The Box of Baubles

 Dear Fairy Followers,

Hoorah , at last it is time to dust off the baubles in readiness for the dressing of the tree ! Here at Betty's Cottage we are rather late in putting up our tree as it is the busiest time of the year for fairy business - there are so many wishes to grant and so much enchantment to spread around that we don't begin to sprinkle the magic here until the week before Christmas itself . Of course the fairies do beg me to bring out the decorations sooner but I am strict in this matter as I really don't want my fairies getting to too tired and excited and then napping for most of Christmas day.

 This morning  I let Lolly and Buncle into the box of baubles to make sure that all was in order. Although they were happy to get in with all the glitter and sparkle , I did hear some grumbling about how they were always being asked to dust and do the heavy work and so I reminded them that the reward for Bauble dusting was a Pink Fondant Chocolate - a treat indeed and one that I find no fairy ever refuses ... and so they set to work with a little more gusto.

Before too long I could hear them waking up their old friends ... Father Christmas just needed a little tweak to his beard ...

 and the Nutcracker man stood to attention again after a long year lying around in tissue paper.

 His friend soon  joined them and Buncle told Lolly how last year he had sneaked a kiss from her under the mistletoe !

 I reminded them there was no time for gossip with Christmas being only 8 days away and they set to work on the important task of Bauble Maintenance (checking for cracks and polishing to a high shine)
 when I noticed that Lolly was enjoying her work a bit too much ...

 as she gazed at herself on the shiny surface !

 Meanwhile Buncle squealed with delight as she found the tiny robin ...

 but then had to fly around the room to try and catch him again as he flew off for a bit of exercise .

 Lolly then found herself in a bit of bird trouble as the feather tailed  bird gave her a bit of a playful peck on her wings ...

 and Buncle had to sew a quick patch over the hole

SSSSSHHHH, don't tell them but this has given me an idea for their Christmas present - their wings have been looking a bit raggedy for a while now ...

 I think she did a good job although her stitches could have been neater - a Domestic fairy sews with invisible stitches but I had to remind myself that Lolly and Buncle are really Garden fairies and only come in to help round the house in the Winter.

 When they went back to the box they were most surprised to find a tiny tree fairy who had been trapped under an avalanche of baubles and was most happy to be rescued .

 She was feeling rather peckish after a year of living on crepe paper and looked rather longingly at the cupcake bauble ...

 In the spirit of Christmas ( and after much discussion ) Lolly and Buncle asked me for the promised  Pink Fondant Chocolate ( of which they were very fond )

 and gave it to the hungry little fairy.

 She felt instantly revived (and they found they had made a new friend for Christmas .)

Don't worry - I shall find another Fondant for the fairies and maybe some of their favourite Turkish Delight when the tree is dressed ! Come back soon to see what happens in the candlelight at betty's cottage as we creep nearer to Christmas day ...

LOVE FROM, Betty X

The Very Important Guest

Dear Fairy Followers,
You find me in the Rosebud Room at Betty's Cottage making a quick inspection to make sure that all is spick and span and ready for a Very Important Guest or  a VIG as we like to call them ( and this one is also a VIF , a Very Important Fairy.)

All kinds of fairies fly in from all over the world and rest their heads under the Rosy  eiderdown , safe in the knowledge that there is always a sprig or two of Lavender to calm their nerves after a long flight  and a bowl of Pansy porridge for breakfast to send them on their way in the morning.

 Our last two guests had slept well and after they had signed the Visitors Book and flown off  I  received news that Auntie Everlasting was flying in that very same evening . Now all you Fairy Followers that have read my Betty Bib fairy books, The Fairy Year and Fairy Christmas will know that Auntie E is the oldest fairy that I know and is Very Wise Indeed.

She is  however also Very Fussy and everything must be  just to her liking or she gets rather crochety
and puts all the other fairies into a bit of a spin; so I put Lolly and Buncle straight to work on airing a sheet ( it was in fact a rather nice vintage lacy hanky ) it was clean but floppy so I sent them off to starch it and spray it with Lavender water.

I often have to ask Auntie about fairy history and I know that she thinks that fairy standards are slipping  and that things aren't like they were when she was a girl ( which was a VERY long time ago when humans actually believed in fairies a lot more than they do now)  so we always try and get things to a very high standard for her.

