‘We just wanted to make people happy’: Faerie Trails bring joy to Mahone Bay, N.S.

Mahone Bay’s Faerie Garden Trail is proof good things come in small packages.

Magic has increased in Mahone Bay, N.S., thanks to a group of women who wanted to spread some cheer.

“We just wanted to make people happy,” said Kate Cocks, co-founder of the Mahone Bay Faerie Trails.

“Mahone Bay is a magical type of community. There’s something really special about this area, the volunteers that give their time freely and willingly to create festivals like the Scarecrow Festival, the Father Christmas Festival, and there’s so many other volunteer organizations here, that keep the community, a really friendly, warm and welcoming place to live.”

That is the essence of Mahone Bay that Cocks wanted to share with the world when creating the trails.

“We were just overwhelmed. Everybody thought this was just the greatest idea and, encouraged us to forge ahead. So we did.” She laughed.

“It’s a heartwarming thing to come onto the trails and into the gardens and look at the children’s faces as they go through. And they discover the houses, and they look inside, and they see what’s going on, and they talk about the fairies and where the fairies are and where they live and what they’re doing and what they can do.”

Creating a magical land of imagination was the main goal, for those young and old.

“You find them also wandering through and looking at the houses. I think it brings back their childhood memories, just like mine were. My mother, who was Scottish, encouraged me to believe in the fairies and the little people,” explained Cocks.

“And I think this is what happens to adults who step back into their childhood again. For a few hours.”

Something the Mayor of Mahone Bay doubled down on.

“Oh, people are really excited about it. People are glad to see families, children, adults, I mean, adults are enjoying this as much as children,” said Mayor Suzanne Lohnes-Croft. “But it’s really lovely to have, you know, families together going out and you hear the excitement.”

When the women in charge approached the town, it was January, and things were up and running by June.

“I’m a childhood educator, so I really believe in a lot of make believe and play and whatnot for children and using your imagination and creativity,” said Lohnes-Croft. “And these women are, really the, the root of creativity in Mahone Bay.”

Other people thought this was a really wonderful idea and I guess sparked the sense of imagination,” said Cocks of their initial blueprint. “But then I also do believe that if you want to get something done, give it to a woman. If you want to get something done quickly, give it to a busy woman. So, we had five very busy woman.”

Cocks said that her dining room table turned into a faerie creation zone, with an emphasis on the environment for the houses.

“We wanted the houses made from natural materials, recycled materials, repurposed, or reused. So, when you go around, you’ll see a combination of some of them are made entirely out of wood and moss and lichens, others have been made out of old enamel coffee pots that are no longer in use have now been converted into faerie houses,” she laughed.

“That was our goal that they all had to be handmade, that they all had to be made out of, natural reused materials and no plastics involved.”

From the books in the library to the Adirondack chairs, for the public the beauty is in the details of these tiny houses. But for Cocks, the beauty lies in the imagination.

“I was in the garden one day doing some repair work, and a family came through and there was a three-year-old boy there who could not stop looking into one of the houses,” she explained.

“He stopped and asked me questions about the fairies and how were they able to do this and it was so delightful for me to be able to talk to him in this imaginary world, this imaginary world of fairies, where they can do and accomplish anything and to watch this come alive on this child’s face, where he stepped into this area of disbelief or belief and went off into this other world.”

“He continued to walk around the trail in absolute awe of every single little thing he saw.”

With the ban on the woods, Cocks said now was the time some added belief was needed.

“This a difficult time for everybody, which was a big part of the reason why we wanted to do this, because we wanted to create this sense of joy.”

“But if you can step back a few a little bit and look into the eyes of a child, or look into to your own memories, and go back to those days when you when things were just so astoundingly amazing that you have this sense of awe about them and there is a tremendous amount of good in this world.”

Inspiring people to add to the faeries or create their own.

“I made little faerie places in my own yard, and we hope that people will take that upon themselves,” said the mayor. “It’s so simple to just make a little door and fasten it to a tree and put some moss around it and so I’ve had fun with my granddaughters. They like helping me to decorate and take ownership of some fairy houses.”

As for the survival of the faeries, well it looks like they will make it through the winter and beyond.

“The trail is hopefully expanding. There’s sort of like a three-year plan, I think, for them to extend it, extend it to other streets in Mahone Bay as well, so it will become bigger,” said Lohnes-Croft.

That is if the wildlife leaves them alone.

“The people that come through here are very respectful of people’s properties. They’re very respectful of the fairies,” said Cocks. “And it just does nothing but bring happiness. The only difficulty that we’ve had is the with the squirrels. I don’t know why they want to sit on our Adirondack chairs, but they’re too heavy for them and they keep on smashing them.”

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