How faerie trails are bringing tiny magic to a N.S. town

People that live in this town, we really do believe that this is a magical place. There's something very special about Mahone Bay. I know many people come here and they think it's beautiful and it's gorgeous and they say things to us like it's magical, but they don't really realize why it's so magical. It's magical because the town of Mahone Bay has fairies. Hello my name is Kate Cox and I'm one of the volunteers that formed the Fairy Trails of Mahone Bay. So you'll find the fairy houses are tucked away underneath trees, beside rocks, next to streams. We wanted people to come and look for them. Never did we ever imagine that we would end up with fairy houses almost everywhere in the town of Mahone Bay. We created three very distinctive trails. One of them is called the Maggie Maggie River Trail because it goes along the side of the Maggie Maggie River. The second one is called the Secret Gardens Trail and you enter into the Secret Gardens Trail through the foundation of an old house where the fairies have set up their homes and then the newest and most recent trail The only trail that we created was the merrymaking trail, and this is because fairies like to party. And they like to do fun things. They do like to do a lot more than just garden. They do like to have parties. When I was a child, I remember spending a tremendous amount of time outside. And so I was encouraged. To look for fairies in our gardens and look for signs of fairies and spend time outside. What has brought us more joy than anything else is seeing the children on these fairy trails with no screens, no phones, nothing except their imaginations running from one little fairy house to another looking for these small creatures and watching it stimulate their imagination. We actually have a fairy workshop. Most of the fairy houses all have a story behind them. We wanted these to be made out of natural, as natural materials as we possibly could. And one of our most favorite materials that we use is moss. It has become a catch line with the fairy houses. When in doubt, add moss. And suddenly you take something that was an old, useless wooden box and you've turned it into a home that fairies live in. Sometimes with a chimney and a fireplace too. One of the things we noticed were the number of children that would start coming through the fairy trails dressed up in fairy costumes. I mean the true believer when you go out in public and you're dressed up in fairy costume complete with the wings. Children really bought into this whole concept of the fairies and your imagination and being able to believe in something that you can't actually see. Why wouldn't you believe in a fairy? I mean fairies are very special and they can do all sorts of wonderful things for you if you believe. We saw a little girl going through the fairy trails and she was carrying a glass jar with her. I overheard her telling her mother that she brought the glass jar with her just in case she found a fairy so she'd be able to take the fairy home with her. Look at the imagination that's taken. That child has thought a lot about this beforehand. She dressed up for it, she got the jar, she had everything in mind and she was going around the trail to see if she couldn't find a fairy. On the Maggie Maggie River Trail, there is a wish processing center. Because I'm not sure if you know this or not, but fairies are magical and they can grant wishes. We help the fairies process those wishes because fairies can grant wishes. It just takes, sometimes some wishes are harder than others, and it takes longer. We were amazed at the requests, the types of wishes that were being asked for, and not just by children. These were wishes that were being asked for by adults. And the common theme in all of them were people were wishing for happiness for their family. They were wishing for love. They were wishing for safety, security. They were wishing for wellness. They were not wishing for material things. And we found those incredibly, incredibly moving and very emotional, some of them, when we read them. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that these little tiny fairy houses would have such an impact on the town and on the people that come to visit them. But it's obvious if you spend any time on this trail you can see the joy in the faces of the people that are walking around in it because it has absolutely no connection with reality at all. It reminds them of the wonder that exists all around them and they learn to see that again and I think it's a very healthy way for us to disconnect from reality at least for a short period of time. Oh if you feel like you've lost touch with a sense of magic that was once in your life oh it's very simple you just need to go outside and sit very quietly you will see it like the branches on the tree behind you right now they're blowing in the breeze that could very easily be fairies. You hear a bell tinkling, that may be fairies getting their wings. The wonder is there around us. There are insects, there are birds, there's a whole other world out there that we live in, that we're part of, but sometimes we're way too busy and not looking carefully enough in order to see it. Just step outside.