Wolf Moons and Muddypond Green

Thoughts of skating on thick ice - from Iceland .....

2012-02-22T15:24:00.003Z

My picture here is the roof of an ice cave, formed at the edge of a glacier many feet of blue-grey ice thick. It was an amazing sight for a far-from-home-fae!
Spending some wonderful wintery days in Iceland last week caused me to think about ICE! Then ICE-SKATES!

As did Dickens and poor Mr Winkle in this extract from 'The Pickwick Papers' ....
'All this time, Mr. Winkle, with his face and hands blue with the cold, had been forcing a gimlet into the sole of his feet, and putting his skates on, with the points behind, and getting the straps into a very complicated and entangled state, with the assistance of Mr. Snodgrass, who knew rather less about skates than a Hindoo.

At length, however, with the assistance of Mr. Weller, the unfortunate skates were firmly screwed and buckled on, and Mr. Winkle was raised to his feet.

'Now, then, Sir,' said Sam, in an encouraging tone; 'off vith you, and show 'em how to do it.'

Love this illustration - from La Mode Illustree, December 22nd 1872

Travelling along the South Coastal route of Iceland towards Vik, I found the most enchanting folk museum - The Museum of Skogar. Here were cabinets and walls full of curiosities - records of bygone days and harsh lives endured and celebrated.

These striking skates were once a common site - made from bone. Apparently they worked really well! The information beside this pair reads as follows ...

'For use on ice in winter. Made of leg bones of horses or cattle , skates were strapped to the shoes. The skater used an iron-tipped staff for propulsion and steering between the legs. These skates were in use until 1972.'

Now, this simply wouldn't be the blog of the faery Muddypond Green without at least a little of the work of my favourite artists would it?

Illustration by Margaret Tempest from 'Squirrel Goes Skating' by Alison Uttlley Collins 1934

The brilliant work of contemporary artist and illustrator Omar Rayann (link here)

         And to finish ..... magical indeed - Miss Caroline Zhang - near immortal wouldn't you say?
                                                       Video mantage from Kelly Clarkson.

You might like to see more from my Icelandic journey, new on Muddypond's website here

Illustration by Marie Honre Myers from 'The Skating Gander' 1927

For St.Brigid's Day and Imbolc - how the first snowdrop became.

2012-02-01T16:42:00.002Z

'The Angel expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden'
Stained Glass from the Church of Holy Hill, Hubertus, Wisconsin

It was the eve of Brighid's Day when he at last agreed to go down to the earth once again. As he plummeted towards the garden - the promised place - he felt the ice crystals in the air, saw the stars far above glitter with frozen light.

Landing lightly on the grass, fragile in the frost, he could see them. Close together, shivering despite the coverings contrived from feathers and weeds which hung from waists and shoulders, arms raised to protect frightened eyes from his light.

He spread his monumental wings, stepping towards them -

"The Creator says you must leave this place, it is no longer yours as a privilege."

Giving them no time to wonder or delay, the sheer magical strength of him compelled them to move - downwards, along the path, towards all that was unknown and outside.

Watching the two, hand in hand, heads bowed with tears, he noticed the first snow drifting like thistledown through the silent night. Deep sorrow he felt for them and stretched out a hand. Snowflakes gathered in his palm, hexagonal wonders, showing no sign of thawing there. Bringing them closer to his mouth, he breathed a sigh over their perfection. As the crystals were touched with the breath, each turned to a three petalled snowdrop flower, swaying on a long stem, each with a touch of fresh, soft green.

"Take a sign of hope," he called, "a sign for your kind and for the earth outside." As they moved towards the gap in the stone wall, he threw the snowdrops in a halo shower around their heads. They walked on unawares, taking the little blessing with them.

Snowdrop

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid,

Ever as of old time,

Solitary firstling,

Coming in the cold time,

Prophet of the gay time,

Prophet of the May time,

Prophet of the roses,

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid!

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It may be that you will like a little snowy faery poetry and art,
new at Muddypond's website on THIS page

Hushaby Street - dreams and hibernation for dark January days .....

2012-01-18T16:45:00.001Z

For all the magics, the sleepy mortals, the animals and the trees who are under the spell of Morpheus in this the coldest and darkest month of the English year - you are not alone!
A poem for you to read at bedtime - an extraordinary Victorian mixture for children, of innocent dreams, brought about apparently by opium!

'The Rock-a-by Lady'

by 'The Children's Poet' Eugene Field 1850 - 1895

'The Rock-a-by Lady' by Margaret Tarrant from 'A Child's Book of Verse'
pub. Ward, Lock & Co. Ltd

The Rock-a-by Lady from Hushaby Street

Comes stealing; comes creeping;

The poppies they hang from her head to her feet,

And each hath a dream that is tiny and fleet -

She bringeth her poppies to you, my sweet,

When she findeth you sleeeping!

'All Fast Asleep and Dreaming' by Jane Pinkney from 'Mouse Mischief' by Margaret Greaves
pub. Marilyn Malin Books / Andre Deutsch 1989

There is one little dream of a beautiful drum -

"Rub-a-dub!" it goeth;

There is one little dream of a big sugar-plum,

And lo! thick and fast the other dreams come

Of pop-guns that bang, and tin-tops that hum,

And a trumpet that bloweth!

'The Bunnies were Sleeping' by Rene Cloke
pub. in book by Enid Blyton c.1950

And dollies peep out of those wee little dreams

With laughter and singing;

And boats go a-floating on silvery streams,

And the stars peek-a-boo with their own misty gleams,

And up, up and up, where the Mother Moon beams,

The fairies go winging!

'Fink We Could Put You Up'

on a postcard by Mabel Lucie Attwell

pub. Valentines

Would you dream all these dreams that are tiny and fleet?

They'll come to you sleeping;

So shut the two eyes that are weary, my sweet,

For the Rock-a-by Lady from Hushaby Street,

With poppies that hang from her head to her feet,

Comes stealing; comes creeping.

