Hill walk

 

 View of Dublin Bay from Ticknock, April 2012

I took a few days off over the Easter break to spend time with my sister, who is home from abroad for a couple of weeks. I feel like I've just been far away myself. It's always good for the soul to catch up with loved ones and have a laugh. It's also great to take a couple of days off, away from work routine and even, dare I say it, from crafting. Like everything, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And a break certainly refreshes creativity.

courtesy of Google Maps

We didn't have the glorious sunshine of previous weeks, but at least it was fairly dry so we managed to get in a hike in the Dublin mountains - which, I've humorously been reminded by my dear Spanish friends, are not mountains at all! Well, yes, there's a reason we call it hill walking I guess. But as I am not long back in my hiking boots after several years absence, the Dublin Mountains feel plenty high to me! In fact, when I first hit the steep forest path, my lungs wanted to kill me then and there.

Rest stop, Ticknock

When we were kids, Ticknock was one of my Dad's favourite places to bring us for a Sunday walk. It's still one of my most loved places in and around Dublin. It's handy to South Dublin, with a choice of easy to moderate trails and offers diverse terrain through shady forest paths, up rough and rocky hillsides (my fave) and over wild and open moorland.

'Fairycastle' Cairn, Two Rock Mountain

Moorland trail leading in the direction of Three Rock Summit

Rolling hills

There are several trails branching off the main forest path. last Wednesday we chose the rocky path up to Fairy castle, atop Two Rock Mountain and did part of the loop, descending before we hit Three Rock mountain, as we thought we felt rain and it was already a bit marshy after recent showers.

Turns out it didn't rain, though we did see some spectacular rain pockets over the city below. Sorry about my photography - I'm so used to using macro for shooting my jewellery up close, that I haven't a clue how to capture distant scenery yet. But I've had fun editing my worst photos to try get something out of them:

Close Encounters on the Moorland?

Even the traditional, post-hike pint by the fireside in nearby The Blue Light pub, inspired me to get arty.  Now, it's time I logged off and used all this inspiration to do some actual crafting......I'll be back with the results before long.

click here to see photos of previous walks and the jewellery they inspired