Fairy Houses... in the backyard!

I believe in fairies. I believe in fairies. I believe in fairies.

What better way to invite the fairies into our lives than build a house for them to stay while they visit the human world?

Sure, there are many important tasks that keep these magical beings in Fairyland, but, every once in a while, fairies have tasks in the human world too. How else would our blossoms bloom and our garden smell sweet?

So, Ana and I have been building and maintaining fairy houses in our backyard. It is a work in progress - adding knick-knacks and furniture as the season changes, replacing worn foliage, replenishing berries as and when they get consumed...

Our initial inspiration came from Barry & Tracy Kane's Fairy Houses ... Everywhere! But once the little five year old fairy-phile got into the spirit of it, there was no stopping her. Ideas, ideas, more ideas... some easily implemented, some saved for another day...

Eager to see if they noticed and stopped by, we camped in our backyard overnight after our first set of houses were ready. Sure enough, first thing in the morning, when the irrepressible spirit of the five year old sent her sprinting across the backyard to check on the houses, she discovered a sweet little note from the Garden Fairies thanking her for the wild nature houses and the grapes and berries and currants she had set out for them to relish.

Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker

Over a decade ago, I was quite taken aback when D gave me Good Faeries/Bad Faeries by Brian Froud, with his own inscription on each side for me to treasure.

I love the gorgeous illustrations of the whimsical fairies - there was a fairy for just about everything one can think of, including a Buttered-Toast faery... and they are not all conventionally pretty and sweet. Oh No. They revealed their true forms and identities to Mr.Froud who has so generously shown them to us.

I was particularly surprised at the statement D had penned in my copy to treasure, insisting with a straight face that he believes it to be true else he wouldn't dream of writing it... Well, with time, I guess I have proved him wrong about his fanciful assumption.

I am not sure D believes in the Little Folk and I am on the fence myself, slowly falling over to the sprightly side thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm Ana has shown for the past couple of years...

It was only a matter of time before Ana and I ran into the dainty little darlings who revealed themselves to Ms.Barker and let her share them with the rest of us through her beautiful art work... Flower Fairies have come into our lives and there is no way we will look at our garden in the same old way again.

And recently, thanks to Nana, we've started on the Flower Fairies™ Friends series of chapter books, adding to our own library.

Now, Rainbow Fairies were fun. But, we borrowed them from the library so we couldn't color in the illustrations. Besides, it was just Rachel and Kirsty on most pages, with a few goblins, and some fairies of course. So, we had more fun just sketching the Rainbow Magic™ fairies in our notebooks and coloring them in.

However, Flower Fairies™ Friends series has Ms.Barker's permission to reproduce some of her gorgeous flower fairies which we can color in. With Rose's Special Secret, Ana got quite involved and started coloring every page, even inviting me to add my touches.

Of course, even if the story introduces a mischievous Cornflower in dazzling blue, Ana doesn't feel constrained - she happily colored him in pink! And of course, Rose is not doomed to be pink and red, neither is Sweet Pea restricted to pea green bodice and pink skirt all through... they appear in full splendor sporting rainbow colors all through the pages.



I must admit, some of the illustrations are quite magical, making me want to color it in myself: when I open to a page at random and read something like using a fallen leaf as cover, she snuggled down in a small grassy hollow and soon drifted off to sleep... showing cute little Rose with short curly hair not much unlike Ana's surrounded by huge plants/bushes, I just can't resist :)