Bluebells and Fey Folk

My garden(s) both front and back are at present a sea of blue and mauve flowers, with the occasional white hybrid thrown in for good measure. It is the time of bluebells and forget-me-nots, which thrive in this soil. Technically we have heavy clay but my mother worked quite an amount of sand and manure into parts of it and I have added composted manure and vegetable waste. It is still clay and prone to dry hard and crack at the slightest sign of sun but fertile clay.

I was looking at data on bluebells as mine have hybridized over the years and it would seem that the real English bluebell is the one that gives off a pleasant scent on warm days. I have always brought some into the house because of the scent but I had not realized that all parts of the plant are poisonous or that they are linked so intensely to fairy folklore. So to any fairies reading this I extend my apologies for marauding through their favourite plants so ungallantly.

There are a variety of versions regarding the link to the wee folk but mostly it seems they decorate their ponies with the flowers and like to dance to the sound of their ringing bells. For a human to hear the bells ring may indicate the need to make a will rather fast or (I prefer the or version) herald their entrance into the fairylands that exist in a form of parallel world pocket to our own. The downside of expecting to be transferred is that they are not likely to want to abduct someone of my advanced years.

I first learned of their link to bluebells in Liverpool at the November conference that I attended. I always find it strange to come across apiece of folklore that intrudes into my reality segment, as if I should have known that bluebells were so closely connected. I was aware of the Oak, Ash and Thorn connection courtesy of Rudyard Kipling and Puck of Pooks Hill. I was also familiar with the ring of toadstools, which can also be a ring of mushrooms. I have even seen and stepped into such a ring in the vague hope that something magical will come to pass. Perhaps it did and this is an alternate universe to the one I started off in but somehow even my fantasizing brain doubts this.

We have had too much sun this year so the life cycle of my bluebells will soon be reduced to the shedding of seed and the slow withering of the leaves. On the upside I do not have to strim those areas of the grass that they have colonized until they die completely away. In the meantime, this is the best time of the year to look out and appreciate my forest clearing.

Meanwhile to any who are reading my blogs, Angel did stop by for a large meal yesterday evening before vanishing yet again.