One thing that I know she is Most Particular about is her Lavender pillow so I sent Lolly

 and Buncle off to find the plumpest and freshest Lavender bag from the linen cupboard in the hope that all would be to Auntie Everlasting's satisfaction. The bow had to be tied with equal length on both sides as it is just this kind of thing that Auntie notices and the Lavender itself had to be this season's English Lavender ( I know she approves of fresh French bread but NOT French Lavender , I think she crash-landed in a field of the stuff once and has taken against it ever since.)

 We all held our breaths as Auntie arrived through the little window by the Bay tree ...she had no luggage with her so we knew it would be an overnight stay only and I think I heard very tiny sighs of relief from behind me !

 She flew straight to the bedside table that she usually sleeps in - we had lined it with Rose scented paper  but after some time inspecting it's dimensions she felt her old bones were too fragile to lay down in such a draughty  drawer and that the scent of Roses made her sneeze so something else would have to be arranged.

  I was most relieved when Lolly suggested the hatbox might be a better resting place and after much huffing and puffing and pushing and shoving it into the right place on the bed ( it couldn't be too near the door in case it creaked and it had to be at the right angle for sunrise in the morning and of course it had to face due East )  she decided it might be snug enough for a night's sleep - even with her old bones she is still very nimble and she jumped into the hatbox with a single leap.

 As I brought  up her cocoa I noticed  she had got Lolly and Buncle to move her bed nearer to the vase of Lavender and after asking for Chamomile Tea instead of the cocoa she finally settled down under her hanky , muttering something about "a little bit too much starch for my stiff legs. " But we pretended not to hear and  tiptoeing away I could hear  her snoring before I reached the bottom of the stairs.

 The next morning Auntie Everlasting was Up With the Lark and seemed to have a real spring in her step as she talked of old times with Ambrose the bear and she even admired the seat cover Buncle had crocheted. She declined her bowl of Pansy porridge , saying that she never eats until she has flown thirty laps round a chimney pot ...she admitted that she hadn't slept so well in a long time and thanked the fairies for making her so comfortable with a perfect pillow which was of the highest fairy order.

 And so with a parting of the lace curtain we waved her goodbye and told her to come again soon .

It was only when she was  high above the clouds that Lolly confessed that she had added some French Lavender flowers to her night time drink  AND to her pillow which had sent her off to sleep so soundly! I decided not to tick Lolly off as modern fairies must move with the times and use their initiative and I also decided never to tell Auntie everlasting about just how close she had come to French Lavender...

 And yet again my poor fairies end the story  in need of a rest from all their exertions ... I think I shall let them sleep before they must strip Auntie's bed and make the room ready for the next VIG who flies in.

Next time we prepare for Christmas - hoorah !
Happy Fairy Spotting ,
LOVE , Betty x

Oh Crumbs !

 DEAR FAIRY FOLLOWERS, 

This week the weather has been rather wet and gloomy at Betty's Cottage and so we decided to cheer ourselves up with a bit of baking. Lolly and Buncle were united in thinking that Cherry Topped Chocolate Fairy Cakes would provide the fairy glow we all needed now that the clocks have gone back and in a fairy trice the cake mixture was being spooned into the paper cases ( fairies don't hang about when they sniff some sugar in the air . )

 Buncle decided to take a rest on the mixer half way through the process ( waiting for me to leave the kitchen so that she could fly down into the bowl and taste the mixture ) but I know her fairy ways and
asked her to prepare the tin for the second batch.

 Once the cakes were in the oven the fairies were put in charge of timing ... a bit of a hot job on the top of the Aga but they didn't complain ...

 and once they were cooked they were given the jobs of  icing and cherry cutting .

 I was just thinking how unusually efficient and well behaved Lolly and Buncle were being as Lolly carefully arranged the cherries on the tops ...

 and Buncle  tested for the shiniest of the cherries ...

 and Lolly  dusted on the icing sugar ...

 When a Cocoa Fairy flew in to see what percentage of cocoa solids were in the chocolate we were using ( she can smell a 70% bar from TWO miles away for you fairy followers that record fairy facts in your notebooks. )

 She seemed quite satisfied with the quality of the fairy cakes we had produced and was happy with the depth of icing when she lightly jumped on  the surface of each one. We gave her a cake to take away with her and decided to eat the rest quickly before more Cocoa Fairies appeared !

Just as I was congratulating myself on what an uneventful day we had and how well trained my fairies were turning out , I bit into the last cake to find a mouthful of duster !! Yes, the very duster that Lolly had been using to dust on the icing sugar - it had obviously fallen into the second batch of mixture and she hadn't noticed it was missing...

