Victoria Day

Victoria Day weekend - fishers on the pier, sail boats on the lake, families on the board walk, dogs on leashes, boys on skateboards (hair carefully brushed over their eyes), girls in shorts and flip-flops going by in groups, the distant sound of firecrackers (leading up to full fireworks at nightfall), an ice cream van with it's tinkling music drawing adults and children from the park next door, and gardeners like myself happily up to our elbows in potting soil.

Fifty three years ago today my parents arrived in Canada from England, docking at Halifax after two weeks at sea. They look stylish and impossibly young in the photos, their two little sons in their arms. Interest in seeing more of the world had brought them to Canada and here was the first of many surprises, that their new country celebrated the birthday of the previous century's monarch. "It's Victoria Day!" was the greeting on that first morning as they made their way from the docks to the train for Toronto.

Back to painting tomorrow, and to preparations for the upcoming art show at Sovereign House.
Meanwhile, Happy Victoria Day!

Puck, Plain and Fancy

A certain youth here used to climb the door frames and swing from the carved brackets, sometimes pausing long enough to be sketched or at least photographed. Most of the fairies in my paintings are young ladies, but every fairy tale needs its Kay or Puck and it has been handy to have one about the house. The sketches are turned into detailed paintings with details of leaf and petal, wing and antennae, and the in-between preparatory work, with the transformation from present realism to timeless tale, is set aside. But both have their magic.

For a Mother's Day treat last week I revisited my favorite book, Good Housekeeping's Cookery Compendium of 1954 (and I could dwell all evening on the delights therein - puddings, pies, crumpets, jam roly-poly, biscuits and cakes, including the exciting chapter on Special Occasion Cakes that I used to leaf through even when my birthday was months away) and looked up the recipe for biscuits with feathered icing.

After an hour or so with the mixing bowl, rolling pin and cookie cutters, I had an impressive stack of plain biscuits (the resident lean young man efficiently disposing of the broken ones for me).

Glace icing was next: first the white, then with the piping bag I applied bars of colour...
dragging the lines with a toothpick to make feathered icing.


The butterfly pattern was a new approach and they turned out reasonably well, with no two alike. Like stages of sketching and painting, the plain ones were as enjoyable in their way as the finished, polished product.


So I wonder, which do you prefer in life - sketched or polished, plain or fancy?

Mothers and Godmothers

Specially for Mother's Day, on the Etsy shop this week are some hand-bound issues of the "Mothers and Godmothers" edition of our original small Illustrated Fairy Gazettes. Stitched with rainbow thread, this little fairy-to-fairy magazine has 16 pages of articles and advertisements of interest to fairies everywhere. Each one comes in a fairy parchment envelope,

with the Fairy Gazette label as a finishing touch.


We have enjoyed putting together each and every page of these limited editions, small to be shared with small hands, and as perfect in detail as we can make them.

A recent search through long-stored boxes here turned up this 2" item from a Mother's Day some decades ago, my young attempt at perfection in small stitches. I have been enjoying Salley Mavor's beautifully stitched and whimsical illustrations which have brought back memories of my early instruction in embroidery, a lasting gift from mother to daughter.

Have I passed on the craft? Suffice to say that it is rumoured that a hand-wrought gift from welding class is in progress for me this Mother's Day, and I know it will be remarkable.

Welcome May

White petals are falling from this Spring's early blossoms and the lawns and sidewalks are covered with scented confetti, as if festive for the May King and Queen.

On this beautiful first weekend of May I set out with friends to mark the turn of the season with a long walk in the woods. There were trilliums, may apple about to flower, and masses of trout lilies; yellow ones, such I have seen before,
and translucent white ones, which are new to me.On every walk up in these woods I hope to see the deer but once again only small wildlife showed themselves, like this bright-eyed garter snake beside the path.

"Yellow and black, you're all right Jack,
Red and yellow, a dangerous fellow"

Following fresh deer tracks in the mud we found another small field dweller. He was in a hurry and in one hop he was out of the picture frame and away.

Not pictured here are the furred black ground bees that swarmed around our ankles at a spot overlooking the ravine. They were busy making their new homes in the clay ground and, fortunately, unconcerned with our big boots.

I came home crowned not with a garland of May flowers but with a fine clump of burrs in my hair, and a camera disc full of wild flowers to paint.

"Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire."

- Virgil

England, Harry and St. George!

I have no knight for this St. George's day, but a very gentle pet dragon from the Peaceful Fairy Realms!

This year is the 175th anniversary of the St. George's Society of Toronto, the oldest charity in the city. To quote from their website:
"On April 23, 1834, a group of citizens celebrated St. George's Day over dinner at the British Coffee House at King and York streets and changed the future of the city.

They formed The St. George's Society of Toronto, named after the patron saint of England, which grew to provide crucial social services and a lively social life.

While originally founded to help immigrants of English and Welsh origin, the Society assisted anyone who qualified for assistance. It was famous right through the early 1900s for providing food, money and medical services to the city's poor and less fortunate."

The good works of the Society continue to this day, "bringing together men and women of all cultures with an interest in things British for good fun, good fellowship and good works – a tradition that has helped Toronto become the enviable place it is."

Happy St. George's Day to all.

All Around the Garden

A handful of sea shells in a bowl and some earthy garden gloves at the back door led to thumbnail sketches of gardens and gardeners, and the next advertisement from Hedge and Hogg came into focus:

with Hedge preparing the ground








and Hogg bringing in the materials




and a fairy garden under way.
The next Illustrated Fairy Gazette is also in progress, with sketches and notes to sort and refine. I think I can allow myself a little gardening time each day, for both inspiration and gratification.

"Hedge and Hogg's Garden Design" will be up on the Etsy Shop soon.

"Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps" -Amos Bronson Alcott

Gardens and Gardeners

Well fortified with Easter chocolate, I am tilling the soil and uprooting weeds this beautiful Easter weekend. There are beds to be raked, perennials to be divided and moved, planter pots to be emptied and refreshed, and seeds to be planted all over the garden. The gardening year has begun.

Who are Hedge & Hogg? "Specialists in the maintenance of Fairy Gardens" proclaims their advertisement in the Illustrated Fairy Gazette,

"Complete garden care. No job too small.
Lawns rolled, bulbs lifted, borders planted.
Molehills our speciality."

The Etsy shop is reopening for spring with Hedge & Hogg cards from the fairy realms,

and new fairy cards, all from the Fairy Gazettes.

Would that Hedge & Hogg were my gardeners. I would don a flowered shady hat and stroll the garden, nodding approvingly at their lively and expert ministrations to the lawn and flower beds.

"'Springs unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil"

Reginald Herber, 1783 -1826