Newest things that you might enjoy on my faery Eco Enchantments web site are :-

The Magic of the Ogham Trees - Blackthorn

Wassail - on the Diary Blog.

Rain, rain, go away - dull beginnings for 2012

2012-01-03T14:08:00.000Z

A sweet, rainy poem by Rose Fyleman, from 'The Fairy Flute' pub 1921 Methuen & Co, caught my eye today, while I was sheltering from torrential rain, looking through my faery collection of magical things. So, I burrowed further and found some of Muddypond's favourite 'rainy' illustrations to share .....

The Puddle Dance by Margaret Tarrant, an old postcard pub 'The Medici Society'

Rainy Morning

As I was walking in the rain

I met a fairy down the lane.

We walked along the road together,

I soon forgot about the weather ....

'Rain, rain, go away,' illustration by Arthur Rackham
from 'The Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose' Vol 41 pub 1913

He told me lots of lovely things:

The story that the robin sings,

And where the rabbits go to school,

And how to know a fairy pool,

And what to say and what to do

If bogles ever bother you.

'The Hail Storm' by G.E.Shepheard
from'The Playtime Story Book' pub Ward, Lock & Co.

The flowers peeped from hedgy places

And shook the raindrops from their faces,

And furry creatures all the way

Came popping out and said "Good-day."

'Shelter from the Rain' by Margaret Tempest
An old postcard from Medici Society, posted 1938

But when we reached the little bend,

Just where the village houses end,

He seemed to slip into the ground,

And when I looked about I found

The rain was suddenly all over

And the sun shining on the clover.

Rose Fyleman

" 'My feet are quite dry!' she exclaimed, as she paddled through a pool ..."
illustration of Little Grey Rabbit in her new galoshes
by Margaret Tempest from 'Wise Owl's Story' pub Collins 1935

Spindle tree - a bright talisman for inspiration ...

2011-12-08T19:32:00.001Z

The clashing colours of the open spindle berries covering a tree on the edge of my wood

As the year is drawing to its close, the nights are long, and the woods bare of flowers, so the Spindle Tree comes into its own. There’s many-a tall shrubby tree around the edges of my wood, especially by the quarry, and they’re alight and brilliant with darkest rose- pink and clashing orange four-lobed fruits.

A shrub of ancient Ogham, its name is Oir and it represents the letters ‘oi’ , it’s not often mentioned in tracts about magick, or as a faery plant . (You can learn lots about 'Ogham' and the 'Ogham Trees' here on my website).

But - I can assure you, faeries get such pleasure from its strange fruits – not to eat – we know they are poison for us as well as to mortals! Carry a snippet of the wood as a charm for inspiration.

We pick them for decoration – if we’re careful, what could be brighter for the Full Moon this week (10^th Dec with a partial eclipse) or the Solstice to come?
(see more on my Moons Pages at my website)

The illustration on the right is 'The Spindle Fairy Girl' and is from 'Dumpy Books for Children - A Flower Book', written in 1901 with pictures by Nellie Benson.

The spindle’s folklore name is Prickwood – and it was used to make spindles for spinning wool and bobbins for lace-making – which are usually considered female crafts and were of vital importance to everyday lives in ancient times. The hard wood can be whittled into a very sharp point and was also useful for sharp pegs and skewers.

Winter spindle fruits on trees in Sissinghurst Gardens, Kent

This is NOT a plant to be used in faery spells – here is what it says in John Gerarde’s great herbal of 1597 – “The shrub is hurtful to all things, as Theophrastus writeth and namely to Goates. The fruit hereof, as he saith, killeth: so do the leaves and fruit destroy Goates especially, unless they scour upwards as well as downwards. If three or four of the fruits be given to a man, they purge both by vomit and stool.”

Don't say Muddypond didn't warn you!!

The Song of the Spindle Fairy

See the rose-berried Spindle
All to sunset colours turning,
Till the thicket seems to knindle,
Just as though the trees were burning.
While my berries split and show
Orange-coloured seeds aglow.
One by one my leaves must fall;
Soon the wind will take them all.
Soon must fairies shut their eyes
For the Winter's hushabies;
But, before the autumn goes,
Spindle turns to flame and rose!

Picture and verse from

'Flower Fairies of the Autumn'

Cecily Mary Barker

Traditional wooden spindles from 'Fairy Spindles'

The Puppeteers of Khajaraho ....

2011-11-23T18:56:00.003Z

     Returning to my autumnal wood from the far away and very warm climes of middle India, I found a whole series of perfect fly-agaric mushrooms gleaming amongst the hazel roots, moss and brown leaves.

    Explaining to the new friend who'd travelled with me back to the deep English countryside - all the way from Madhya Pradesh - that these mushrooms are poisonous, simply made him look at me long and hard!
'Same smart colour as my silk dhoti kurta,' he laughed. Then he bit into one, polishing off two big chunks and grinning in his most challenging manner.

                                                                                                                  His name is Yoddha.


   Yoddha insists that he has a strong, wooden constitution, and that he's used to injesting poisons - they make him strong. Like cobra venom apparently. It doesn't seem to have done him any harm I have to say.

'Yoddha',
he says, means
'Belligerent Warrior'
in his native Hindi.

Hmm - perhaps I should have left him in India.

Yoddha's a puppet in the Rajasthan tradition and I met him near the wonder of the Khajuraho Temples.

What attracted me most to Yoddha was his hand-made -ness. I just loved all the rough stitches in his jewelled clothes. The night I first saw him, he was performing - he could save a glittering Princess with his curved scimitar while she fled from a three-headed cobra, girating her hips provocatively all the while.
No wonder he can eat fly-agaric without a qualm!

Following the old village traditions, the puppet show was given by three generations of one indian family, following skills handed down over centuries.

Grandfather was the Master Puppeteer.
He made them come to life - making their voices squeak, grumble and whistle through a simple reeded bamboo instrument, reminiscent of a gazoo, which he held between his teeth.

