...and where do faeries dwell?

At the bottom of an English country garden....

Well with snow and the cold on my doorstep my mind cant help but wander off to the images of spring.....
although at present seems quite far away...
I look upon these images and my creative juices flow....
I wanted to share with you the beauty that brings with it more smiles after the snow......

This garden won Best in Show by designer Julian Dowle
Royal Hospital Chelsea's residents had this garden made in their honour.
The garden was a mix of all the things the old soldiers missed about England when away at war.

Designed with a romantic notion of 'Blighty' (England).
A crumbling thatched country pub led out onto a patio, vegetable plot and pond.
Foxgloves, roses and a horse chestnut tree grew tall around the pub.

Every nook and cranny was packed with realistic touches, like the bicycle,
bunting and broken fence.
The 'Dig for Victory' vegetable patch was reminiscent of the hardships of the time,
and a real Chelsea Pensioner was on hand in his red coat uniform to add authenticity.

Gold-medal winning Chelsea Flower Show garden

At the far end of the garden was a field of poppies, remembering those lost in the wars.

Chelsea Pensioners Garden

What can you see at the bottom of your garden this spring?

In the eighteenth century fairy poetry was represented by
Thomas Tickell’s Kensington Gardens,

which reveals the secret history of the London park.

Again fairies are consigned to the distant past:

The landscape now so sweet we well may praise:
But far, far sweeter in its ancient days,
Far sweeter was it, when its peopled ground
With fairy domes and dazzling towers was crown’d.
Where in the midst those verdant pillars spring,
Rose the proud palace of the Elfin king…
Their midnight pranks the sprightly fairies play’d
On every hill, and danc’d in every shade.
But, foes to sun-shine, most they took delight
In dells and dales conceal’d from human sight:

These fairies of Kensington Gardens are revived in
The Little White Bird
in the early twentieth century, when they befriend the baby Peter Pan.

Love & light
Trace x