PERU — “Look high, look low, look far and look near,” Mary Pulsifer tells those who visit the Fairy Walk on her one-eighth of a mile wooded trail on Pulsifer Road.
She encourages visitors to look around because she doesn’t want them to miss any of the interesting decorations around them.
Along the trail are over 200 houses that fairies may visit and sometimes sleep in, especially when a child places one of the red stones provided at the walk’s entryway on or near the small dwellings, Pulsifer said. Bushes and tree branches are decorated with items such as a tiny stuffed bird in a cage or bright blue flowers strung from tree to tree.
“Here’s a cute (house),” Pulsifer said on the trail Monday. “It’s made with all natural things and pine cones.”
Pulsifer said it’s fun to see what others have added.
“That’s a cute one — they just used Solo cups,” she said about a fairy house a child created.
Pulsifer gets most of her decorations for the houses at discount stores or people drop them off to her.
Many of the houses were built by Nancy Demings of Rumford and others were made by children who bring them on the walk.
“I give (Demings) things to use and I think, ‘I wonder what she’s gonna do with this,’” she said.
This summer, Pulsifer has had over 750 people visiting her Fairy Walk. Visitors have come from 53 Maine towns, 24 states, and three foreign countries.
One new addition this year was a church made by Dixfield residents and their Canadian relatives. Each family member carried a piece of the church or decorations for it and they all set it up together.
“The church was built in Dixfield and the Canadians took it back home and decorated it and then they brought it back and there were five generations who put it out,” Pulsifer said.
Pulsifer thinks that building fairy houses at home can be a good project for kids who may be getting bored and restless before school starts.
“This is an adventure they can take and it gives them something to do,” she said. “It gets them out, it gets them thinking and away from their hand-held games.”
Pulsifer got her idea to create a Fairy Walk seven years ago when she visited the Botanical Gardens in Boothbay during its Fairy Weekend. Following her visit, she asked Demings to start building houses, and she had 40 ready within a month.
Another source of inspiration for the Fairy Walk was the children’s book, “Miss Rumphious” by Barbara Cooney. The book encourages people to find ways to make the world a more beautiful place, which Pulsifer did in her backyard.
The Fairy Walk is open from Memorial Day to just after Labor Day from dawn to dusk. For more information about the walk, visit The Fairy Walk at Worthley Pond Facebook page.
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Bayne Beardsley, 1, of Dixfield visits the Fairy Walk in Peru on Monday with Jen Gray’s Day Care in Dixfield.
Ava and Andrea Polenske of Peru admire one of the fairy houses at Mary Pulsifer’s Fairy Walk at 40 Pulsifer Road in Peru. The sisters were visiting with their day care group Monday. The walk is free and open from dawn to dusk from Memorial Day to just after Labor Day.
Mary Pulsifer, owner of the Fairy Walk at 40 Pulsifer Road in Peru, cleans one of this summer’s new fairy houses. A Dixfield family and their Canadian relatives created the house. The walk is free to the public and is open from dawn to dusk from Memorial Day to just after Labor Day.
Mary Pulsifer, owner of the Fairy Walk at 40 Pulsifer Road in Peru, adjusts a fairy house she created in honor of child cancer survivor Hailey Steward of Bethel. Pulsifer said Steward’s family is planning a “Go Gold” event Sept. 2 to raise money for other families with children undergoing cancer treatments.
Bayne Beardsley, 1, of Dixfield opens a fairy house in a jar at the Fairy Walk at 40 Pulsifer Road in Peru on Monday. The walk is free and open to the public from Memorial Day to just after Labor Day.
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