A three generation family of Puppeteers at Khajaraho

One of the twenty 9th - 11th century temples re-discoverd at Khajaraho - and my Puppet Yoddha

You might like to read about the Full Moon Festival for November 2011 - the Kartik Purnima - held in Varanasi, India, on the banks of the Ganges - it was beautiful - I was there.
The pictures are on my faery website here.

Music to dream by ......

2011-11-01T12:25:00.002Z

Muddypond went to a profoundly bewitching concert for the Samhain festival – music to dream by – music to dance to – magical music to wonder at. She thinks that she MUST introduce you to the music makers if perchance you have not already met.

Carolyn Hillyer and Nigel Shaw, performing at Petham, Kent - Oct 2011

Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer are ‘Seventh Wave Music’ and so much more. From Dartmoor, in the southwest of England, their music is inspired by ‘wild nature, sacred land and ancient mythology’.

Below, you could listen to a tiny part of Nigel's composition 'Dartmoor Symphony'. Played with the Ten Tors Orchestra, this movement is called 'Water'.

'Dartmoor Symphony' - 'Water' by Nigel Shaw - video uploaded by Merripit

Nigel is a traditional flute maker, and makes most of the instruments that he uses in his concerts and recordings. Carolyn is a drum maker, sourcing skins from journeys to the Arctic. They’ve recorded many albums, both solo and working together, ranging from music for meditation, music blending their own with native recordings - to wild dance.

Traditional flutes, mostly made by Nigel, onstage and awaiting their turn.

They run workshops in both native flute and drum making, and Carolyn operates weekend workshops for women. They also organise 'Rivenstone', a festival of sacred world music and ancestral roots. These are held on their farm in Dartmoor.

Information about workshops, events and an online shop to buy music and instruments can all be found here at Seventh Wave Music.

Where have all the Hedgehogs gone - long time passing ? .....

2011-10-14T19:21:00.001+01:00

Well? When did you last see one? When Muddypond was a faery-sprig no taller than the bracken - there were plenty of hedgehogs - don't you remember? Snortling little families, nosing their way through tall grass, rustling in the leaves and sleeping under log piles. Once as visible in the evening light as the other inhabitants of the woods, although always shy.

Hedgehog Photograph © Henry Ausloos

Now, how we miss them in the hedgerows and the gardens. How many, many plants did they save by chewing up the gristly slugs and happily eating up other delicious but malicious pests? Where did they go?

Vintage postcard - Molly Brett c1935

I know things were never easy for them - what with those roads - and poor things, they never did understand that rolling into a prickly ball was no match for a lorry, or even the smallest car. But at least they were THERE! So beloved were they, that the Royal Post Office issued a stamp to show them how much a part of us they were ....

The card on the left is one of a famous deck of Fairy Tarot, by Antonio Lupatelli.

The quotation means 'A Penny earned is a penny saved'.

On the right, a British postage stamp issued in 1977

But now, the experts say - (and you can read all about their plight here in The Guardian) - the hedgehogs have gone from a population of millions to just a quarter of their number in the last couple of decades. If something isn't done, they could be extinct in Britain in just as many moons!

Our beloved washer-woman - Mrs Tiggy-winkle, the tale told and drawn by Beatrix Potter in 1905

The problem is, that gardens in town and country have become inaccessible, fenced, concreted, surrounded by roads. The creatures need to rove widely, and now there are less and less places for them to go.
Out in the open country, the fields where they once adventured after dusk to find their fat caterpillars and crunchy bugs are drenched in pesticides.

Old Hedgehog, Mrs Hedgehog and little Fuzzypeg from my favourite 'Little Grey Rabbit' books by Alison Uttley

Illustrations by Margaret Tempest

What must we do as a matter of urgency? The very first step is to stop using chemical slug pellets - the hedgehog will take a poisoned slug, and eating a few will be the death of him.

And .... join in the nationwide scheme to make gardens accessible once more, by making a small hole in the hedge , wall, fence to join with neighbours and out into the fields so that these dearest of creatures can roam and hunt freely again - Hedgehog Street.

Find out more about the Hedgehog Street campaign here

More wonderful hand-felted figures from artist Natasha Fedeeva

Perhaps, in time, and with a little care on our part - and a meeting with the neighbours around and about - we might be lucky enough to see a little scene like the one below. As a Wood Guardian and Hedgerow fae, Muddypond Green fervently hopes so.

Picture from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society Website

New this week on Muddypond's Website - Ogham Trees - The Magic Apple

and on the Hedgerow Cooking page - Kentish Cobnut and Apple Cake

Plants of the Fae ... the bryonys and nightshades of September ....

2011-09-30T15:50:00.005+01:00

At this time of year, wandering through the hedgerows are necklaces of scarlet berries - and lower down, half hidden among the browning leaves, swathes of black.

Poem and illustration by Cicely Mary Barker

from 'Flower Fairies of Autumn' pub Blackie

The Song of the Black Bryony Fairy

Bright and wild and beautiful

For the Autumn festival,

I will hang from tree to tree

Wreaths and ropes of bryony,

To the glory and the praise

Of the sweet September days.

Postcard illustration Milicent Sowerby - Merry Elves series 1921 pub Milford
Woody nightshade photographed in Muddypond's hedgerows.

Beautiful treasures these vines of berries are for the fae, and as you can see they've always been popular with us for jewels and decorations. BUT - they're all POISONOUS to any mortal folk who might be reading here. Take care! All that is brightest is not necessarily best!
Leave them for the elves.

I think this is Black Nightshade, pictured today in Muddypond's hedgerows.

Keep your eyes open when you walk in the evening shade after the glaring sun of this unseasonably hot weather - and you may be rewarded by glimpses of the bryony and nightshade families.
I wonder if you can be sure which are which - I don't think Muddypond can and she's supposed to be a Wood Guardian Fae! Mind you - it is difficult in Autumn - as the ropes of berries have already shed all their identifying flowers and leaves.

Another postcard illustration by Milicent Sowerby - from the Merry Elves series 1921 pub Milford
Bryony necklace photographed in Muddypond's hedgerows high up on the North Downs of Kent

The Squirrel who fell to earth .........

