Donna Marie @ Mrs. Padilly's Garden

Not all writers’ stories start from inspiration, but a story can seemingly write itself when inspiration strikes. This is precisely what happened to me in the Spring of 2010.

It was a sunny spring day, and I was digging in the overgrown azalea bed at the back of our new home. As I dug deep into the soil to pull out weeds and straggly plants, I found many golf balls, which was not unusual since our home backed to a golf course.

This old photo below is from 2010 and shows the azaleas in full bloom. You might wonder why I even wanted to clear the bed out, but the area to the right is full of old yaupons strangling out the azaleas and, worse yet, poison ivy.

Clearing the overgrown bed was hard and took several days, but my reward was slowly seeing a more tailored landscape. Then something truly amazing happened. As I shoved my trowel deep into the newly exposed soil, it hit something so hard that I knew it couldn’t be another tree root.

Excited, I eagerly began to dig a bigger hole, which exposed metal beneath the soil. So I continued digging until I revealed an old iron seven-nail horseshoe.

But where would I place it? I immediately thought of the old oak tree on the other side of our yard.

I loved this side of the yard, as it was neatly manicured. The oak was trimmed with river rocks and a ring of deep green mondo grass. Its large trunk was the perfect size and scale for my little horseshoe.

So, I placed my horseshoe at the tree’s base, oblivious to folklore that oak trees are often seen as a dwelling place and portal to the real fairy realm.

Exhausted, I went to bed before the sun set that evening. After the sun had set, a slight yellow glow appeared from the horseshoe’s center; Mrs. Padilly had a new neighbor.

Mrs. Padilly’s Garden Poem was inspired by the horseshoe and the old oak tree. It’s the first book in series of three, and introduces young readers to her magical world.

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