Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Fairy Garden

Looking For Spring?

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So this was the scene outside my office window after midnight last week. I looked out at 11:44 p.m. and nothing on the ground. At 12:30 a.m. this is what I saw.  Sneak attack snow storm! The third or fourth of the week.

by Kimberly A. Cook

That makes two of us. We had rolling snow storms last week, the arctic equivalent of the movie “Ground Hog Day.” The daffodils were not prepared and tried to go back in the ground. Didn’t work.

I ended up doing combat grocery shopping last Tuesday during the morning snow storm to avoid going out in the afternoon snow storm. When the snow shows up in Oregon, we go to the store and stock up, on donuts. Those shelves were stripped bare. Not a Ho Ho in sight.

And now I am two days into Olympics withdrawal. I suddenly have all this time on my hands. Except I do have a bunch of Hallmark movies on my DVR again after the Olympics. Spring better come soon or I won’t be able to get out of the LaZBoy.

But I have been able to do a ton of reading and writing. How fun. Nothing like being trapped by a snow storm to give you the excuse to read. And munch donuts. I did not buy donuts. I bought Marion berry pie. The cookies were a gift, so I’m not responsible.

Did slog out in one of the snow storms to buy more Fairy Rock Garden accessories. It was a fifty percent off sale and I had an additional twenty percent off coupon. Almost free! I drive a Subaru because I have to get to fairy garden equipment sales in snow storms. Makes complete sense to me. Fewer pesky shoppers in my way too.

Fairy Rock Garden bling makes me happy. Planning for warm weather activities makes me happy. Spring will come again!

Got Spring goals?

Have You Spit On Rocks Today?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                     (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Distracted easily, that’s me. Finally had a day of sun last Friday and I could hardly make up my mind what to do first. I avoided all the things I “should” do and bolted into the backyard to assess fairy house door construction.

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Love this solar powered fairy door. When you open the door a staircase shows up, but alas, too tall.

The Douglas Fir stump in the middle of the Fairy Rock Garden is going to become a house. With this in mind I have already cut up one of the leftover cedar fence boards for a roof.

Assembly challenges exist on that since I can’t figure out how to nail the pieces together, even with a vice. Think glue first, then nails.

Have been able to de-cone several pine cones to get the shakes ready for the roof, but I digress. Last year I bought a variety of fairy house doors and now was the first opportunity to go outside without a scuba suit on for more than ten minutes and play.

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Very cute Easter Bunny themed door, but would not allow for roof overhang. Don’t think I need to do gutters. We shall see.

Gathered the fairy house door booty and headed out. Tried several different doors and the size problem appeared. Too small or too big. The Goldilocks issue. When I finally figured out the little door with the Welcome sign on it would work the best, I noticed a shiny pretty rock in the special lake rocks.

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Perfect! Even comes with flowers and a window frame. Now have to figure out the entire glue attach thing.

This is how it starts. For us born rock hounds, it was a simple pick up of one rock. That is never enough. Before I knew it I was matching rocks for earring sets. Like when am I going to get my butt in gear to do that?

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A girl and her bucket of rocks. Life is good.

Never stopped me before, so on I gathered. Ended up using one of the large fairy house doors as a tray. When I had trouble finding exact matches I hauled out the kitty litter plastic bucket still  half-full of leftover rocks. There is another full container since I obviously didn’t know how many rocks I would need. Backup rocks.

While I sat in the sun hunched over the plastic bucket, happiness ensued. One challenge was the lake rocks had been out all winter and were completely rinsed off, not so the ones in the bucket. Dust on these, so this required some spitting to get the true color on some rock specimens.

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Little rock couples, how cute.  Except for one at the top. And before I tripped. But I have the photo.

 

When I finally stopped since the tray was full, it worked well until I tripped on getting up and launched three of the rocks into oblivion, never to be recovered.  Sigh. When baby rocks fall into other rocks and on a cement walkway studded with rocks, forgetaboutit. I did a scan, nada.