2011-09-19T14:59:00.009+01:00

Squirrels - now they are high profile just at the moment in my woods. September is a wonderful time for a harvest of fresh nuts, ready to hide away for deep winter - not to mention succulent blackberries. The postcard below shows a troop of youngsters sporting in the pine branches :

'Leap Frog' postcard illustration by Margaret Tempest - posted 1944

All the early illustrations from children's books and postcards that I have, are RED squirrels - sadly quite isolated and scarce now in Britain since the introduction of the dominant GREY. Interesting to see though, that these illustrators from seventy, eighty years ago would clearly have found a grey squirrel an oddity.

Another postcard - this one by Millicent Sowerby, 1924 from the series 'Woodland Games'

The Verse reads...

'The elf makes the squirrels his friends, he''ll frisk with them, pat them and pet them.

He see-saws them Up-a-down-day, but sometimes he tries to upset them.'

Now let me introduce you to 'Lenny'.
Lenny is a GREY squirrel - and proud of it! He fell to earth from a hole, high up in the brickwork of the Kentish Oast House, belonging to my neighbour (human) - and right beside my Charing faery wood. He is a very late baby - only now about five weeks old. Luckily, although he was tiny, he squealed so loudly for his mother who'd run away after the accident that he was heard and rescued!

In just two weeks, once he'd learned how to suck evaporated milk from a little syringe, he's grown and grown. It won't be too long before he's ready to come back to the woods - we hope.

As Wood Guardian fae for this area I say - well done Neighbour of the Oast!!

'Hmm - a cornflake - smells good to me!'

When I was a faery-sprig, very small indeed, the books I loved best were the 'Little Grey Rabbit' series by Alison Uttley - full of country wisdom and colourful characters. Grey Rabbit herself - modest and hard working - boastful, adventurous Hare - and Squirrel who, it has to be admitted, was rather vain.

Squirrel, Hare and Little Grey Rabbit, looking for the Gypsy clothes-peg seller

Picture by Margaret Tempest from 'Little Grey Rabbit's Washing-Day' by Alison Uttley pub.1938

Illustration at left " 'Any Nuts this morning ?' asked the Elves." Gordon Robinson 1928

You might also like a new page on my website - all about the naming of full moons

Crab Apple Magick ........

2011-09-07T16:00:00.000+01:00

The Crab Apple trees were loaded with fruit this August, and now that so much has been harvested, bottled, potted or simply left to fall in great circular carpets under the trees, Muddypond Green decided the Malus was due a celebration .......

Malus John Downie - too many to harvest!

Photographed by my wood near Charing

Do you know the little poem about the bad Crab-Apple Dwarfs written by Marion St. John Webb and illustrated one of our matchless fairy artists Margaret Tarrant? Here it is ....

Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly-Hatch

Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly-Hatch

Old Crab-Apple Dwarfs would meet

Up in the tree-tops, or under the thatch,

Down in the garden, out on the street;

Whatever the time, wherever the place

It never concerned them, they were a disgrace.

Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly Hatch

Went shouting away in a breathless race.

'Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly Hatch' - illustration by Margaret Tarrant

from 'Wild Fruit Fairies' - 1925 (now pub Medici Society)

Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly-Hatch

Those Crab-Apple Dwarfs would boast

Each to each other, "I have no match!"

Gathering moonbeams or buttering toast,

Whichever it was, whatever the test,

Each boaster declared he outshone the rest.

Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly-Hatch

Each said that he voted himself the best.

Malus 'Golden Hornet'

photographed at 'Heronden' Gardens, Tenterden, Kent

Bunching, Crunching and Mumberly-Hatch

Three Crab-Apple Dwarfs, every day

Talking and arguing, ready to snatch

Each from the other the words he would say.

And now it's the custom throughout the land

To call any boaster in Fairyland,

"Bunching", or "Crunching", or "Mumberly-Hatch",

And all boasters go silent as they understand.

Malus 'John Downie'

my magical crab apple tree - jewelled in the late August sunshine

There are two lovely recipes using crab apples which you might like to try -

'Plain Crab Apple Jelly' and 'Potted Crab Apple, Red Chili and Garlic Fruit Cheese'.

Have a look on the 'Hedgerow Cooking' page of my fairy website.

'The Fairies Give Thanks', with magical garden blues .......

2011-08-18T20:15:00.002+01:00

A poem written by Rose Fyleman - from her 'Fairy Book' first pub 1923

The Fairies Give Thanks

To all kind folk who make delightful gardens

Where we may live,

Enjoying days and nights of busy leisure

Amid devices fashioned for our pleasure,

Our thanks we give.

'Joining in the Fairy Revel' is by Hilda T Miller,

who illustrated the original Rose Fyleman Fairy Book

For dancing-lawns and gravelled jousting-places,

For guardian trees,

For ferny thickets strewn with moss-grown mountains

And lily-ponds and waterfalls and fountains -

For all of these.

Charged are we also by our little comrades

The gentle birds,

That we their messages of thanks should bring you,

Since they from grateful hearts can only sing you

Songs without words.

'The Fairies have their tiffs with the birds'

Arthur Rackham - from Peter Pan

Faeries are creatures of moonlight and dusk, and so they love to see the blue and purple shaded flowers in gardens, cool and luminous in the evenings. Pools, lakes, streams and fountains are a must.

'Meadowland' by Adrienne Segur

The two photographs of the garden, above, were taken this week

at the enchanting Merriments Gardens in East Sussex.

Dynamic Cats' howls - alias 'Katzenjammer', Norway and a few faeires .........

2011-08-05T14:30:00.003+01:00

May I introduce you to these fine ladies - if you haven't met them already that is? From the beautiful land of Norway - they are 'Katzenjammer' - Anne Marit, Solveig, Turid and Marianne. They can perform! Between them they play around thirty different instruments, ranging from drums, trumpet, keyboards, balalaika, guitars and everything - and I do mean everything in between! Not only that - they swap instruments tune by tune and belt out jazz, folk rock and the odd ballad too!

