India Hayford > Quotes

“taken”
― India Hayford, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree

“bottle trees in the front yard? That’s her house. She puts those bottles out to catch any bad spirits that might come creepin’ around her yard. Guess it must work; she’s the least haunted person I believe I ever met.”
― India Hayford, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree

“Sometimes she’d cry a little there in her sweetly decorated room, wishing she had a sibling or two to take on part of the weight of her parents’ high expectations for her.”
― India Hayford, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree

“What is a blue bottle tree and why does it sing? For generations, Southerners have decorated small bare trees by placing bottles over the ends of the branches. Tradition favors bottles of cobalt blue, a color Southern folk magic associates with ghosts, and crepe myrtle trees, which offer protection against evil spirits. Night-ranging spirits are attracted to the blue bottles only to find themselves sucked inside by the power of the crepe myrtle. As if that’s not bad enough, the captured phantoms are doomed to perish as soon as the morning sun illuminates the tree. When the wind is just right, it passes over the lips of the bottles, producing an eerie keening”
― India Hayford, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree