Look down

 Sometimes you're just walking along minding your own business when something on a boulevard catches your eye and you look down and say: "What?" In this case, it was little rustic houses made from odds and ends that first made me stop. But the more I looked, the more that was revealed. Somebody had positively stuffed the boulevard in front of their house with bits and pieces of whimsy.

These creations, tucked into clumps of winter grass, were my first signal that this was an unusual boulevard. Apparently birdhouses, they're tall and skinny, with metal roofs and one has an old tap for a perching post.  But ground-level birdhouses? The neighbourhood cats must be happy!

So I looked some more and discovered, just around a tree trunk, another kind of house:

There's no hole for birds in this little construction smack up against the tree, so maybe it's a fairy house. Somebody has gone to a lot of effort to decorate its grounds.

Further investigation revealed that the building was just part of a bigger scheme -- perhaps it's a building complex for fairies! 

I missed it at first, but right around the corner is a fairy door and window, built into the trunk. There's a broom for sweeping and a dragon peering out of the snowbank. Notice the old door knob on the bigger building, which also appears to have a tiny door at the side.

 I missed these too, on the first go-round, but behind the fairy complex is another clutch of those tall, skinny birdhouses. The perch posts are old drawer-pulls and knobs. Somebody was using up their odds and ends!

Along with the rustic-style buildings, there is clear evidence that kids are a big part of what's happening on this boulevard. 

Medieval knights stage a battle, maybe with each other, maybe with the green dragon off beyond the snowbank. 

Somebody had fun hiding pink, yellow and green ladybugs among the pebbles.

And the African animals had to have their patch of the boulevard, even if it's a bit snowy for the giraffes and tigers.

Just as I turned to go, this popped out at me, on another tree on the boulevard:

Yet another fairy door, this time for a high-flying fairy, with colourful pebbles beneath. 

A close-up of that highly decorated door, with its flowers, mushrooms and a lantern. 

I have no idea what the strange collection on this patch of  boulevard -- rustic and plastic, cutesy and natural -- adds up to. But I do know it's amazing what you find sometimes when you look down!