Last weekend, they played their only concert scheduled for the UK this year - awww - fantastique - see for yourself ........... (the video is NOT last weekend at Cambridge sadly, but live in Norway).

Link to the website of Katzenjammer is here

So very wild are Katzenjammer (literally cats' howl) that I couldn't bring to mind any faery-art that reminded me of them - it seems their look and feel is unique! That said though, brilliant Scandinavian faery-tale illustrator John Bauer painted the moment when young Solveig was captured by trolls - below ....... (I reckon she'll just play that trumpet of hers and they'll soon let her out!) .............

Illustration for 'The Changelings' from 'Swedish Folk Tales' by John Bauer 1913

Made me think about the stunningly quiet scenery and gentle folk-music of their native Norway and wondered if perhaps they are changelings themselves! Loved it there .....

Thinking about the essential wildness and high-octane energy of their music brought the work of consumate contemporary fairy artist Brian Froud to mind. May I leave you with a portrait of the Katzenjammer Backing Group - they remain behind scenes, are BIG admirers of the girls although small in themselves - and just add to the general cacophony!

Characters from 'Faeries' illustrated by Brian Froud

Books can be bought from the offical 'World of Froud' section at Amazon

On the snail trail - giant Kentish land snails and snailish faery art ......

2011-07-19T14:56:00.001+01:00

Walking and flying high above the village - at the top of the North Downs Way - with Martin (Faery Guardian) happily following the scent of rabbits, we came face to face with this Giant Kentish Land Snail. I was so pleased to see him thriving there still, it's quite a while since I left my wood to talk to the snails.

Glad to see that the crow who left his quill so close hadn't worked up an appetite big enough for one of these fellows!

Got me thinking about the faery art that I know. Faeries with snails - hmmm - now that I come to think of it, we are all drawn RIDING on them. Odd really wouldn't you say - as we can fly quite fast when the wind takes us - and a snail - well - a tad slow for transport perhaps?

'The Snail Charioteer' illustration by Hilda T Miller c1920

Mind you - a little faery-dust - judiciously placed on their tails makes them go at a fair pace - but that's a secret.

'The Snail Race' A detail from a painting by Victorian artist Richard Doyle

1920's postcard 'The Fairy Waggon' by illustrator Rene Cloke, published by Valentine's

Now, here's a rare snippet - it is from from a much larger painting showing Titania and her fairy assistants - I love this idea of the little gladiators falling back before their snail aggressor ........

Detail from 'A Midsummer Night's Fairies' by Robert Huskisson 1847

This painting can be seen in The Tate Gallery, London

Lastly, an illustration from acclaimed contemporary artist David T Wenzel - do have a look at his website and see his fantastic images. You'll find his prints for sale there too. (Link below)

Fairy Art by David T Wenzel - link to his website here
© david_t_wenzel

'Kuky Se Vraci' - gentle film-art and animation extraordinaire! .......

2011-07-05T14:29:00.003+01:00

Have you seen this bear? If not, I really think it's time you did! He is the STAR of the beautiful animated film from the Czech Republic - 'Kuky Se vraci' - literally - 'Kuky Returns'.

First released last year, this film - which can be seen subtitled in English, is a must see for lovers of zany art-work. The puppets used in the stop-motion animation, mixed with live actor scenes are just off-the-wall - and - more importantly - I'd say they'd been made from faery-founds - roots, twigs, acorns.!

"What was that?"

"Some god."

"A god?"

"Everyone here is the god of something - a stream - a rock etc."

From brilliant designer and puppet maker Jakub Dvorsky (left)

and award winning Czech director Jan Svěrak (right).

Photos from Film o filmu Kuky se vrací

There's a book too with the story and lots of Jakub's drawings - here is a double page spread of the characters!
You can buy the book as a download here - https://sites.fastspring.com/amanitadesign/instant/kookythebookpdf

When Kuky gets thrown away and ends up in a land-fill site, he desperately tries to get home. In the forest - where he meets the Guardian (here in the pictures below) and Nushka, the Guardian's would be successor - his adventures really begin ......

Well - you will gather that I am a Kuky enthusiast!!

Here is the Official Film Trailer

You can buy the DVD here .... http://shop.ebay.com/biografjs/m.html

A basket full of wild cherries .....

2011-06-23T14:05:00.004+01:00

The wild cherries are nearly ripe! Us'll need to keep an eye on them now and try to pick a bowlful before those birds get them - one day too late and whoooooosh!! all gone!
Some of us know the fruit by other names - ancient epithets - Hawkberry, Mazzard, Gean, Idath - folk names of long ago. And no - of course I will leave plenty for the birds - it's just that I want a little harvest first!

Detail from 'Cherry Wine Stomp' - illustrator Mary Kendall Lee

from 'The Eleventh Holiday Book' by Enid Blyton 1956 - pub. Sampson Low Marston & Co. Ltd.

Wild cherries are essential for the fae - especially the Wood Guardian type. They're part of our medicine chest. Brew up slithers of cherry bark in a little black pot over the glowing embers of the fire with plenty of ripe fruits with spring water to just cover. When they have bubbled together for a while, strain the liquid into bottles with a big spoonful of honey, give them a shake - and there! Tonic for colds and snivels for all my woodland folks.

Wild cherries at the bottom of my lane

If you thought Magic folks only drink dew from the dawn grass and hawthorn leaves - then pffffft! Think again! This fae at least will make a little quantity of Cherry Brandy to store up ready for colder days.

Sweets too I can make - and wrap them in crinkly wild-rose petals for my Eco Enchantments business - they come from the amber coloured resin gum which gathers if the bark is lightly cut - all chewy and long lasting.

From my collection of faerie magic postcards : Margaret Tarrant 1923
Drawn originally for 'Wild Fruit Fairies' - poetry by Marion St. John Webb

Illustration by Cicely Mary Baker 1925 from 'Flower Fairies of the Trees'

Hooray, hurrah and huzzah for the cherry harvest!!

Plant a wild cherry tree in your wild life garden!

