Fairy Houses and other things

[olivermoss]

Fairy Houses are the best known Portland quirk, but I have very few pictures of them for a few reasons. They don't really exist in my sector of Portland. Fairy graveyards and gnome houses with working lights, sure, but not fairy houses. They are so ubiquitous in some other parts of Portland that I started mentally filtering them out. Unless the house was really special, like having tiny yard signs, I stopped even noticing them on walks. I am trying to break myself of this. Third, a surprising amount of them are mass produced and my brain automatically discounts anything mass produced on my walks. When you've seen enough you start to recognize them. There is a 'paint with your kids' craft kit door that is super cute and I really should be taking pics of those when I see them.

I've been wanting some fairy door pictures, so I went north to the fairy door region of Portland. And I did have some luck:





Portland has a wide variety of trees, it's one of the city's treasures. I am usually all about protecting the preserving them, but do we really need more of this kind?



There is a heritage trees map somewhere. I once did a walk of the heritage trees, I should do that again.

It's, um, a gnome tree?



Normally I'd pass up the above picture, but eh, I was looking for stuff along those lines. I am picky about what I shoot.







The display in this window changes on a regular basis:



Found another plaster mask, that artist puts up their art in a wider area than I expected:



Aaaaaaand finally a lion with a mask:

Comments

[luthienberen]

Whoa 8 miles! Impressed. I hope you had an excellent rest! Those fairy houses are fun.

That tree tunnel is amazing too.

[olivermoss]

Thanks! I need to hunt for more.

[mistressofmuses]

Very nice!

I'm an utter sucker for fairy houses, but I definitely agree on the unique vs. mass produced. We don't have this kind of art scene here (or at least not in my area; trendier parts of Denver may, in the artsier old neighborhoods). But when I've seen pictures shared of fairy houses, the mass-produced "bought in the miniatures section of Michaels/Hobby Lobby/etc." ones tend to be pretty obvious. I much prefer the unique, more fit to their surroundings ones.

Love that tree arch! And the safety-conscious lion. And the museum window display. (Really all of it.)

Agree that we've got an overabundance of Caucasian Wingnuts throughout most of the country, not just Portland. They're actually an invasive species, and have taken over a lot of nice areas. :( Always sad to see how quickly they can spread.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, the hand made ones are cuter. I am surprised at the plastic crap people put in their yards at time. The weather just eats it.

Caucasion Wingnuts are a terrible and spreading invasive species, far worse than ivy!