 Apart for the dry old duster taste the rest of the cake was very yummy and for a full five minutes Lolly was most  apologetic ... as I was leaving the kitchen I spied the fairies having a last run about in the sugar...

 and when I came back in all the washing up was magically done and Lolly's duster was free of crumbs
 and safely back in her apron pocket.
I am just relieved that the Cocoa fairy went away with a duster free cake or we may have had our license to bake True Fairy Cakes taken away from us !

HAPPY FAIRY SPOTTING , love from,
                                                                     Betty x

THE CASE OF THE SPILT SEQUINS !

 DEAR FAIRY FOLLOWERS,  Welcome to my new look blog !

Here at Betty's Cottage we have decided to shake things up a bit and tell a few more stories about  life here ... you may think you would like to live in a house full of fairies but it has it's ups and downs just like normal life - for these little folk are always full of surprises ...

 So , just as I was thinking of this shake up , as if by fairy telepathy I heard a crash in my garden hidey- hole where I make fairies that are inspired by the creatures around me. There on the floor were hundreds of sequins ( a favourite item for fairies of course as they can't resist anything shiny. ) Anthea was the first to fly in and she decided to just lay there and admire them but luckily for me Feather was next on the scene with her trusty duster and promised to lend a hand.

 Feather is my most expert fairy at dusting and general cleaning , in fact she is in charge of  all the domestic fairies but they were out on a training day so it was just down to us to clear up - as the last thing I needed was dusty sequins , Feather promised to work her fairy magic and make sure that each one was dusted and sparkly fresh and ready to be sewn into a fairy dress, a job I think you'll agree is worthy of a task from a fairy tale !

 For all Fairy Field Guide readers who are wondering why Feather doesn't wear a black and white Domestic Fairy maid's dress you will see that most of her time is spent in dusting the pollen inside flower heads and of course she must be camouflaged at all times.

 But back to the matter in hand - I had been wondering all this time just who had spilt the sparkles in the first place ... Buncle and Lolly below look like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths and they were helpful in gathering up some of the mess into their basket and I didn't like to suspect them but I had remembered seeing some sequins in Lolly's pocket when I washed her apron a few days before ...

 and sure enough later on when all the excitement had died down and all the sequins were ship shape and back in order I found Lolly  asleep in the glitter box with a trail of spangles and sparkles leading me to believe I had found the culprit !
I have decided not to be cross with Lolly ( who is a garden fairy and who along with Buncle keeps the grass and flowers trim and so wears  a cotton dress and apron with only a tiny twinkle on her wings )  but to make her a VERY twinkly party dress for Christmas which should satisfy her love for Sparkle and keep her away from my boxes of shiny things !

Until the next time ...

HAPPY FAIRY SPOTTING ! Love, Betty x

Back to Nature

 Despite the recent deluges , we at Betty's cottage are excited to see the Autumn colour growing all around us and the fairies have started to air their vests and tights in anticipation of the colder weather to come.

 The dried Flower Fairies of Summer have elected to climb into white wooden frames and take a rest over the Winter months as they can't bear to pack away their summer hats and dresses. Miss Honesty
is carrying a sprig of Forget - Me - Nots ... People sometimes ask me if the dried flowers will last and not perish and all I can say is that once they are under glass and properly dried they are much like a watercolour and fine if they are not hung in direct strong light. In fact they should be called Everlasting Fairies. This one has honesty wings, a Hawkweed hat and a Geranium skirt.

 Miss Rosebud is still quite lively even though all her fresh flower sisters have flown away. She sports a  fern 'feather' in her hat and a pansy centre detail on her rose petal frock.

 Some other Nature fairies have come to overwinter in the glass domes where it is warm and cosy and where they can be admired from all angles ( and all fairies love to be admired ! )... Miss Dandelion has brought her broom with her ( and a rather large snail. ) She is wearing naturally dyed clothes and stands on an embroidered base. She has been complaining that her hair is rather dry , but it does have twinkles in it. )

 Miss Feather has dried leaf and vintage lace wings and a pheasant feather skirt.

 Miss Ivy is sitting on a Lotus pod ... her skirt is made of silk ivy leaves and black silk net ...

 Her hand dyed sleeves have a look of lichen about them.

 You can see all these fairies in greater detail at MADE 14 this November in Brighton, 21st-23rd .

Just to end on a more colourful note , these Rose Petal fairies are still scampering around the garden proving that Summer is reluctant to leave us .