The guinea hens decided to fly 40 feet up into the trees and yell at us.

And HeyZeus and The Ladies ventured out to get some sun.

(Last year Brian and I built a raised bed strawberry patch here because it gets perfect sun and the garage acts as a berm against the wind. Perfect for strawberries… and cold birds that like to dig into the dirt and bury themselves. Oh well. Store bought strawberries again this year.)

Parker and I decided to take a walk and investigate tracks in the snow.

Rabbit tracks?

Around the tree line of our property is a steady stream of tracks. Deer and coyote blaze a trail that weaves through the decrepit trees, but stays carefully beyond the boundaries of what would be too close to us (and our dog). Looking at these tracks made these creatures more real to me somehow. I know that these animals are out there. I’ve seen them from time to time in broad daylight. But seeing tracks in the snow, tracks worn into paths, reminds me that they live here and that there is a world within my world that I have no sense of. Or had no sense of… that is, until now.

Ever since leaving the city, I feel that I am waking up to more of the life that is going on around me. Things that were a part of me as a child, but as I grew older, I paid less attention to or determined that they were childish and did not matter. Like animals that wander at night outside of my windows.

Here is are the tracks of a brazen coyote as he crosses the open field into our driveway:

If you’ve spent any time at The Accidental Farm, it is not long before you are introduced to the many strange characters that live amongst us: guinea fowl, Polish hens, a peacock … and the hidden folk. You can’t possibly live in the company of 3 little girls and not believe that fairies, elves, nymphs, sprites and other entities are a part of our farm.

My daughter told me the other day, as we were reading through Faeries by Brian Froud, that she did not believe in spriggans (devilish little thieves that steal children and blight crops) because she has never seen one. I asked her if she believed in fairies and mermaids and I received an emphatic, “Yes! I’ve seen THEM!”

I’ve never seen a Spriggan or a mermaid… at least that I can remember. I did see something tiny and white fly out of a tree last spring while walking with my brother and he insists that it is a tree seed that looks exactly like a fairy but can never remember (or find) the name of the seed or the tree.

I think about what it is like to be my daughter and believe with all of my heart in a world that most people cannot fathom. I wonder if she realizes that most of the grown ups she talks to don’t see what she sees and wish that they could believe as she believes. What exactly is *REAL* when you are five years old? What exactly is *REAL* when you are almost 38?

I’ve only ever seen pictures of the Dalai Lama in books and on T.V., but I’m pretty sure that he’s real.

Tags: Family, Peacock, Winter