Storytelling for Midsummer Magic

     Saturday, June 26, would have been my and Rocky's 34th wedding anniversary. I knew it would be an emotional day for me, so I asked my granddaughter to come be with me. I had planned to take her to dinner, but better yet we were invited to a storytelling party in Jonesborough. 

     One of my new friends, Pam Miller, had been celebrating Mid-Summers Night on the closest June Saturday for the past few years in which her visitors would read from Shakespeare's Mid-Summer Night's Dream in Pam's backyard garden. This year she decided to switch it to a storytelling event and asked tellers to choose something appropriate to fairies or nature or fairytales. I was one of the tellers as was my friends, Molly Catron, and Linda Poland, and a couple new folks I had not met before.

This is Pam Miller, Hostess

     I was dependent on my iPhone for pictures because I couldn't find my Canon before I left the house. So I did not get pictures of Pam's charming "Fairy Tale Cottage." So I'll describe what I could see of it because the living room was full of people on folding chairs mixed in with antique furniture Pam has been collecting for years. First her front porch was hung with buntings of white gauzy muslin and mini lights. The winding path to the cottage which is well set back from the Main Street of Jonesborough was lined with solar lights which her family had brought to her for their annual summer visit. The feel of the living room was light and airy with crystal chandelier pulls, cut-glass lamps, white walls, white curtains edged with cutwork, a white brick fireplace with a mantel holding numerous glass candlesticks with lit white candles. Red and white wine was served in old American glass footed tumblers. The dining room table held snack foods, drinks, and light desserts. Books of fairytales were abundant lying on the sofa table, desk, and coffee table.

This is my close friend, Molly Catron. Molly is serving the wine here, not chugging it down!

     As soon as Jessica and I entered, we were crowned with a tiara wreath of lavender, so that delicious fragrance delighted us for the rest of the evening. My wreath now hangs on the cupboard in my private bathroom and should stay freshly aromatic for the rest of the summer.

Jessica; it's dark but hopefully you can see the wreath of lavender on her head.

      I knew what story I wanted to tell as soon as I got the invitation which was my version of an old traditional tale that I call "Moon Woman." Then I found out that serendipitously there would be a full moon. Jessica and I stayed up way too late basking in the moonlight while sitting on my bedroom deck and snapping pictures of the moon as it progressed across the sky. It was a clear night but about 2:00 a.m. as I had gotten my nightgown on and came to look out the window one more time, it had clouded up so out came the camera again.  I have published a slideshow in the sidebar of photos I took of the moon after Jessica and I got home. Be sure and look.