'Jack Frost takes every breath you breathe' .......

Illustration by Margaret Tarrant, from 'The Weather Fairies', 1st published by Medici in 1927

      Frost patterns - a wonder never fully explained - not to this fae's satisfaction anyway. And that's just how we magics like our wonders to be! I found these early on Sunday morning and while I examined them closely, keeping my fingers well away from the burning cold, a poem came to mind.  I remember it was read to me in the depths of January when I was simply a fae-sprig.

     Here too, dotted amongst the verses, is a little enchanted fairy art by some of Muddypond's favourite 'Golden Age' fairy illustrators. Beginning with the original illustration for the poem itself by Charles Robinson ......

Jack Frost

Gabriel Setoun

 

The door was shut, as doors should be,  

Before you went to bed last night;

Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,  

And left your window silver white.

He must have waited till you slept;  

And not a single word he spoke,

But pencilled o’er the panes and crept

Away again before you woke.

 

Illustration 'Jack Frost'  from 'Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures'. Pub: Heineman 1913

 

 

And now you cannot see the hills

Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane;

But there are fairer things than these  

His fingers traced on every pane.

 

Rocks and castles towering high;  

Hills and dales, and streams and fields;

And knights in armor riding by,  

With nodding plumes and shining shields.

 

Illustration by H J Ford from 'The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang 1894

 

And here are little boats, and there

Big ships with sails spread to the breeze;

And yonder, palm trees waving fair  

On islands set in silver seas,

 

And butterflies with gauzy wings;

And herds of cows and flocks of sheep;

And fruit and flowers and all the things  

You see when you are sound asleep.

 

Illustration by Oliver Herford - from 'Ladies Home Journal' 1926

 

 

For, creeping softly underneath  

The door when all the lights are out,

Jack Frost takes every breath you breathe,  

And knows the things you think about.

 

He paints them on the window-pane  

In fairy lines with frozen steam;

And when you wake you see again  

The lovely things you saw in dream.

 

Illustration by Helen Jacobs from 'Land of the Happy Hours' by Stella Mead. 1st pub. Nisbet 1946

 

 

The poem is from the book 'The Child World'  - a collection of poetry by Gabriel Setoun, illustrated by Charles Robinson and first published by Bodley Head 1896. 

Gabriel Setoun is the pen name of Scottish poet Thomas Nicoll Hepburn.

Another -

Jack Frost on the Window-pane

An artist came to our house by night,
Pinched were his features and hard his breath;
His garments were threadbare, his long beard white,
And his fingers were icy and cold as death.

A picture he drew when we crept to bed,
Of hills and forests and valleys and meres.
The sun looked admiringly on it – he fled,
And all that was left of his visit was tears.

from 'The Happy Story Book'  Platt & Munk Co. Author unknown 1918

Two pages from 'King Winter' illustrated by Gustav W.Seitz in 1859

 

 

If you enjoy a bit of Winter - or if you're looking forward to longer days and signs of Spring, there is a new page on Muddypond's main website - 'A Kentish Snowdrop Calendar'

 

 

Making rosehip syrup - the last harvest of the year for the faery store-cupboard ...

Vintage illustration from the wonderful Swiss artist Mili Weber c1930, as a postcard.

     

     November - and only after the first frosts - that's the time to collect your rosehips from the hedgerows or gardens to make a batch of rosehip syrup. They may appear to be past their best, but that's just how they should be for this faery-hedgerow-recipe.

    Why is the rosehip beloved by and indispensable to the faere folk of the woods?  Well - because of this syrup!!  It's sweet and strong and packed full of Vitamin C - can be used as a medicine for sore throats and colds straight from the bottle - as it was all over Britain in the war years.

  It can be diluted with water to make a refreshing, tonic drink, said to be very beneficial for joint pain. Or you might just pour a couple of spoonfuls over icecream, cake - perhaps a bowl of winter-warming porridge - sublime!

