Daffodils

Daffodil Fairies, The Illustrated Fairy Gazette

"Daffy-down-dilly has come to town, in a yellow petticoat and a green gown."  Every spring, when Ontario is still in freezing weather, I bring home the little pots of mini-daffs and other bulbs to brighten the windowsills.

Mini Daffs and Muscari

 They look so pretty, it leads to paintings.

Mini Daffs in a Mason Jar, watercolour

Even the smallest blossom merits a portrait.

Mini Daffs and Paint Water

One idea leads to another -  flower teacups like these.

Flower Teacups, Daffs

And so on, to a garden of teacups on my RedBubble shop. 

All from a pot of daffodils.

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