Little Robins and the Guardian Patrol

"The Guardian Patrol" The Illustrated Fairy Gazette, ©FrancesTyrrell

The robins are back and busy with nestlings.  It's the time of year for finding broken shells of beautiful robin's egg blue in the garden.  For "daring fledglings who test their wings too soon" Guardian Patrol fairies will come to the rescue with "stretchers of twigs and last year's spiders' webs", according to (who else) Dr. Flora Fauna of (what else?)  The Illustrated Fairy Gazettes, Spring edition.

There is a beautiful Saskatoon Berry tree in my parents' back yard and a nest with robins nearby.  They have taken to nesting over the back door and come back every year. Here is one of them, part of a demo piece from my watercolour classes.

Robin, watercolour, Frances Tyrrell ©2016

"A blessed and enchanted Spring to fairies everywhere"

Fairies' May Day

from "The Illustrated Fairy Gazette" Spring edition

Here are some fairy garlands for the month of May. The May Pole Dance is from the Spring edition of the Fairy Gazettes, where it is accompanied by an article on the etiquette of folded wings. Should it be "Wings Up" or "Wings Down"? Just ask Fairy Faux Pas!

Spring Garland, © Frances Tyrrell 2016

Above, a fairy garland woven from the spring flowers that have naturalized in my garden - forget-me-nots, lily of the valley, and primroses.  The flowers of the poem won't show up here until June.

Snowdrops, © Frances Tyrrell 2016

The snowdrops are gone by now. The scillas still abound in wide blue drifts.  And here come the trillums, crimson and white.

 "A blessed and enchanted Spring to fairies everywhere"

(Eritha, The Illustrated Fairy Gazette)