Rosehips glow in autumn sunshine on the old wild dog rose along the lane.

 

     If the hip almost drops into your hand as you pull it, and feels soft and squashy to the touch - it's perfect!  Even a little discolouration won't hurt.  You don't need to pick vast quantities - just half a kilo, approx. a large bowlful, will make several small jars of deliciously strong, bitter-sweet syrup. Leave enough for the hungry winter birds if you please.

Mid-November hips, picked yesterday - soft, ripe and still smelling of summer

 

Here is the Muddypond Green recipe - tried 'n tested - full 'n flavoursome ....

 

    Ingredients:   (approx)

                      500g (1 lb) sugar

                      1kg (2lb) rosehips - soft and ripe

                      2 litres (3¾ pts) water

*    You will also need a straining or jelly bag to filter the juice overnight.
*    Small jars or bottles (sterilized and hot from the oven) are best, as once opened the syrup won't  last for more than a week.

 

 

    Method:

(1)   Prepare the hips simply by washing, then removing any really discoloured, rotten ones along with large stems or dried flower-bracts.  You can leave the little brown tips as they will all be caught in the filter. Now crush the hips in a pan, using the end of a rolling pin or similar.

(2)   Add 1½ l (just under 3 pts) very hot water, stir and bring to boil, then remove from heat and allow to cool for about 15 mins.

(3)   Strain through a fine-grade jelly bag, drip for 10 mins.
(4)   Return the pulp of hips to the pan and add a further ½ l hot water - stir, bring back to boil, then allow to cool for a further 10 mins.

(5)   Make a final straining through jelly bag - at least 8 hrs or overnight

(6)   Combine juice from both strainings in a pan, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until reduced by approx. half.

(7)   Add sugar, heat and dissolve - boil for about 5 minutes. (Not too long - you're not making jam!)

(8)   Pour while hot into the small heated glass jars and seal immediately. (Can also be frozen in small freezer containers).



Bright fruits stand out against the bare twigs in mid November - the hips are adored by small birds.

 

 

      The medicinal properties of rosehips have been employed for centuries - as the great herbal of Nicholas Culpeper, compiled in 1652, can testify  .......

 

'The pulp of the hips has a pleasant grateful  acidity, strengthens the stomach, cools the heat of fevers,  good for coughs and spitting of blood, and the scurvy. The seed has been known to do great things against the stone and gravel ; … the best way of preserving its virtues is, by keeping it conserved. '

     Rosehips, picked in their prime make delectable decoration. The pictures above are from one of my favourite craft books - 'Enchanted Circles - the art of making wreaths, garlands and decorative rings.' Author - Elizabeth Jane Lloyd.  Published - Conran Octopus 1990    ISBN 1 85029 271 X

 

 

 

Down faery lanes with the last of the blackberries ...

 Illustrations by Margaret Tarrant 
left: from 'Wild Fruit Fairies' by Marion St John - right: Vintage postcard 'Fairy Blackberry' pub. C W Faulkner

 

          There's a lot of faery magick in the blackberry plant. Most importantly, it is the ruler of the Ogham Tree calendar from 2nd - 29th September where its true name is Muin. Folk legend tells us that the fruit shouldn't be eaten after the old Michaelmas Day which was October 10th.

 

     When you pick the berries for all your delicious puddings remember to leave a few for us fae - we love them too and might just take our revenge if you pick them all!  (I won't tell you what we might do - but if I were you I'd take care not to find out!).

 

The leaves, steeped in boiling water, make a soothing tea packed with vitamins and antioxidants.

 

You can read lots more about the magick of the Ogham Blackberry here on Muddypond's website. Also, some really lovely blackberry recipes on her Hedgerow Cookery page.

 

 



Illustration by Margaret Yardley from 'The Fairy Shoe Black' 1945

 

Here is a favoutite poem, written in 1922 by Walter de la Mare,
and some more perfectly beautiful vintage faery art

Berries   (Part 1)

 There was an old woman went blackberry picking
Along the hedges from Weep to Wicking.

