A Pea By Any Other Name

Let's back up to when I brought Pea home last month.  Our first few days together were... interesting, to say the least.  Her presence in our home took some adjusting on everyone's part because I knew nothing about fairies and she knew nothing about living in a house with humans!  The fact that she could not appear to speak only complicated things --for instance, I had no idea what her name was-- but her inherent sweetness and lighthearted disposition made her a joy to be around.  I couldn't help but be taken with her.

During this time we had all kinds of amusing (and some not so amusing) adventures, but my main concern was simple: what did she eat?!  I could only assume she needed food since all living creatures need food of some sort, and I caught her munching on inedible things like a marble and a green marker.  I'm pretty sure I heard her tummy growl a couple of times as well.  But whenever I offered her food, Pea just looked at me quizzically.  After a few days of this, I was at my wits end and presented her with tiny pine cones and some rocks just in case fairies eat those things, but all she did was play with them.

On the fourth morning, it finally occurred to me that maybe I should just let her go outside and see if she could find something that appealed to her apparently very discerning palate.  I have a little vegetable garden and while I had offered her veggies from it already, maybe she knew something that I didn't.

So, out we went.  I carried her outside and set her down in the grass after making sure there weren't any cats or other predators lurking nearby.  When her feet touched the ground, she shrieked with joy and skipped around looking at things for a little while.  After a few minutes, I got her attention and pointed to the vegetables growing in containers.  She went from container to container, apparently looking for something.  When she got to the last one, her eyes scanned over the different veggies growing there, then went wide when she saw what she was apparently looking for: PEAS!  Two varieties even.  Before I knew it, she was clambering up one of the plants:

 

And attached herself to one of the pea pods:

 

I don't know who was more excited, her or me!  Finally, something she would eat!

After hugging the pea pod for a few seconds, she sank down into the crook of two stems with a contented sigh:

"Do you like to eat peas?" I asked excitedly.

She looked at me and nodded vigorously.  Relief washed over me.  Finally, something she would eat!  I wouldn't be responsible for the starvation of a fairy after all.  Then, to my surprise, she pointed to herself with one hand and to a nearby pea pod with the other:



"You like to eat peas, right?"

She nodded, and kept pointing.

"They're your favorite food?"

She giggled, and pointed more urgently, this time alternating between pointing at herself and the pea.

"You are a pea?"

She nodded triumphantly and burst into another fit of giggles:

 

Whaaaat?  I thought.  She is a pea?  That didn't make sense...

"Your NAME is Pea?"

The giggles transformed into a deep belly laugh, which was still pretty dainty since it came from a fairy.  How wonderful to finally know her name!  And what a fitting name for such a sweet, tiny little thing like her.

"Well, nice to finally learn your name, Pea!" I said as I reached out and shook her hand.

With that business taken care of, Pea scampered up the pea plant, pausing at each pea as she looked for just the right one.  She finally made her decision and chomped into one of the pea pods.  While she enjoyed her first meal in days, I picked a couple of peas to take inside for later:

 

Pea wasn't hungry again until that night.  I presented her with the peas I'd picked earlier and showed her how I shell them:



And I just had to find out:

 

Yep, Pea is indeed pea sized!

For the first couple of days after I found out what she likes to eat, she ate two whole pea pods a day, but her appetite has decreased to a more normal (or I think it's normal at least, how would I know?!) level and she eats one little pea each afternoon.  A pea a day for my tiny Pea.  I think we can manage that!

Dolls on Parade

Over the weekend, someone over on the Den of Angels forum had the idea to start a doll parade.  All you have to do to join is take a picture of your doll(s) riding on something, playing music, dancing, doing anything parade-like (clown costume, anyone?) in front of a white background and then add it to the Flickr group.  Our pint size hero, Pea, unfortunately does not have any cute little vehicles or unicycles to ride, but she remembered the dog sled I bought for her to use this winter.  She dragged it out, hitched up the ever agreeable Nutmeg the Bunny, and joined the fun!  You should, too :o)

Finding Pea

To start things off, I would like to share how my little Pea came into my life.

About a month ago, my husband and I were on one of our many visits to the local botanical garden.  The botanical garden is one of my favorite places in our town.  I visited it the very first day I lived here and my husband and I actually got married in this garden.  You can see how beautiful it is:



 

 

We had a picnic lunch and meandered around the garden for some time, then headed back to the car.  As we passed by the giant cabbages, a little something caught my eye:

At first I thought she was a doll, but when I got closer, she winked at me, giggled, and kicked her little feet with happiness!  I had found a tiny fairy, and amazingly enough, she didn't seem to be afraid of me at all:

 

I called my husband over there and we kneeled in front of the cabbage with our mouths hanging open.  As we gawped at her, she sat up and giggled some more:



Can't blame her for laughing as I'm sure we were a sight to see with our eyes bulging out of our heads.  Then she got to her feet and stuck her arms out so I would pick her up:



I of course obeyed, who could resist that face?  She nestled into my palm and hugged my thumb:

Then she pointed to a stand of delphiniums a ways away.  Not knowing what else to do, we walked over and the little fairy started grabbing for one of the plants, so I reached out my hand and she jumped to it before scurrying up to the top with remarkable speed and agility:



She looked around for a few seconds and then gestured to a large raven pillaging the squash plants about 20 yards away.  Her little face screwed up in anguish and she pointed out another raven, and another, then looked up at me with tears in her eyes.  The dark shadow of another raven passed slowly over us and she let out a little shriek of terror before leaping onto me and diving into my hair.  I could feel her trembling as she pressed herself against my neck.  It took my husband and I a couple of minutes to disentangle her because she was very reluctant to leave the safety of my hair, but we got her out eventually.  She sighed heavily, wiped her tears, and sat down on my hand again.

What was this all about?  It was clear that the ravens scared her greatly.  I personally like ravens a lot, but I can see how a large omnivorous bird would be mighty scary to someone as small as her.  But, what did she expect us to do about it?  My husband and I talked this over and then it finally occurred to me that I could just ask her.  It seemed clear by now that she couldn't speak, but did she understand English?

"Are the ravens scaring you?" I asked gently.

She nodded sadly in reply and looked down at the ground.  Okay, good, I thought.  She does know English!

"Do they try to hurt you?"

This time she nodded furiously.

"What can we do to help you?"

At this, she gazed back up at me and the tiniest of smiles came over her face.  She scrambled up to my shoulder, shimmied down my purse strap, and hopped into my purse.

"Do you want us to give you money?" my husband asked, looking bewildered.

"What would she do with money?" I asked him, then turned back to her. "Do you want to come home with us?!

Her face broke into a huge grin and she giggled with joy, then scooched down farther into my bag.

It seemed clear.  She wanted to come home with us.  So, what else was there to do except oblige?

Hello!

Hello and welcome to my blog!  I am an adult but never stopped loving dolls.  In fact, I think I like them even more than I did as a child!  As with all things that I love, I enjoy talking about, writing about, and discussing my dolls, so decided to make a blog just for this purpose.  This blog will mostly be for me and serve as another way to enjoy my dolls, but feel free to poke around and leave friendly comments if you feel so inclined :o)

The dolls you will probably see featured on this blog are my American Girl dolls, Ginger Brook Hollow dolls, My Twinn dolls, ball jointed dolls, and whatever other dolls join the crew along the way.  My entire approach is going to be completely casual and I plan to just write about and share photos of whoever I feel like at the time.  We will see what happens!