Fairy or Fairytale

I can remember as  young child and my curious affair with fairies. I always knew they were there, playing in places that I could never get into.  Even into my adult hood, I had always kept fairies close to my heart. And one year I had planted some freesia bulbs and when they bloomed early spring they reminded me of the perfect place that fairies could be found. Which in turn I made this oval flower bed my "fairy garden". I also have cone flowers in this garden and in the heavy rains of summer, the fairies would be protected under the upside down pedals of the coneflower. In spring the cluster of grape hyathins is a beautiful addition to the fairy garden along with the small blue and pink blooms of the Bethlehem sage plant. The flowers of the fairies are endless.

The above photo was taken early spring 

On this day in the midst of summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a "fairy garden" class at 

http://www.towerhillbg.org/ along with my sister Shirley. These are the days that I will treasure and take with me till the end of time.

The class was taught by an amazing woman Betsy Williams. If you click on Betsy's highlighted name it will take you to her website.

This was what I started with, a basket, a fern and a ivy plant.

After we got our dirt and plants in the basket it was off to find all kinds of fun things for our fairy garden. Betsy Williams had such a wide variety of materials and the creativity was ours.

what fairy garden doesn't need lots of moss

This is just a sample of the kinds of materials we had to work with.

Being the kid at heart that I am, I wanted to create a play area for my fairy. I thought how nice it would be to have a swing to sit on and sing. I made 2 swings and then I made one more trip to a box of small twigs and pieces of bark, when all of a sudden sitting there waiting for me was a piece of white birch that was just right for my swing seat. The third time was the charm.

This was the first swing attempt, I did like the wideness of the wood, but it was too big for the basket.

I thought this second attempt was the right one, sized to proportion.....

But this beautiful piece of white birch was perfect.

this garden and the next three were the design of some of my classmates. It was so nice to see a couple of young adults. The two girls were so lucky to have had the opportunity to do something that most girls their age would have loved to have done. And they had the best imagination of what a fairy would love in her garden. A table set for company, just the perfect magical mystical hiding places for the fairies that would hopefully find the "fairy gardens" built specially for "little people".

The basket to left was cleverly crafted by my sister and the one to the right was mine.

 Here is my fairy garden in its new spot, inside the oval fairy bed.

I must say I had the best day in a long time, and wish to extend my thank you to my sister for her invite, the tower hills for hosting it and the talented Betsy Williams for her dedicated knowledge and sharing some with us.

Betsy was kind enough to have her book "are there fairies at the bottom of your garden?", autographed  in the gift shop. Written by her and illustrated by her husband Ned.

If you would like to see more on these wonderful "fairy gardens" please visit my sister Shirley.

May you be forever blessed.

Ellen