Half a pottle-  no more she had got,
When out steps a Fairy from her green grot ;
And says, ' Well, Jill, would 'ee pick 'ee mo ? '
And Jill, she curtseys, and looks just so.

' Be off,' says the Fairy, ' As quick as you can,
Over the meadows to the little green lane,
That dips to the hayfields of Farmer Grimes :
I’ve berried those hedges a score of times ;

Bushel on bushel I'll promise 'ee, Jill,
This side of supper if 'ee pick with a will.' She glints very bright, and speaks her fair ;
Then lo, and behold ! she has faded in air.

Be sure Old Goodie she trots betimes
Over the meadows to Farmer Grimes. And never was queen with jewellery rich
As those same hedges from twig to ditch ;

Like Dutchmen's coffers, fruit, thorn, and flower
They shone like William  and Mary's bower.

Illustration by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

 

 

Berries (Part 2)

And be sure Old Goodie went back to Weep,
So tired with her basket she scarce could creep.

When she comes in the dusk to her cottage door,
There 's Towser wagging as never before.
To see his Missus so glad to be
Come from her fruit-picking back to he.

As soon as next morning dawn was grey,
The pot on the hob was simmering away ;
And all in a stew and a hugger-mugger Towser and Jill a-boiling of sugar,
And the dark clear fruit that from Faerie came,
For syrup and jelly and blackberry jam.

Twelve jolly gallipots Jill put by ;
And one little teeny one, one inch high ;
And that she's hidden a good thumb deep,
Half way over from Wicking to Weep.

 

                                        Walter de la Mare

Vintage postcard - illustration by Madge Williams

Illustration by German artist Sibylle Von Olfers from
'Bellaroontje, Het Woud-Prinsesje'  - 'The Princess in the Forest'  first published c1920

 

Remember - don't ignore your faery-tale folklore -

NO MORE FRUIT OF THE BRAMBLE after the old day of MICHAELMAS!

(Want to know why? Read the story here on Muddypond's Bramble Ogham page)

 

 

 

 

Of spring lambs and Mr. Blake ....

 

 Here's the sight that lets the fae know that spring has truly arrived. Suddenly yesterday, the fields around my woods and lanes were full of energetic, very-new-born lambs - romping in the evening sunshine. I took some of their portraits and they seemed quite proud of themselves!

    
     Did you know that our dour visionary poet - painter William Blake (an important friend of all fae and angels) penned a sweet,short rhyme about lambs in the spring?

 It's from 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'  - one of his best known works with fine illustrations, each engraved and filled in with water colour.
  The little Spring rhyme shows that he did have some happy moods it seems.

'Bo Peep' by Jessie Wilcox Smith - from Mother Goose 1913

Spring

Sound the flute!

Now 'tis mute;

Birds delight

Day and night,

Nightingale

In the dale;

Lark in the sky

Merrily,

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

Little boy,

Full of joy;

Little girl,

Sweet and small;

Cock does crow

So do you;

Merry voice,

Infant noise;

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

Little lamb,

Here I am;

Come and lick

My white neck;

let me pull

Your soft wool;

Let me kiss

Your soft face;

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

William Blake

Illustration at left is by Joseph martin Kronheim and is from 'My First Picture Book'
At right - 'Mary had a little Lamb' - Kate Greenaway

The delicate art of Jessie M King from her collection 'Seven Happy Days' pub. 1913 in 'The Studio' magazine.

I'll leave you with one more proud and woolly mum. Yesterday when I spoke to her and asked if I might use this picture she was so very excited!  Her twins liked Mr Blake's rhyme. So here she is ...

If you like to read about 'Spring Things' you might also like to see the entry on my website diary - 'Spring skies - under an English heaven' here.

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

    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.

 

Spindle tree - a bright talisman for inspiration ...

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'

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

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

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.

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

    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