Welcome to the Faerie Luna Gardens

The Nursery has opened up yet another Instagram account titled faerielunagardens to showcase what the Faeries have growing in their gardens. So far, during the first few months of living here on Vancouver Island and living with the Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park backing onto our property line, we have been awed by finding different mushrooms, flowers, plants and trees local in this area.

With this new account we will post photos of our old and new Nursery will all of the splendour that nature has to offer.

A bit about the Nursery:

Created/founded in Fort Smith, NT, located just above the 60th parallel in Canada's north. The weather there can swing from -30C in the winter to +30C in the summer.
Fort Smith has a Dry Continental Subarctic climate with very long harsh winters combined with warm but relatively short summers. With this diverse temperature the environment of this area can be both stark and barren in the cold but lush and green in the heat. Most gardens and flowerbeds are raised as the permafrost stills lingers just meters beneath the surface of the ground but this doesn't stop the Faeries from gardening.

Now the Nursery has relocated Qualicum Beach, BC where the climate is classified as a Warm-Summer Mediterranean climate. Meaning that it has cool, wet winters and relatively dry summers allowing it to be considered to have the mildest climate in Canada. The average temperature during the rainy winter hovers around +1-3C and during the heat of summer it reaches to a balmy +25C.  The area is known for its amazing gardens so I can't wait for spring/summer to get here. With this just being the first week of March (2017), the Faeries have been busy preparing for spring planting as the local markets have already held their 'seed sales' and bedding plants can be found outside of shops ready for sale.

Let us celebrate the wonders of the outdoors ... welcome to the faerielunagardens.......

Needing an Umbrella

"Raindrops and like Fairy Whispers."

Author: Unknown

When the Future Becomes the Past

Today is when this moment of the future stands still to become the past.

Today is when even countries become divided within themselves.

Today is when the world goes from up to down.

Today is when yesterday becomes the new now.

Today is when the bottom and the top work side by side.

Today is when the sun shines for one more working hour.

Today is the when the seasons welcome the next.

Today is when autumn wards off winter.

Today is when spring lets the summer come earlier (antithetical of today).

Today is when the hands of a clock are dictated by the spinning of a globe.

This day (or to be exact, within a week or so) is unique, well, twice a year it is unique. Today is known as Daylight Saving Time. This is when time falls back and subsequently when time springs forward late March (or to be exact, within a week or so).

This time change is known as Daylight Saving Time. Working hand in hand with both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres of the world, today exchanges one full hour into either the past or the future.

Known as the way to make better use of the natural daylight by setting your clocks back by one hour in the fall and by setting your clocks forward by one hour in the spring. Please note that it does not actually ADD an hour of daylight to the day but it gives a more usable hour of daylight. Thusly the saying of 'spring ahead and fall back'.

Daylight Saving Time originated in Germany, well, Germany was first to implement this unparalleled change to time. It was actually first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 but it wasn't until George Vernon Hudson from New Zealand in the year 1895 when today's modern Daylight Saving Time become the norm. It took another 21 years for the first country to implement this amazing shift of time. On April 30, 1916 the hands of a clock was set forward at 11:00 pm (23:00).

The one hour time change was never set in stone throughout the ages. There has been a full gamut of documented shift changes from 20 minutes all the way up to 2 hours.

Those countries that participate in this remarkable phenomenal jump can be divided by the strangest standards. Even different sections of these countries do not recognize this change of time.
In Australia, Canada and the United States, uses a different name for these special hours in today's society. The DST - Daylight Saving Time is ofter referred to Savings with an 's'. It is perceived that this extra 's' became the norm as it is a common expression in our vocabulary, for example - a savings account. In the United Kingdom these hours are commonly referred to BST, British Summer Time, or 'Summer Time'. They term Winter Time, is used for standard time, or the time without DST. The term Summer Time can even be seen in various bills and Acts, including 'Summer Time Act of 1916, the Summer Time Act of 1925 and the Summer Time Act of 1972.

There are approximately 70 countries that utilize Daylight Saving Time. Japan, India and China of the major industrialized countries do not observe some form of the DST. In China itself, they had in place a single time zone until 1980, when they adopted DST during the years of 1986 to 1991. They once again returned to the single time zone that is used today. 'Sommerzeit' is the term used for 'Summer Time' in Germany. April 1916, the German Federal Council decreed the DST be instituted as a wartime measure.

The countries nearest to the equator or tropical countries do not generally exercise this change of time. Since the hours of actual sunlight cannot be observed to change dramatically between seasons there is really no advantage to moving the hands of a clock.

The use of DST can be dissolved even within a country itself. In Canada for example, the province of Saskatchewan established The Time Act of 1966. Even though this province is located within the Mountain Standard Time (MST) that runs between the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan to Manitoba. Previously the question of 'time' was the responsibility of each municipality under the Cities Act and the Towns Act of the day. This new Time Act of 1966 brought together all of the uses of MST, CST and DST into one time. The time of Central Standard Time which does not recognize any changes of time itself. Now if you were to look to the province of Manitoba, even though it is within the Central Time Zone, it acknowledges the use of CST and CDT, Central Standard Time and Central Daylight Time.

When looking at an actual chart from all of the countries world wide, some do not only observe DST but they have adopted different dates, even months of when these changes take place. Making DST a unique change of time worldwide.

