Flickr Favourites: March 22, 2014

{The Fairy and The Child ~ Wendy}  


{Bluebells ~ yossarian6}  


{Fairy Godmother ~ Crafty Dogma}  


{Fairy wand cookies ~ Bubble and Sweet}  


{The child and the fairies ~ saltycotton}  


{Bunny by Sharon Montrose ~ blackeiffel}  


{Fairies of the Garden ~ redrickshaw}  


{Freshness of dew ~ Vicktor}  


{Mushroom Cha Cha ~ Kristin L}



{Around Fairyland with Alice ~ Tania Covo}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}
♥ ♥ ♥  

Most of us, when we look back over our childhoods, have deeply fond memories of certain books that our parents (and/or other family members) read to us aloud each night before bed.

There are quite a few titles that fall into this camp for me (interestingly, though probably not overly surprisingly, several are timeless vintage classics such as Blueberries for Sal, Goodnight Moon, and Bread and Jam for Frances), one of which I think of at least a few times a year: Come Follow Me by Gyo Fujikawa (whose wonderful illustrations are, to my mind, amongst the most darling even created for children's books).




This book, whose complete title is Come Follow Me to the Secret World of Elves and Fairies and Gnomes and Trolls, is not a tome of fairy tales of the Hans Christian Andersen variety, but instead is an exquisitely illustrated collection of stories about fairies (and other similar wee folk) themselves.

It's probably eighteen or twenty years since I last turned the pages of this book, but I can still picture it with vivid clarity and find that as spring returns once more to nature's realm, my mind becomes enchanted with the idea of tiny fairies prancing through the garden, convening under toadstools, working industriously inside (hollowed out) fallen logs, and dancing in the moonlight.

People from countless cultures the world over have thought that fairies, sprites, pixies, gnomes, trolls, leprechauns, elves, and similar itty-bitty beings shared the earth with us for thousands of years now, though it's a belief that has all but disappeared from many in more recent times. That said, it's not entirely unheard of for wee folk to make the news still, with the Cottingly Fairies case being one of the best known in the last hundred years.

Much as I may have as a small child, I can't claim that as a scientifically minded adult, I think there's much of a likelihood that fairies and the charming ilk are real (awesome as that would be!), but that doesn't mean one can't daydream about such being the case and if it were, what kind of enchanting world they would call their own.

As we slowly thaw out from another bone chilling winter and the first beautiful signs of verdant life return, part of me feels like I'm four or five years old again, peering under fairy rings on our lawn, watching ever so closely between the crocuses and rhododendrons in the garden for signs of minuscule winged beings, and frolicking in the first gloriously warm rays of sunlight in several months, imagining all the while that I'm holding hands with a party of pixies.

Spring's return itself, though perhaps not quite as much so as it was for our ancestors in centuries past, remains a bit magical unto itself. Life starts anew in so many ways, the world is draped not in ice any longer, but in delicate dew. Suddenly the palette of the day is filled with soft pastels and vivid hues alike. Newborn animals step into their place in the circle of life, rain replaces snow, only to both vanish under the golden light of the glistening springtime sun.

It is a lively time, one of happiness and renewed hope, and where - swept up in the profound beauty of it - one cannot help but think how resplendent it would be if they were a fairy, down at grass blade height, to see this amazing changing of the seasons quite literally at ground level. As that's not possible, I'm more than happy to just get outdoors and soak up all the loveliness of this crisp, sweet, gorgeous season.

Perhaps I'll buy a copy of this book that I still love dearly all these years later, tuck it under my arm, and head out to meadow of wildflowers for an afternoon of carefree fairy filled stories of the sort that helped bring an extra dose of imagination fuelled joy to my earliest days. Care to come follow me?