Fairies (or Faieries or Faeries) in the garden?

I looked out of the kitchen window this morning to see a very pretty sight - a group of toadstools pushing up through the damp Autumn earth.  "I think there are fairies in the garden!" I declared. Which led to this train of thought.....

Are they Fairies or Faeries?  Which spelling should I use? And do I believe they are there?

I was brought up reading and writing the word "fairies"  and then when I was in my teens a range of books started to hit the shelves calling them "faeries".  I wondered about this spelling, and even wrote it a few times myself, but just didn't feel right doing so.  Its like the word magic and the alternative spelling magick.  The words all mean the same thing, and are all accepted spelling, but how do you decide which word to use yourself?  Wandering the internet, I find that pagan and magic(k) websites tend to use the spellings that include an 'e'.... does this mean if I declare myself pagan I should use those spellings?  Which spelling do you use?  why?

And then the even deeper question - do I truly believe in fairy folk? 

I believe in nature and the amazingness (OK, now I'm just making up words!) of every living thing.  I'm a trained biologist and teacher, therefore I understand the workings of living things, and still find the life-cycles of plants and animals to be miraculous and awe-inspiring.  I've been pregnant and completely understand the science of reproduction, and yet the idea that a gamete (effectively a half cell) from me and one from my husband came together and from that chance meeting I now have two beautiful and amazing children who grow and think, still blows my mind!

So as I watch my children and my garden grow each day, it isn't so hard to expand my mind and believe that their are creatures that I never see and don't know about, who live around us and enjoy the nature in our garden.  And would it hurt to believe in their magic?  No, I think it makes us better people to believe in some sort of magic - however we spell it.

What do you think?

Finished!

How good does a finished project feel?  In the first week of Autumn we started to pull out our old kitchen cabinets and now, in the final week of Autumn, we have put in the final piece of our "new" kitchen!

This bookshelf (made from scratch using mostly offcuts) sits in next to our oven, right behind my seat at the island bench.  It has ample room for my cookbooks, gardening books and the pile of scribbled and ripped from magazine recipes and is in just the right spot for moments taken with a cuppa to browse the books.  It also give valuable space next to the stove to put things.

I'm so proud of our kitchen.  Not only does it look and feel fabulous, but we made it!  We did nearly everything ourselves and were able to do it on a minimal budget and include a lot of recycled items in the design.

We also did it all in our designated time, actually finished it and barely argued all the way through the project! :)  I can genuinely say I loved working as a family on this project and the finished room truly feels like it is ours and is so peaceful and warm.

Now onto the next project......

Introducing the Wrights

Hello - we're the Wright family!

My name is Tracey and I've been toying with the idea of writing a blog for a while now and today seemed like the perfect day to take the plunge.  I'm planning to write about our varied life which includes kids, pets, homemaking, belly dance, being "green", gardening, crafting,  renovating, travelling and much more! 

There is so much to write, but today I'll start with the intros......

This is me - at work!  I'm a belly dancer and a belly dance teacher, and I often smile to myself to think that I get to do this for a living - pretty costumes, music and FUN!  Love it....

These three are the loves of my life.....

In the middle is my hubby of 10 years - Stu and on either side, our most amazing creations - Lachie and Jamie who are currently 7 years old.

We all live in a little house in country Victoria, Australia with our 2 dogs, 3 cats and several chooks.

Stu goes off to work in the day, the boys go off to school and I stay at home (most of the time) keeping house, cooking, crafting, gardening and preparing for my dance work.

I don't know who'll read this blog, but I'm looking forward to sharing our lives and adventures.  Please say "Hi!" if you stop by so I know you're out there :)