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‘As a child I often stayed the night on the weekends at my Nan’s house and she would look after us kids after school until our parents finished work. I enjoyed spending time with her, watching old movies, doing crossword puzzles, baking and I especially loved helping her in the garden. Tending the flower beds, watering the plants, digging up potatoes and picking runner beans were some of my favorite allocated jobs to help out. It was always a magical space full of flowers and plants of all kinds and it was a home to lots of insects and birds. The garden wasn’t a huge space, but it felt big and was always full of light, colour and life somehow, no matter the season. Myself, younger brother and cousins spent a lot of time playing there. We even had a club house in the shed, so it was full of fun, laughter and memories. I used to enjoy being out there alone as well, just taking in the sights, smells and I would watch/talk to the insects and birds, in my own world. Hours would go by and I’d only be snapped out of my garden daydream when my Nan called me in for dinner or if it was getting cold or dark. My Nan always had a couple of those reclining sun loungers with cushioned seats in the garden during the summer months. My brother, cousins and I liked to sit on them when we were really small and recline up and down really fast and pretend it was like a ride. We would laugh so loudly playing this until we were told to stop as we’d surely break them. One day when I was about eleven years of age, I was sitting alone in the garden on one of these chairs, enjoying the not long past midday sun. I distinctly remember the garden looked so full of light, and the scent of the flowers was heady and sweet. Butterflies and bumblebees were going about their business, and I remember I was filled with such a sense of pure peace and a lightheaded joy or happiness. I remember closing my eyes, but I know I wasn’t asleep as I could still hear my Nan in the kitchen through the open kitchen door and the bees buzzing about me. I’m not sure how much time passed with me sitting in this state, but eventually I opened my eyes, and I was drawn to go inside. I got up feeling almost dreamy with happiness and peace. I went through the open patio doors and went to sit on the sofa in the living room. I still don’t know why but I sat facing slightly left, looking towards the open patio doors out to the garden. My Nan was still in the kitchen which was just the next room, and I could still hear her pottering about as the door joining the living room and kitchen was open, but I sat silently looking out to the garden. Again, I’m not sure how much time passed but eventually my eye was drawn slightly right of the open patio doors by movement. Suddenly I saw a shadow but solid figure of a male, what I feel best to describe now as a Pixie. Although I could only see him as a shadow figure. He seemed solid and detailed. I saw his outline as clear as day including clothes and limbs even his fingers as he reached for grip as he moved. He had typical pixie pointy/curl-toed shoes and a hat which looked like an upturned bluebell type flower due to the shape and petal points/curls along the rim. He also had these same petal shape points/curls around his neck and wrists which appeared to be like a collar and cuffs. He had no wings but stood about eight to ten inches or so in height, he was of slim build and seemed young or at least youthful. He came in through the open doors with a jump almost floating or gliding in midair in slow motion for a second or so before he then swung down at some speed under the small folding table. This table was just to the right of the open patio doors against the wall and was folded down at the time, so I was clearly able to see him swing under the table and climb over all the folded slats and legs before disappearing out of sight. I watched in amazement, but I wasn’t shocked or afraid. I sat quietly for some time again as reality slowly sank in then I calmly got up to go and tell my Nan I’d just seen a fairy. My Nan said: ‘Oh, aren’t you a lucky girl’. She didn’t seem surprised or bothered at all by what I went on to describe I’d seen and just carried on listening while still pottering around in the kitchen. I do come from a family of Irish descent so the fae have always been present in some way and I’ve always had a strong affinity for them. This was only made stronger after this experience and to this day I get a sense for fairy places. This experience will always stay with me and is as clear in my mind today some twenty odd years later as the day it happened, and I have no doubts it always will. I have no doubts about what I experienced that day. Also remember that feeling of peace, joy and happiness when I recall this event although I’ve never experienced the exact same feeling since.’ ‘Almost typical pixie like. Makes me think of the M.C. Barker flower fairies.’ ‘I was sat alone in my Nan’s back garden, but my Nan was just in the kitchen with the backdoor open so not far away from me at all. I could hear her pottering about, but we didn’t talk through my experience.’ ‘I was connected to the place and had happy memories there. I enjoyed caring for the life there. I feel I was sharing with the energy of the place and the plants etc there’. ‘I feel that you have to be in a zen or energetic state at times for a fairy experience to happen. Maybe they can see or sense a person’s heart/soul/energy and can then appear. Those who can still see we are part of nature and never lose that kind youthful joy for life and childlike wonder for the natural world may be more prone to connecting and seeing.’ Fairies are ‘guardians of nature or like the spirit essence of the natural world’.