The Fantasy Tree

The Fantasy Tree

I sat outside the gazzeria with an ice cream cone filled with delicious dulce de leche ice cream. It was early January and the icy breeze meant that the royal blue knitted scarf and matching gloves I was wearing were definitely needed. I am sure you are wondering what i was doing eating ice cream outside in such cold weather. The sad fact is ice cream is my vice and it just feels a little wrong eating from a cone when indoors. Across the cobbled alley is a small framing shop with corners of frames in, gold, silver, black and varying shades of wood on the walls showing all the wonderful framing options they had to offer. In the window were a few prints which they also also had available for sale. One print in particular caught my eye, It was a beautiful shiny print of a tree in silhouette. It’s bare black branches were reaching out to to touch the candy coloured swirls and stars of blues and greens dancing around it on a bright pink background. All contained in a simple black painted wooden frame. As I sat gazing at this picture, I began to day-dream about the kind of world the fantasy tree before me would look at home in. A world with a pink sky instead of our blue and not a cloud in the sky. Where the trees had smooth shiny bark of deepest black,  and where the grass glowed a dazzling yellow in the dark. Where elves and pixies skittered among the branches, or danced merrily in the glow of the setting sun inside a mushroom ring of deep purple stalks and pale blue tops. I could almost hear a stream babbling quietly out of sight, and the shrill tiny shrieks and excited chatterings of magical creatures at play in the water. It was with a small sigh that i was brought back to reality by the sound of someone calling my name. As I stood up and prepared to leave I paused, looked over my shoulder at the picture, and said under my breath “I will come back” before walking reluctantly away.