I Spy with My Little ‘I’

“I” for ice cream? Instrument? Igloo? Iron? Okay — the last two clearly needed to be scratched. Oh, the joys of Sharing Day! Every week it’s the same circus: find something that won’t melt, won’t maim, that my daughter actually agrees to, and will fit in her school bag.

No small feat.

But this one was a real challenge. After scanning the playroom for the umpteenth time, I was just about ready to admit defeat when my eye landed on our copy of Irish Legends for Children.

Yes, I thought. That’s it.

I ran it by the boss. It was duly approved — and phew, crisis averted…at least until the joys of “J” roll around.

It’s funny — I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. It’s a family favorite, and the perfect rewind to my own school days. One story, The Salmon of Knowledge, is a standout. The salmon, who holds all the knowledge of the world, transfers it to Fionn after he accidentally sucks his thumb while cooking it. From then on, we’re told, “whenever he had a problem, all he had to do was to put his thumb in his mouth and he had the answer at once.”

But the devil is in the detail. Reading it again recently — right as I was finishing the third Fanningstown Farm book, The Hazelnut Cracking — it struck me that I never really knew how the salmon came by all that wisdom in the first place.

So I did a little digging, to fill my own knowledge gap, and discovered that the salmon had eaten hazelnuts that fell from the trees surrounding a mystical well. Whoever ate the salmon’s flesh would then inherit its powers.

An intriguing backstory, to say the least!

And it made me wonder — had I always known it, somewhere deep down? Especially with this third book, as I’ve always been fascinated with hazel trees and have had my own magical experiences with them as a child.

Certainly, the idea of writing The Hazelnut Cracking kept nagging at me, and in thinking about this legend, I finally realized why. Hazel trees are deeply woven into my own backstory — one I’ve long hoped to share with my kids through this book.

A blend of culture, tradition, and lived experience (gathering hazelnuts!) — just like a hazel tree with its many stems — reminds me how different strands of inspiration can grow together into one lasting, enchanting tale. A legendary approach, if I do say so myself.