Not all writers’ stories start from inspiration, but a story can seemingly write itself when inspiration strikes. That’s exactly what happened to me in spring 2010.

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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 into the soil to pull out weeds and straggly plants, I found many golf balls, which wasn’t unusual because our home backed onto a golf course.

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

Clearing the overgrown bed was hard and took several days, but my reward was watching a more tailored landscape take shape. 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 began digging a bigger hole, which exposed metal beneath the soil. I continued digging until I uncovered an old iron seven-nail horseshoe.

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

I loved this side of the yard because 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 regarded as a dwelling place and a portal to the real fairy realm.

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

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

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