Spring is here and we are all wishing that the pandemic would just go away. We keep being told that it will, but somehow it still goes on and people are still suffering and dying. So sad.
Sometimes we just want to escape, and what better than a little bit of fantasy to help us cheer up. I came across a photograph of this lovely painting entitled Midsummer Eve, painted in 1908 by a Victorian artist called Edward Robert Hughes who was much influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. He is best known for his fantastical watercolours, of which this painting is one. He seems to have an affinity with fairies as he often paints them. His fairies are beautiful and seem to be diminutive pure creatures with wings and magical powers.
Elsewhere fairies were often depicted as mischievous and evil. You don’t want to give a fairy your name as this gives them control over you, so we are told. But if you find out the fairy’s name then apparently you get control over it. That seems like a good idea.
There are of course different types of fairies but the one most of us come across or rather put across to our children is of course the Tooth Fairy. Tooth is of course an acronym for: Tell Our Offspring Tales Hopefully. The ‘hopefully’ at the end refers to the parental need to remember to remove the tooth from under the pillow of the child who has lost one and replace it before morning with a 10 pence coin (although with the cost of living rising all the time, now parents probably stump up £1 per tooth).
There are of course Ice Fairies who might perform freezing duties. I have not managed to entrap them yet but I certainly aim to – and it would only be poetic justice if they happened to be male – as the male of our species seems to have no inkling of how the ice for their drinks gets made. Currently I am masquerading as Kitchen Fairies entitled REFIT and MICM – Re Fill Ice Tray and Magic Ice Cube Maiden. But I live in hope to find a Frozen Fairy to do my bidding.
When it comes to domestic goddesses, I believe there are a pair of Twin Fairies called LUDD and UDAPA. I know because I named them and now they are in my power and their names mean: Load Up Dirty Dishes and Unload Dishwasher And Put Away.
The old saying used to be that “there are fairies at the bottom of the garden.” I think there may still be a Garden Fairy out there called WAPIGEE (Water All Plants in Greenhouse Every Evening) and he looks a little like my husband.
Pigs might fly!
Have you noticed the date?