Midsummer Daydream

Green Midsummer Madness

I walk toward Sunset Ridge Woods busy dreaming while this summer day is busy being beautiful.  Last night I read a fable telling about fairies guarding a forest glen.¹  They punished cutting trees in their creative ways using the imaginations of the trespasser. They were more effective than fines–and swifter. Natural retribution could take years or generations. Those fairies kept the riff-raff in line–if you believed in them.

Today governments take over guarding forest preserves. Perhaps they do permit what some might call over-harvesting where it’s out-of-sight and wild. Like beauty, one guy’s rightful use is another guy’s misuse. Governments keep the opportunists in line–if you believe they can.  I wonder how my mind would survive a trespass on a fairy glen? Maybe they still rule in these subtle ways even without my acknowledgment of their existence. If so, who could stop them?

SOUNDS OF SHRILL TRAFFIC
SUMMER WARMS THIS SUNSET TRAIL
SHELTERED BY STILL TREES

¹“The Man Who Had No Story” in Jane Yolen’s Favorite Folktales From Around the World.

Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday hosted by Grace with prompt “Summer”.
Photo: “Green Midsummer Madness” by the author linked to K’lee and Dale‘s Cosmic Photo Challenge with prompt “midsummer madness”.

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

69 thoughts on “Midsummer Daydream”

    1. I don’t know what they do, but based on that story I was surprised they didn’t actually hurt the trespasser. He never tried to cut wood in that glen again. Thanks, Paul!

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  3. Admiring your opening line prose with: while this summer day is busy being beautiful.

    Fairy glen rules, I say. Love your photo and reading Frank ~

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I would love to be busy in that way… dreaming and being summer. I just hope that we can protect the woods… Here in Sweden we have a right to use all land (private and public) but only in ways that doesn’t cause damage…

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    1. That’s interesting. So trespassing is different there. Here I don’t think I am permitted to walk on private land without special permission. Thanks, Björn!

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  6. There are fairies at Fairy Glen in the Isle of Man, you leave messages for them in the trees, if you want to do right by them and have them do right by you…I always said hallo to them and left a message…why unsettle the equilibrium….?

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  8. I really like your haiku at the end. yes, the fairies I think would do a better job than government because they’re in their element so they know best. They’re also magical which is wondrous! lovely.

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    1. They don’t fine or physically harm trespassers. They just get in your mind and make you never want to trespass again. At least according to that story I recently read. Thanks, Victoria!

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  9. Up here we have Sasquatch to shepherd the deepest forest. He can turn trucks upside down, and make trespassers pee themselves–don’t know if faeries could compete.

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    1. I think you’re right about Sasquatch. He does look like someone who would not tolerate trespassers. Not that I have seen him, but how I’d imagine him to be. Thanks, Glenn!

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    1. I am glad you liked the picture. It was taken almost directly into the sun, which was hidden by the trunk of the tree. I usually pretend to “meditate” when I walk, but I end up daydreaming most of the time. Thank you!

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  11. Fantastic, Frank! I’m rereading a series of books that have quite a few faries, Druids, and other fantastical creatures in it. Got to love the trees… your shot reminds me I’m about due for a walk in the midst of my favorite groves here! Thanks again for adding your voice to our challenge!

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    1. Thanks for the challenge, K’lee! It is good to take walks in the groves every now and then. That folklore book I am reading is full of fantastical creatures. I hope to use some of them in future stories.

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  16. i liked the description of a summer day being busy while you day dreamed. like the day on its own agenda and we tourists in the frame. we believe trees have spirits, well us from the indigenous tribes, and have to seek permission from the spirits before a tree is felled. recent illegal activities in the north east of the peninsula seemed to have brought a curse on the illegal loggers and their families. trees are envious and protective i have been brought to believe. I appreciate the subtle yet powerful words of awareness you have woven delicately in your haibun.

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    1. I do think trees, and plants in general, have intelligence and hence spirits. That may be what these fairies from folklore are. It could be the plants having an affect on our imaginations. Plants do seem to have a peaceful effect upon me when I’m walking even when I’m daydreaming. I enjoy the walk more once I can get off the street and get onto a forest preserve trail. Thanks, Gina!