Pretty proud of myself I only lost three of the rocks, though. Can use the others as pendants. You betcha.

If you’ve got a rock hound in your family, we’ve got Mother’s and Father’s Day coming up. Go to a local landscape rock place, find the “specialty” rocks and buy a couple pounds. Perfect!

Got rock stories?

Big Bark, Fairies And Spring?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                         (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Last Saturday at my fiction critique group, my author buddy Cindy Hiday surprised me with a gift. When I unwrapped the item, it was a humongo piece of bark. Score! She felt it might be perfect for the Fairy Rock Garden. It fell off firewood she and her Air Force veteran hubby were unloading.

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What a beautiful bark piece. It’s drying out in the front foyer, watched over by garden bunny. This may become a fairy diorama… 

 

Cindy’s husband joked if she needed any bark. “Yes, for Kim,” she replied. He’s learned just to go with it when these events happen and my name comes up. Very smart man.

Another writer in our group puzzled by the bark present wanted me to explain my Fairy Rock Garden. Most Fairy Gardens are little scenes in the garden with plants and mini-furniture and houses in pots or tucked under trees.

In my case, I decided to make a Fairy Rock Garden so I don’t have to deal with the plants either. I have the start of an entire development; more rocks, less plants to water. My fascination with Fairy Gardens started while attending Camp Fire summer day camp at Camp Nadaka.

We split nut shells to make fairy bowls and put them on top of tiny wood tables we made in the forest. That’s all it took for my imagination to take flight. Also explains why “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is my favorite Shakespeare play; fairies rule.

On the way home from our fiction critique group, I stopped at Joann Fabrics to pick up some bead craft containers. When I walked in the door, this is what I saw to my right.

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Flipping Fairy Garden gear everywhere! On sale too!

 

I almost screamed. Fairy Garden booty as far as the eye could see. I immediately began taking photos. The thirty percent off tags were very tempting, but I only bought two things. Think I was so overwhelmed with joy I couldn’t shop. Hard to believe, but true.

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You can get apple houses.

 

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Or stone and moss houses.

 

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Or lawn swings and camp fires and Welcome doors.

 

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Or a chicken coop. They even have rabbit hutches.

 

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I had to buy the Fairies Welcome sign on the left. Then I purchased a little round wood table with cookies on a platter and a pink tea pot. Priceless.

 

If you want to get some Bloom Room Littles, then Joann Fabrics is the place to go. But not before I get back to clear out some fairy garden stock. I have coupons for Thursday. Good thing I’ve got a Subaru Forester for hauling.

Got Fairy Garden furniture and accessories? Let’s all get ready to play in the dirt!

 

P.S. Checked online and the Camp Fire Organization sold the former Camp Nadaka in 1995 to the city of Gresham, Oregon. It is now the Nadaka Nature Park, 10-acres of natural area and a 2-acre neighborhood park on the former Nelson property.

Check out these clean-up and construction pictures which just happen to show some big fairy houses. Told ya!     http://friendsofnadaka.org/photos/

Rolling Rocks In The Garden?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                  (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Back to the rocks! This past weekend I finally got to put rocks in the Fairy Rock Garden. This might seem pretty straightforward, but in the end I needed three different types of rocks. So far.

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Bags all lined up like soldiers. That was as far as I was going to haul them. 

 

First choice was to use white rocks. Researched them at Home Depot and did not like the look. Shopped online and found a landscape company close by with rocks to be used in fish aquariums. Got a five-gallon bucket of those. They are so pretty I want to use them for jewelry.

Decided the aquarium rocks would be used to simulate a pond and then I would go with decorative river pebbles. When I bought the six bags of river pebbles, the pond pebbles looked nice too. Bought two of those bags.

There was not one place on those rock bags that said how much they weighed, but I knew it was more than thirty pounds of kitty litter. Used my Air Force Reserve flight gloves, since the nomex with leather grips really help grab plastic bags. Full of rocks. Wet rocks.

