GA, appropriate reflection now as Halloween approaches. You must have loved Edgar Alan Poe as a youngster, right?

Glad to hear that you recovered:

“None of these things have purchase upon my psyche or even hold any interest anymore. Those scaly beasts have retreated from the world. For me, the shadows are no longer inhabited by the spectral and the fathomless darkness is empty.”

Enjoy this misty season…

However, at night I spent hours, frozen with terror and unable to sleep because of the presence of four early 20th century German dolls that were remnants of my mother’s childhood and the dozens of demons I discerned in the print of my bedroom curtains. All had sharp teeth and evil, staring eyes. No wonder I was a gaunt little girl with dark circles under my eyes.

Eventually, ‘the cat’ knocked the dolls to the hard, uncarpeted floor resulting in their instant death. A few weeks later valiant St. George, again in the form of my older and understanding brother, set fire to the curtains with an advent candle. He was punished but enjoyed my hero worship for the rest of our childhood. Aged almost eight, I slept properly for the first time since babyhood. My room was monster-free at last.

The fear of those monsters only I could see remained with me until my own children were born, though. Then I had to face such demons in a literal sense and try to banish them so the little ones could sleep. Through them, I became the next St. George, laying their monsters and banishing my own , permanently, at the same time. Childhood in the 50s could be a lonely, frightening time, especially at night. I wasn’t about to make my own children suffer that thirty years later. It is comforting to know that I was not the only one with what others might call irrational fears that lasted into adulthood.

As always, your photographs are beautiful. Even as a little child, those lovely carvings of dragons would have seemed benign to me. I have a desire to reach out and pet them!