You might also like my 'Wild Cherry Conserve' recipe - over at the Eco Enchantments website

A snippet of time in the Folk Museum of Cambridge and a certain rabbit and bear that I met there

2011-06-12T19:50:00.007+01:00

Us faeries - we get about you know? A few days ago, I was lucky enough to spend a happy few hours browsing rapturously in the cabinets of the Folk Museum in Cambridge.
The building is 17th century timber-framed and used to be an Inn - many of the original features - the old bar and 'snug' are still there to be seen - filled to the brim with strange and wonderful objects.

I loved this little butter making jar - just right for a single faery for a week's butter rations - and the ancieint sun symbol which was a weighing balance - a 'steelyard' found at Stourbridge Fair. Upstairs was a little cupboard room with a tiny window, which was a real 'powder room' where the servants of gentlemen would powder the wigs that were fashion of the day.

The musuem would be a joy for faery-sprigs - here is a shop set out for them in the kitchen, with scales and lists and money and aprons and - oh how I wanted to play! Sadly I didn't have enough time.

Higher up still, through a little gallery all about local witchcraft and up some more satisfyingly creaky and windy wooden stairs I met these two characters. Now these are just my kind of creatures - and look how much they've been loved!

Their expressions reminded me of the fantastic art of Russian felting artist Natsha Fadeeva. Do have a look at her website when you find time - her work is quite simply entrancing. Here is the link that you need ...

and here below - one little example of her work .......

'Ski-ing Rabbit' felted toy by Natasha Fadeeva

There are some exquisite 'Bridal Mice' by Natsha Fadeeva over on my website - in the DiaryBlog for March - April 2011

English field poppies - perchance to dream ......

2011-06-01T16:19:00.007+01:00

Field Poppy - Corn Poppy - Common Poppy - call them what you will, they are a fragile herb of faery enchantment. When I was but a faery-sprig, growing up as best I could in the 'modern-after-war-world' of anti-magic - I hardly ever saw them.

Now it's quite startling to look down the lane which runs up from the stream and see crimson riots along the edges of the wheat fields .

So what has changed? Crop spraying has changed - just a little but it's making a difference. The farmers are beginning to leave the edges of the fields unpoisoned for wildlife. And farmers? May I say that wildlife appreciates it! How about a whole meadow here and there?

Now the magics once more gather the poppy seeds for cooking, and stroke the white latex milk from the still green pepper-pot heads to use in dreaming, just as the ancestors did thousands of years ago. We might even give a dose of fresh scarlet petal tea for an elf with a sneeze or a cough. This flower is a gift to us from the dawning of awareness.

Illustration by Nellie Benson 1901 from 'A Flower Book'

Dumpy Books for Children

Poppy is under the sway of Saturn, she is sacred to Persephone, Goddess of the Underworld and Innocence, to Hypnos, God of Sleep and to Morpheus, God of Dreams.

Do you remember this? The famous scene from MGM's 'Wizard of Oz' where Dorothy falls asleep in the poppy field sent by the Wicked Witch of the North to stop them reaching the Emerald City. Now that WAS magic. Refresh those memories and watch the scene on this link.

May the unblighted field margins grow ever larger, live long and even propser!

'Spiers and Boden' show their faery disguises ......

2011-05-20T14:19:00.012+01:00

This fae stretched her wings and flew to Sevenoaks simply because she loves good tunes. And ..... there are not many in the mortal world who can provide them better than folk duo Spiers and Boden - the leads in 'Bellowhead'.

Muddypond's pic of 'Spiers and Boden' live in Sevenoaks, Kent this May

It's TEN years since they got together and started entertaining - and ten years since recording their first album 'Through and Through'. If you have time to listen I'm sure you will love them as much as I do. Below you can find them singing 'Innocent when you Dream' - live at Colchester Folk Club. Video from Jazzcaf.

Usually these two sing traditional 'stuff' and play fantastic jigs or ancient folk ballads - perfect for harem-scarem faery meets - but you might recognise 'Innocent when you Dream' as a song by Tom Waites. You can find it on their album 'Songs'.

As for faeries - well you see, here they are - Spiers and Boden in the shift-shapes that they like to adopt at full moon - rehearsing this very song. You notice how Jon Bodenhopper keeps his angular shape and stance, and John Spiersbumble is still a bit rounded and cuddly!

'Duet' a postcard illustrated by Constance Symonds, published by Faulkner c1930

Spiers and Boden have a very new album out around now,

suitably called 'The Works' for their tenth anniversary.

The heady fragrance of wild garlic and muddy dogs ........

2011-05-09T13:25:00.004+01:00

As far as the eye can see in the Charing Alder Beds this last two weeks, wild garlic, wild garlic and more wild garlic - each starbright flower gleaming white in the dappled shade.

Wild garlic, fully into bloom

It's almost as if the snow is back, giving us a late sprinkling - and the scent as you approach over the wild flower meadow and dive under the shade of the coppiced alders and taller ash and oak trunks is quite overpowering. Like bluebells, these plants are all set to blossom before the leaves on the trees above are fully out. As soon as the leaf cover is dense, and its share of sunlight is gone, the garlic will set seed and both leaf and flower will disappear again until next spring.

Muddypond likes to add the garlic to her hedgerow cooking pots - the leaves, wilted in soups, or with the starry flowers fresh in salads with a handful of baby sorrel - and then the seeds, green or black - very strong - to flavour bread or savoury jelllies.
Of course, wild garlic must have damp soil, so the alder beds here, with their natural springs and streams criss-crossing the woods are perfect - perfect also for Faery Guard and Companion Martin - who likes nothing better than to wade chest high into the rich, black mud and nose for sticks!

Faery Guard and Companion Martin, who is supposed to have white legs -

likes to be chest high in cooling mud amongst the garlic!

There are recipes for wild garlic on my website cooking pages here - - -
and may I recommend to you this cookery book - 'The Wild Garlic Book' by Peggy Tolleson, not simply about garlic, but a travelogue, unusual cookery book and memories of bygone days in one, and all beautifully illustrated.

