MAGIC
Magic Should Be Understated, Not Headlined
October Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Site or Sight”
Flamboyant magic is just not convincing.
The site of a tree house is intrinsically magic and should provide a sight associated with play, adventure, exploration, and a connection to the natural world. Treehouse history is littered with stories of every colour, from macabre to delightful. Everyone at some time seems to want a tree house, even those who have palaces and castles to call their own.
Unhinged madman, the Roman Emperor Caligula, is said to have built a tree house that could accommodate the paraphernalia and servants to hold a banquet for up to 15 guests.
Queen Elizabeth II was staying in Treetops Hotel in Kenya when her father King George VI died. One of their companions on the trip wrote in the Treetops guestbook that she had:
… climbed into a tree one day a Princess and … climbed down the next day a Queen …
Our tree house is not as palatial as either a Roman Emperor’s or a modern monarch’s; and although a tree house photograph should capture an element of magic, the picture above overdoes things. Not only is there a pheasant perched in full view on top of a hedge — and when does that ever happen when I have a camera handy? — there is also an ornate lantern mid-shot. Such a lantern would not have been out of place in Caligula’s eyrie, but our tree house has no source of lighting bar the sun and the moon. It is of course, a reflection. Magic should be understated, not headlined.
Thanks to Sandi Parsons for the Sight or Site challenge:
For more magic go to Mary Chang Story Writer, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Ellie Jacobson, Dunelair, Dennett, pockett dessert, Susan Alison, Kris Bedenian, Kim Zuch, Jennifer Pierce, Stuart Aken, Linda Acaster, Pene Hodge, Will Hull, Nicole Anders, Danielle Hestand, Diana Lotti, Madeleine McDonald, CARMEN F MICSA, Sandi Parsons, Jason Edmunds, Shereen Bingham, B.R. Shenoy.