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      1. I feel the same when I take my walks, like I need to touch the trees and the leaves to know what they are saying. I am so pleased to know you love nature walks too, it’s a different place to be, hiding under a canopy of green. Magical and so calming at the same time.

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  17. We have such dreams in our brief winter. We can’t afford that in summer and even our spring is hot.
    I really love that faerie touch in the prose lines and that sunset trail, sheltered by still trees. Very cool.
    Wonderful reading and photo.

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  19. I love the idea of fairy retribution in the forests, Frank, My husband is about to clear some areas in our garden and my beloved bay tree is going to be removed – it’s too close to the house and looks like it’s causing some damage. I do hope we don’t upset the fairies. I wrote a short story called ‘The Bay Tree’ about it a few years ago, which is based on a similar idea.

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    1. I think I remember something about that bay tree near your house. I have had to remove trees in the past that I regretted doing so, but they were too close to the foundation like yours appears to be. What interested me in the old Irish folktale was the fairy influence was in the person’s imagination or dreams. They did not physically harm the trespasser. I hope things work out for you, Kim, with that bay tree.

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  20. I’m absolutely charmed that you’d daydream about a folktale telling of faeries. I’ve heard tell the Cambridge Dictionary says of faeries: ‘it’s impolite not to believe in them’. I only have a Websters and an Oxford, the latter being rather rude about them! The artist Magdalena Abakanowicz tells a story of a small being she encountered in the forests in Russia. She tells it as the truth.

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    1. That’s is a lovely way to put it: that it is “impolite” not to believe in them! They may well be plant spirits of some sort if they are real and I do think there is a positive influence with walking through the forest preserve. Maybe that’s them? Thank you!

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  24. To believe in fairies is fine and fun as long as one maintains a sense of reality on the side;) Indeed, many countries have this dilemma. I like your title for the haibun and the haiku is splendid.

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    1. I think what people referred to as fairies may have been the plants themselves which one might be able to measure objectively. This of course assumes that plants have this ability. One place I have heard do some experimentation on plant intelligence and communication is HeartMath. I don’t know much about that research. I suspect they don’t talk about this in terms of “fairies”.

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  25. It never fails to amaze me how woods can exist in a city in this country. To walk in a forest path close to where I live is a privilege I am thankful for. It is something that would not happen in my home country where development is the key word. There, nature often gives way to cement structures. Then, as a nod to nature, the builders will carve out a spot for manmade gardens and such. What an irony.

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    1. In northern Illinois, there are a lot of forest preserves as well as a large botanic garden. The botanic garden would be manmade and it is beautiful, but so are the forest preserves. I think it is healthy for residents to have forest land nearby, say within biking distance. Thanks, Imelda!

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  27. I must admit, sometimes when I’m cutting back foliage in our flower garden I have the fleeting thought that I may be disturbing the faeries–but I suppose they find some shelter from the snow. Love the comparison between myth and government oversite. Hmmm.

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    1. I wonder if the plants may have some influence on our ideas of faeries. I’ve come to realize they are more intelligent than I previously thought. I’m glad you liked the contrast of the government with the fable. Thanks, Victoria!

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  29. War of Weeds
    i See Flowers
    Wife
    Sees
    Weeds
    Rules say
    Order i Sing Free
    Frustrated Wife Makes
    Flower Beds WitH Border Bricks..
    Before.. Ugh.. She pulls my Shrubs uP..
    Then tosses My Border Bricks iN A Pile..
    i Say.. oh.. No..
    i mUSt have
    aLL My
    Order then..
    Now i Dance
    And Wife
    BecoMes
    My Gardener..:)

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    1. One probably has to weed the flower garden if one wants a particular kind of flower to prosper. However, I just read something elsewhere saying that the wise man sees dirt, a stone and gold with the same amazement. Thanks, Fred!

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  31. Thank you, Alex. I think a lot of the ease of the site comes from the WordPress theme. I picked a simple one that would be easy to read on a mobile device as well as a computer.

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  33. It is easy. I also blog with others to keep pace and find topics to guide the writing and photography. The blogs I link to in the particular posts and those on the side bars are the ones I pay attention to for inspiration. Thank you for the comment!

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