I drove out to the farm this week to do a photo shoot for an article on sustainable farming, and took little Strawberry Girl and her best friend along for the ride. As I worked, the girls played with the farmer's tiny daughter and wandered the yard and barn on a lovely summer day.

But at the end of those two hours, as the sun had begun to set and the tractors were gathering up the last bales of hay , the three of us hiked up behind the freshly mown field to hunt for wild orchids. And deep in the tall grasses - in a place anyone might have walked right past - was the bounty of fairies. Wild strawberries!

Farmer Oester swiftly bent down and popped one in his mouth with a contagious grin. "Looky here!"

We picked and tasted, and carried home a copious handful for dinner. 

And the fairies smiled on us.

By the door a black and white towel hangs on a hook. I wipe my hands on it in between stirs as I hover over pots and pans in my sister-in-law's tastefully minimalistic kitchen. She washes  lettuce at my side.

Children banter upstairs while uncles philosophize in the spacious, open-walled living room that looks out on an equally pastoral vista.

The church clock strikes the hour. Off in the distance, down further into the valley, is our house. Little bits of heaven do really exist on earth...