Find the book 'Wild Garlic' by Peggy Tolleson here

Remembering the bluebell woods as they were then ......

2011-04-26T14:26:00.051+01:00

A yesterday picture of my faery wood. The half which is away from the shadows of the pines, and amongst the hazels is a carpet of blue just now. As I am Muddypond - the wood guardian - I have spent much time there this week listening to the bells - especially in the evening time when the scent of the flowers in the warm air is at its strongest.

My faery wood - dappled sunlight through the hazels

To tell you the truth, I've been waiting and hoping for a visit from other magicks - perhaps for a Faery Meet - like we had in the days of long ago and far away, the days when we were many. No-one has come to join me yet, those of us that still exist are solitary creatures now.

But I can still dream of times like this - this painting of times past shows how it was then .....

'The Fairy Wood' by Henry Meynell Rheam

You see? The wood hasn't changed at all.

Perhaps you would like to visit the bluebells this week while there is still time? Here on the Woodlands Trust website, there is a place where you can search for the nearest bluebell woods to you wherever you may be in England.

You might like to read more about the magick and folklore of bluebells - here on my website under the entry for May 6th last year.

Bluebells with the emerging fronds of bracken in my wood yesterday

Oxlips and Cowslips - magic for this week ......

2011-04-17T21:12:00.005+01:00

This is the perfect time to plant some magick - cowslips and oxlips. It wasn't so very long ago - perhaps half a century, certainly in the 1950's - in the days before mass spraying and vast agricultural machines - (those same that killed off so many of the fae and elfin magicks) - that there would be meadows full of these flowers, and sometimes the scarcer oxlip too.
Really - fields of cowslips, full to bursting with deep, golden yellow.

Cowslips - bright in the spring sunshine

Oxlips - paler in colour, wider in flower and preferring partial shade

Cowslips included in a bunch of spring flowers say 'You are my heart's delight'. That is in the language of Victorian posies. Magickal faery flowers these, under the rule of the planet Venus and Goddess Freya.

The flowers were gathered by the basket and barrow full, ready to be pressed and made into Cowslip Wine and Ale. The petals were also simmered with sugar and made into a syrup, to be stored in the medicine cupboard for any coughs and colds.
Children were taught how to thread Cowslip Balls, and they were carried proudly on May Day, or hung outside cottage doors for good luck.

A Beatric Potter illustration here, of Cecily Parsley making her Cowslip Ale

"Cecily Parsley lived in a pen

And brewed good ale for gentlemen"

Now that the flowers are scarce, it would please the faere folk to see them growing in your garden, and you can buy 'wild' ones in many a good nursery right now. They like a sunny spot, dappled shade would be fine, and naturalize easily into grass which is not cut too often.

Welcome more insects - and watch out for their activities after dusk - here, in the illustration below is an insect wedding - carried out under the cowslips, with a glow-worm carrying a glow to light the way. What more could you want for your garden? :-)

From 'A Wedding in the Forest' illustrated by Else Wenz-Vietor

'A little piece of paradise,' she said .............

2011-04-05T14:19:00.002+01:00

Early spring-time in England - one minute warm enough for a picnic by the water - the next grey, cold but fast greening! As a faery, Muddypond is most at home in the wild places, amongst the bramble clumps and the tall birch trunks - but this Sunday, I woke up and could smell the flowers and hear bees on the wind.
So I followed the breezes .......

..... and they took me to a meadow of long grass with apple trees and hundreds of fritillarias, nodding their painted snake-marked heads like bells.

There too were the bees, busy and chattering among the daffodils, wide awake and excited by the spring whispers, and over the stream, new lambs .......

This reminded me of the fairy Coquette, when she was painted by one of my favourite artists Warwick Goble in his 'Fairy Book' - he drew her for his illustration to 'The Woodcutter's Daughter', amongst the fierce beasts which she'd made into harmless lambs. He painted this nearly one hundred years ago now - I think he would have loved it here.

Behind a wall of mellow bricks I sat in the branch of a pink magnolia tree and breathed in the scent of a million tiny flowers below - there were two older villager ladies - harmless enough, like the lambs - and as they sat on a grey, wooden bench to rest and take everything in, one turned to the other smiling - 'It's a little piece of Paradise,' she said.

Outdoor pictures taken at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, Kent

Moonlight Owls and live webcams ...........

2011-03-28T15:57:00.004+01:00

I am the Barn Owl - I am the silent messenger and moon-reflecting eyes of Hecate - Goddess of Death. I am the symbol of Athene, whose wisdom I carry.
Silent on the wing, ghostly so they say - but my strange, hissing screeech may take you by surprise on a moonlit walk.
I am a totem animal for many - for seers and others who think they can tell what the future holds.
I embody myths, moons and magic.

Faery Muddypond Green has been scrying the live webcam from The Barn Owl Trust for quite a while now - first there was just a nest-box on a cross beam in a barn. Then - one night - and over the next days - a solitary female owl .... me ......

Hmmm - this might be a nice place - but I have the strangest feeling I am being watched!!

Think I might just check out the inside.

Bit lonely - but I'm holding out for a hero you know?

Oooooh!!

I think he likes me :-)

Aaaaaaaaaah!

Click here - come on in and see if we are at home ... learn, shop, support the trust ...

Hellebores - a faery herb of magic .....

2011-03-15T15:02:00.001Z

Ruled by Saturn, her element 'Water', 'Helleborous niger' or 'Christmas Rose' pushes up to bring hope in the darkest months - and is in full bloom now in my garden by the woods. Celestial flower heads bow down towards the late-winter earth - she is a beauty.
But don't let that ethereal quality trick you - she's through and through a faery flower - wickedly poisonous to you humans! For a start you see, we faere-folk can make ourselves invisible with a powder of her dried roots.

Muddypond picked these blooms early this morning and arranged them on folds of darkest, red-black velvet to show them off.

