The magic of nature is all around us but nowhere more so than in Ballyyahoo.
Ballyyahoo is a tiny town hidden between the ocean and the hills, somewhere in the deep, green countryside on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.
Nobody knows exactly where this little town is and that’s because it’s a secret.
THE SECRET
But it’s more than just a secret, because a long time ago, the people of Ballyyahoo, who are called Ballyyahooians made a very special promise.
This promise is called an oath, and a Ballyyahoo oath is a serious oath.
If they broke the oath they’d lose everything that is magic in Ballyyahoo and be forced to go and live in Ballyuseless.
Nobody to this day has broken that oath.
There’s a special kind of magic in Ballyyahoo that nobody wants to lose.
Most of that is the magic of nature but there’s also the other kind of magic – the magic magic and most of that is because of the amazing Witch of Ballyyahoo.
THE REAL MAGIC OF NATURE
Nature is the most magical thing in the world.
We could call nature the most creative of creators in the world we live in.
Nature is all that is natural in the world we live in and that nature is everywhere – we just have to look.
People, animals, insects, fields, forests, mountains, oceans, rivers and streams and all that exists around us wouldn’t be here today – if the magical force of nature was not with us.
Because we exist and need to continue to exist. We build houses, streets, factories, schools, shops and roads and much more.
We need those houses to live in and we need the roads to get to school and work and we need somewhere to make and buy our food.
CHANGING NATURE
To do this we change the nature of our surroundings.
So, instead of fields we have housing estates, instead of beautiful forests like the magical Witchy Woods, we have factories.
We build bridges over rivers and sometimes we even change the path of streams by piping the water away.
Nature’s magic is often pushed aside in favour of buildings and roads. And since we can no longer see it we forget that it exists.
WHERE IS THE MAGIC GONE?
The magic is everywhere around us.
We might not be able to see it so clearly from our cities and towns but you can be closer if you visit the parks and forests, countryside and beaches – even if you walk in a garden – especially if you walk in a garden.
There is more magic in Ballyyahoo than anywhere else.
If you were to walk near the town you wouldn’t be able to see it.
You see the town is so tiny it would fit on the head of a pin.
Yet, the Ballyyahooians can not only see the fields and hills, beaches and bays and the wonderful Ballyyahoo bog, but can walk there whenever they want.
They can hear the sounds of the birds every day, especially the ear shattering sounds of the rare squawk-birds.
You see, Ballyyahoo is not so tiny if you live there. For those who live there everything is normal size.
But, that’s only part of the magic of Ballyyahoo.
Ballyyahoo is very close to the Atlantic Ocean, so there are great beaches and bays.
Because it’s so windy and because the ocean’s so choppy all kinds of strange stuff gets washed up on the shore and you can see some of these strange things here.
The sun sets in the west and being in the far west, Ballyyahooians love to watch the sunset.
It’s different every time. The colours change from orange to yellow and red sometimes with clouds of vivid blue and sometimes streaks of black.
If that isn’t magic what is?
If you would like to read more stories and learn more about the magic of Ballyyahoo click here.
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