erin

flax-golden tales: an entreaty before departure

delight

an entreaty before departure

It is almost time to go.

Someday is, in fact, today.

Time for departures and changes and brave new worlds.

New sights and new sounds, new dreams and new shoes.

Write yourself a note, to remember who you are.

(It’s an easier thing to forget than you’d imagine.)

Put your tray table in whatever position suits your fancy.

Make sure you know where your towel is.

Hold your breath, make a wish, and off you go.

In search of elusive delights.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

By erin, ago

flax-golden tales: bargaining with space and time

bargaining with space and time

bargaining with space and time

They make promises to themselves and to the universe and in that moment they believe they got the better of the bargain, they believe that everything is forever and infinite.

Later, much later, they will realize their mistake.

Nothing lasts forever.

Promises regarding space and time disintegrate like paper in the rain.

When they finally feel their space and time slipping through their fingers they stop winding their watches and they unplug their clocks. As though the disruption of electricity could halt time forever at six minutes past eleven.

They fret over the things they had meant to do instead of moving forward.

They mourn what’s been lost instead of celebrating what’s still to come.

Instead of reveling in all that is available to them.

And space and time sigh and laugh and continue dancing into the future.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

By erin, ago

belated cocktails

I mentioned that I would share the Game of Thrones season finale cocktails if they came out well and they did but then I forgot! Oops.

got cocktailsI decide beforehand to do one fire-themed cocktail and one ice-themed cocktail. Originally the ice one was going to involve sparkling wine but after spending the day making lemon cakes and lamb stew I wanted something lighter.

The fire cocktail is basically a cinnamon whiskey sour. It is approximately equal parts fresh lemon juice, Bärenjäger honey liqueur & Early Times Fire Eater hot cinnamon flavored whiskey (which comes in a fabulously circusy bottle) shaken over ice & served up. This came out rather splendidly, the whiskey really does have that hot cinnamon kick to it which seemed appropriately fire-themed even though the drink itself was cold.

The ice cocktail is vodka (distilled from honey!) with a splash of creme de violette topped with sparkling water & served, of course, over ice. I was going to use my giant round ice molds but I forgot to fill them. This one turned out a beautiful clear lavender color that doesn’t quite come across in the photo.

I am thinking I will make this a Game of Thrones tradition and make different fire&ice cocktails for next season’s premiere, too.

 

By erin, ago

flax-golden tales: tiny helpful birds

tiny helpful birds

tiny helpful birds

The Helpful Birds are small and black
But some of them wear splashes of color
And all of them are somewhat fluffy.

Often only one of them will show up
But they will be there when you need them.

If you have a lock in need of picking or a lost item stuck on a high branch
Or if you simply feel the need to listen to a little song
They will be happy to help you or to sing for you.

And if you are lost at sea
They will help you build your boat.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

By erin, ago

an announcement regarding flax-golden tales

I started writing flax-golden tales in the summer of 2009 because this blog was newish and I wanted it to look like I was a proper writer who wrote things.

I wanted to do something inspired by Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

My wonderful friend Carey Farrell was kind enough to let me use her photographs.

I restricted each tale to ten sentences (though sometimes I was not terribly strict about what constituted a sentence) and posted them here each Friday.

And now, five years and more than 250 stories later, I’m stopping.

There are four stories left.

Tale #261 will be posted on July 11th, 2014. (Tale #1 was posted July 10th, 2009.)

They have been a five-year-long birthday present to myself and they have followed me through a more extraordinary time than I ever thought possible.

But now it’s time to let them go.

I’ve been asked many times if they will be collected into a book and the answer at this point is maybe someday, there are no set publication plans. (Any possible future book version would likely include new tales as well, because I think that would be fun.)

My eternal gratitude & appreciation to Carey, and thank you to everyone for reading along on this journey.

flax-golden-title-card

By erin, ago