Thursday loaded the rock bags from Home Depot into Subie. Friday unloaded the rocks from Subie to the garden. Saturday I decided it was not rock moving day.

Sunday it was time. The rocks spread pretty well but I almost forgot about the aquarium rocks, but I remembered in time to make the rock pond.

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Get your freshly washed rocks! See the agate aquarium rocks for the rock pond?

 

They were drying out and looking dirty, so then I had to wash my rocks. About this time I figured I was doing play therapy and I could not have been happier. Whatever floats our boats!

Even found the piece of black obsidian Mom brought over from her yard and gave it a good scrubbing and added it to the landscape. Then I started moving things around. HGTV in the rock garden!

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Pretty rocks in my own rock garden. Fabulous.

 

Then I began finding fun rocks in the Fairy Rock Garden. Started pilfering my own pebbles. Once a rock hound, always a rock hound. Still have a bucket of aquarium rocks left too. Priceless!

Then my new Fairy Houses 2017 Calendar by Sally J. Smith arrived. The pictures are what dreams are made of and where fairies truly live. There is a Fairy Garden industry!

But now I have to order the doors for the Fairy Houses, get ready to put a roof on the stump with pine cone pieces and unleash the hot glue gun. Plus move the elves in to guard the perimeter.

It’s not easy being a Fairy Rock Garden developer, but I’m having a blast.

Whatever play therapy works for you, have fun!

 

 

 

 

Who Is Building A Fairy Rock Garden?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                               (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

I am! It decided last Fall while looking at the tired corner of my backyard that’s overgrown with raspberries who refuse to grow in pots. Plus other cast off pots with blackberries. And the dumping area I use for my old potting soil; aka my backyard fence corner.

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The before mess in the corner.

 

I’m getting lazy and want more time to enjoy the patio and potted flowers instead of weeding all the time. On our trip to the Richardson Rock Ranch last Fall I even brought back a good selection of Rose Quartz for the Fairy Rock Garden. But it appears you actually have to take action to make this kind of thing happen.

So on Saturday of the long weekend it was time to charge the backyard mess and go for it. The ugly before picture a case in point above. I moved aside all the pots which will be downsized and then replanted The Fairy rose from a small pot to a bigger pot then moved/dragged it to a better position. The rose had a dirt and root clump the size of Nebraska. That was an interesting exercise in gymnastics, let me tell you.

Next up was weeding and considering the lay of the land. My hairdresser and I discussed using a raised bed on Friday for the garden. Figured I would need to level out the ground, which sounded like work. Went online for some ideas Friday night and got distracted on Pinterest. Found out there is quite the Fairy Garden underground, which was good for ideas.

While putting down the landscape fabric on Saturday afternoon, it dawned on me I could use some of the ideas from Pinterest and keep the lump of potting soil. Yeah! It would be the hill of my Fair Rock Garden with a Fairy home on it plus no digging dirt. Brilliant.

My goal is to use stuff/things I have and repurpose them. The stump in the middle of the Fairy Rock Garden will get a roof from my former cedar fence boards. I might even put roof shakes on from the pine comes left from the holiday wreaths.

Then I remembered my neighbor had given me a bunch of clay pots and those would make perfect Fairy Houses. (See Pinterest for rock, glue and Fairy house door construction on clay pots) Another old garden pot is the perfect shape of a large bee hive and I can spray paint it yellow. It appears I’ve become a Fairy Rock Garden real estate developer. Perhaps I do need another vacation, but I’m having fun!

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The Fairy Rock Garden development construction site in progress. Now to get white rock, 

 

I’ve made good progress but ran into trouble since I decided to go with white rock instead of river rock. Doing the rock math I need about a half yard. It comes in 50 pound bags at Home Depot. Good gravy, I have enough trouble hefting the 30 pound kitty litter bags. I need about thirteen bags! Nobody’s gym workout is that good. Must see about delivery……

Stay tuned for updates. Guaranteed this project will take years. Have you built a Fairy Garden?