Pendragon is the most romantic of creatures. My faery birthing day is coming up soon, and he is already planning some surprises and gifts. Dinner in the beautiful dark eating house at the top of the hill has already been booked. It carries some mystery around it ,as to outsiders it looks like a gigantic many floored building,black and purple, into which you cannot see. Only those who dress up in their woodland finery are allowed to enter. I am sure Pendragon is going to have to part with lots of faery gold to get us two seats in the restaurant. He has been asking me a great many leading questions of late. Do I like red ? Do I prefer single stoned necklets, or multi stoned gems ? Have I got freshwater pearls in my collection ? Do I need new night dresses of the gossamer variety ? Where and when would I like my next holiday ? Do I have everything I need for my new gigabyte box ? It is my next birthing day on Saturday to come. I have to admit to being just a little excited, as I was as a little sprite . Oh, fancy paper, hand-crafted cards, faery cakes and lemonade jelly, the wonder of it all. Outside our 5th toadstool today,the rain is flowing,soaking everything in sight .All the flowerheads in the garden are greedily stretching upwards to grasp as much as they can. Our front garden has lots of flowers opening even so early in the year - pansies,pink and red geraniums rebudding, the blue clematis is starting to trail across the lawn, and last year's golden nasturtium seeds are germinating. I love a rainy day. It is the bringer of such bounty to the nature around us. Everything benefits,everything flourishes,everything looks green and fresh. We faeries love this time of year, and as a rainbow faery, I can particularly relate to the colourful aftermath of a shower or two. Although Pendragon and I have much to do in our little green plot, as you would expect,there is already much life to be found there. We do have lots of visiting birds; from robins to sparrows, great tits to rooks , pigeons to the odd massive grey gull, bold enough to fly down to the front lawn in search of yesterday's leftovers. We even have a visiting hedgehog(only at nightime, steered on by the light in our porchway) who waddles across the path for rich pickings. Grey squirrels scale the fence in our back garden to steal peanuts or spare bread chunks from the bird table. We are a safe haven,for man or beast. The wild barkings of the Primpoles' wildebeests occasionally will scare off a party of marauding birds, but they always return. The need for daily nourishment of young and old ,is a far higher priority than avoiding the noise nuisance next door.
There are other friends in the garden,too. As you may already suspect, the fifth toadstool from the left is also home to a family of gnomes. You can find them in various parts of the garden, popping out as you wander round. Head of the family is Mandolini, from the mountains of Italy, who works tirelessly with his spade and axe ,to keep the undergrowth in check. Everytime I see him he is wiping the sweat from his brow, while taking a breather,leaning on the handle of his axe. He always has a happy smile,and looks pleased to see the owners of his garden. Gnomes like to be busy ,and our garden offers plenty of scope for an enthusiastic digger. He rolls his eyes in a beckoning way, you can almost hear a tiny whispered sigh as he wearily stops his labours to take in the air of the day. Mandolini ,by the very nature of his demeanour , issues an invitation to the passer-by,to stop awhile and talk. I have to admit, that I quite often share my thoughts with him ,in the afternoon of the day. Isn't it beautiful,out here,Mandolini ? Do you think it's going to rain,Mandolini ? Maybe we should move that rhododendron,Mandolini ? How about here, Mandolini? Sometimes I have even shared weightier matters with him, hoping that his peaceful presence will help to defuse my worries and calm my fears. He doesn't say much. Just rolls his eyes, and sighs his whispered sigh, and somehow I know that I need to trust myself ,for things will surely be alright. Every garden should have a Mandolini.His jacket is blue,with rolled up sleeves; a brown belt with a copper buckle holds in his tiny,tubby belly.Too many acorns,Mandolini ? His baggy green breeches are tied at the ankles of his stout little legs. His broad dwarven feet are protected by big brown boots made from the leathery skins of chestnuts each and every Autumn. Three snow white curls and two large elven ears peep out from under his bright red pointed hat. His long white tidy beard covers his jolly chin, and the top half of his blue jacket. He is often to be found sitting on the left over stump of a rowan tree,cut down some ten years ago,but still there as a reminder of earlier dwellers of the fifth toadstool from the left. In summer time the stump will be surrounded by carefully placed border plants,pretty with flowers,giving Mandolini a perfect spot from which to survey the mischief of his fellow gnome dwellers and get a touch of the sun. There are three other gnomes besides Mandolini - Pianolo, Basso Profundo, and Verde. More of them later,as we have a whole host of other dwellers besides. For now,the sun is shining again, The sky is clearing ,with some blue squeezing through the powder puff of grey. Time to potter by the shed,to find some old pots for new plants,and perhaps share a cup of roasted acorn coffee (decaffeinated of course) with Pendragon. Saturday and Sunday are always days to be carefree, to put aside temporary cares, celebrate the life that you have and daydream about the days to come. Tomorrow we build the desk for the new study. Pendragon is already looking slightly queezy about this. We have built various pieces of furniture together before with a successful outcome, but tempers usually become frayed halfway through, the air is frequently all shades of blue, and Pendragon the mildest of faery folk, will be heard to declare " never again", or " go on,then, do it yourself, if you think you can do better". That is- between knocking the hammer down on his fingers instead of the wood, or being unable to find the piece he knows he desperately needs, or joining two pieces of wood only to have them give way again.We form a cartoon picture as we try to make sense of the instructions from our home assembly kit. I play foreman,to Pendragon's labourer, so sparks will surely fly before our new desk takes shape, to stand proudly in that area of the house we call the BLUE ROOM. All our previous toadstools have had a BLUE ROOM. The room where we do everything else that we don't do in the rest of the house. That should give some flight to wild imaginings .Small but perfectly formed, it should ultimately be the most interesting room in the toadstool, and to be truthful, it is already well on its way to being a cavern of delight. I have just spotted two porky starlings sitting in the tree at the bottom of our back garden. They seem to be fixed upon whatever Pendragon is currently meddling with ,by the shed. Hopefully it is the insect life he has uncovered ,as he clears away the deadwood of winter, and not Pendragon himself ,as they seek out their next tasty meal. I may have to assume a rescue position, as I definitely want that desk built tomorrow. Love and sweet summer days to you all my friends. Remember to put your clocks forward one whole hour tonight, as the faery summer begins. From Amarantha, the Rainbow Faery.