The roots must be lifted in darkness on a night before new moon - a circle cast about the plant, a little garlic chewed and relevant charms must be said. The powder gained was once used - as 16th century herbalist John Gerarde tells us, as a hopeful curative .... 'A purgation of black hellebore is good for mad and furious men, for melancholike, dull and heavy persons ...' with the warning -'...it is not to be given but to robustious and strong bodies.'
It was one of the mix used by folk wishing to enter the 'other worlds' by leaving their bodies through astral projection - or a 'flying herb'.

Illustration by Nellie Benson 1901 ...From 'Dumpy Books for Children - A Flower Book'

Best you humans leave her to decorate the shady places, or perhaps just pick a few blooms and float them (mine are in a copper wassail bowl) so that everyone can marvel at the colours and patterns that the shy plant doesn't usually allow us to see!

March Memories and Brown Hares

2011-03-08T17:04:00.008Z

Soon, I am going on a 'Brown Hare Day' with talks and walks and - fingers crossed - sightings. Can't wait! It's been arranged by my local branch of the PTES - People's Trust for Endangered Species. And yes, they do extend membership to the faere-folk - if they promise to behave.

Now hares you see, are much thought about in March. Moon gazing hares, Mad March Hares they are as they race and box and display in the early morning dews.

Picture from Tony Bates - wildlife photographer - from his 'Hares' gallery

Tony (fabuloius photo above) describes the hare as 'England's most magical, mystical and enigmatic animal' and how right he is. Tony has been talking a lot about hares recently in his lovely blog. Hares are associated with the Gods and Goddesses, the myths and legends of countries the world over.

From the Celtic Goddess Oestre's totem spirit hare to Norse Goddess Freya's hare attendants, and to the flaming torch carrying hares owned by Germanic Goddess Holda. From stories across the Indian religions to the great continent of Africa the hare is revered.

I wonder, did you ever see tiles like the one below? Handcrafted with images and calligraphy, rippling with poetry. They will make one specially for you if you wish. Muddypond just loves these - do click on the link and visit the pottery here!

'For tomorrow may rain, so, I'll follow the sun'

Hare and text tile from Poetry Tiles

'Young Buck' from a selection of paintings and jewellery by Hannah Willow

The hare is a totem, a magical symbol of strange, fey undpredictability. He is said to be cunning, intuitive and clever. He likes to appear at night, sitting still under the moon - where many legends say he can be seen. Look carefully as the moon waxes half full at the western edge of the face. In Sanskrit, the word for Moon is 'Sasanka' which means - having marks like a hare.
Do you remember the excitement surrounding Kit Williams' book 'Masquerade', with its puzzles and buried treasure?

Author Kit Williams with the 'Masquerade Jewel' . Picture from The Smithsonian 1982

When I was just a faerysprig - very young in fact - my soft spot for hares was formed and fixed by the 'Little Grey Rabbit, Squirrel and Hare' stories by the great country writer Alison Uttley and published by Collins. I fell in love with every one of the illiustrations by Margaret Tempest and had, still have - the whole set. Here are two favourite Hare pictures:

From 'Hare and the Easter Eggs' by Alison Uttley - illustration - Margaret Tempest

From 'Hare and Guy Fawkes' by Alison Uttley - illustration - Margaret Tempest

I hope one day to stay in these gorgeous holiday cottages, famed for the hares living in the area - do have a look - how lovely - what possibilities hey! Bleasdale Cottages - for hare watching and a gallery of photographs by Ann and Steve Toon.

The Tale of the Sad Swan Song and the Good Sir Terry Pratchett ......

2011-03-03T12:07:00.011Z

This Bitter Earth!
Now you see, swans are magickal birds. there is no disputing this - and so it has been - throughout time. Did you ever see a swan, carrying its cygnets on its back - wings raised as railings - a floating play pen? I think Sir Terry must have!

'The Six Swans'- Warwick Goble - from 'The Fairy Book'. by Dinah Craik - pub: Macmillan & Co.1913.

It is a matter of the utmost bad luck to kill a swan - they partner for life and grieve woefully if parted. Not only this - but you never know if the swan you're watching, paddling gracefully against the river, isn't really a maiden, a fae princess transformed for a while to reflect her feathers in the lake.

Mute Swan - this picture is from Mike Atkinson - Bird Photograper extraodinaire.

Someone in Britain then, is in for some extreme bad luck - thirty-one swans - thirty-one living, loving, magickal beings - they have killed, shot, and more wounded, in the last month. A reward has been raised, to find the malignant-one. You can read more about this blackest deed in the news - a report from today's national newspaper - but be warned - some of the pictures are upsetting!

'The Wild Swans' - Adrienne Segur - from The Golden Book of Fairy Tales

pub: Classic Golden Books - reprint available here

Sir Terry Pratchett - incandescent with disbelief and rage - has offered a further £10,000 - I hope the killer is found. I know the killer has brought upon himself the bad luck which is sure to ensue from his meddling with souls - thank you for your help Sir Terry - I hope also that someone will give the reward to a caring charity. Perhaps they could try swanmagic.co.uk!

Video from 'Wintermood'

Think on't pernicious swan-slayer! - think on't!

Early spring greening in a faery wood .......

2011-03-01T12:39:00.004Z

Wet and damp and English - this is my wood in the end of February rain. My wood you ask?

Well yes, I am its Wood Guardian. Not so many of us left now - faded and hunted and poisoned as we've been over the years - but perhaps not beyond redemption! Even now there seem to be less toxins in the water of the little stream.

It's dreer and cold today, but everywhere I see deep-green clumps of bluebell leaves, fast pushing up towards the light. They'll bloom here by the million, set their seed and fade away into the soft, black, hundred year mulch before the leaves are fully out on the chestnuts and hazels above them.

Such a very satisfying sight. Talking of hazels, look at the catkins, dancing with promise and only a little drizzle dampened. Better check on those hazel dormice soon - far too cold still for them to fall out of bed

Mind you - if you want to pick a switch of wood to make a wand just now, it's not the hazel you're wanting - it's the Ash you'll need to seek out, for this is its ruling time, until mid-March.

Learn more about the Ash Tree, in my Ogham pages. A good one that for the healing.