So if you live in a country, a state, a province that uses the time unit of Daylight Saving Time...I hope you celebrate that one full extra hour of useable sunlight, even if it is that nice feeling of being able to snooze in bed before your alarm goes off when you have to start your day.

The Perfect Day

I'm not sure if it is by complete coincidence of the true nature and meaning behind the lore of Fae, behind the traditions of today and the weekend of a new time. What an amazing day, what an amazing weekend, this is!!

Shall we start at the beginning....

As in today's 'Thought of the Day' graphic, evil, well no, that's not quite correct in the definition...I bare with me..I'm getting to it). The Seelie Court has just a bit of evil to it, and I guess you could say that the Unseelie Court has just a bit more evil, possibly a whole lot more than just a bit, evil attached to this group (oh come on now...you know that this 'just a bit' of evil in no way, shape or form truly describes this court).

History....now, please do forgive me, as this information is pulled from so many sources, that I can't really quote any one of them as I have jumbled all of the words into my own interpretation....as always..sigh...so, please do not bother scrolling down to the bottom as there are no footnotes included....

Let's try to explain a few things....

There are possibly 6, but knowing faeries, there will technically be an inexhaustible limit to the courts within the realms of fae but there are 6 that seem to have withstood the test of time and are still quite known today. This part I have found to be a little bit strange to me, as the information that I was able to garner really only spoke of 4 major courts...but who am I to say anything, particularly anything that I really know nothing about!!

Onto the definitions...I know get on with it already...there are still 2 other topics on today's agenda to talk about....

Fae Courts....

The Seelie Courts:

Summer - these faeries are possibly the nicest of all, well to your face that is as they can be or probably more so a bit on the fiery side. Fiery side? Well, you know how the sun during this time is at its brightest, the warmest, the ice tea (for those of you that prefer something a bit stronger, I will add in coolers and even though it is not my cup of tea (ha, ha, ha) a bottle of beer being cracked open that can be heard throughout the land), the time for barbecues, lounging around by the pool/ocean/water in general, the time of the full blooming for the flowers...Okay you get the drift...this particular court is the epitome of summer, but just as some days can be soooo friggin' (sorry for swearing but that is the best definition) hot and unbearable...so can be the faeries. I'm not sure if the heat is what gets to them but remember that fiery side I mentioned earlier....well so can their tempers be, hence the LESS evil of the groups.

Spring - okay, so I'm doing these out of order...just note that I can do this as it is me telling the story here...so there! This court of course represents the spring season...dah, bet you didn't figure that out on your own now did ya'. This court can be called the calmest of them all. It is not too hot or not too cold for that matter...it is just right, (not trying to make any reference at all to the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears') but hey, if it helps with the analogy of this paragraph than so be it. Everything is just right, literally, the porridge, the chair and the finally the bed. Think that should pretty well sum up this court!

The next Court is The Unseelie (and I suppose you already have figured out who these guys are)!! (smarty pants...no-one likes a know-it-all):

Autumn - the time of change, the time of death, the time of dancing around the campfire. These are the worker bees of the hive. They are the collectors of the honey, okay enough with the references to outside stories or behaviours. Sitting back on the rocking chair, smoking that long pipe, listening to the fiddle music (not my personal favourite type of music, but I degress again), thanking the 'gods' above that the pesky little ones are finally going back to school, watching the sun sink below the horizon with its fantastic orange colours, oh and how could I forget....doing the cannonball jumps in the raked up leaf pile. There is no tea on the menu tonight but more the warmed hot buttered rum apple cider (spiked with a bit of rum, okay, perhaps more like a 75/25 split, yes that being the rum at the 75 percentage as who wants just an apple flavouring in the mug...mind you...I might like mine without the rum part but with the 75% being the hot buttered flavouring), I know in the latter part of this season you can purchase eggnog (but then again, when did it become the norm to have Christmas trees and potential gifts all ready in the isles at shopping malls), mulled wine with cranberries..(yummy) and even hot chocolate with those wee marshmallows that float on top from the package (I've heard but don't quote me on this...they really aren't marshmallows..but who really wants to know this fact/fiction). So to sum this court up, they are the wild bunch that really is calmest of the all!

Winter: the time of freezing your butt off, getting your tongue stuck on that metal light post, snow ball fights, the building of igloos, the....oh wait, this is the human race I'm talking about now! Besides it being to darn (did you all see that...I substituted the word darn instead of the harsher word, the not so polite, the word you wouldn't say in front of your Granny...damn...of crap...there I typed it out anyways)...I know, me bad...the faeries made me do it...seeeee...just like I mentioned above the MORE, possibly EVEN MORE evilest of the courts. 'nough about this group as I think you can probable fill in the blanks after the words 'more, possibly even more evilest' of the courts....

So here, it the graphic....


p.s. I ran out of room on this blog posting so you will just have to wait for the next topic being typed out a bit later on in the day...now don't get your panties tied in a knot....I promise to be back later (yes, I know...promises, promises!!).

p.s.s. Yes, this is the same graphic that I will be putting up on the 'Thought of the Day' tab, so don't feel obligated to changing pages, as I would hate to make you work any harder today than necessary.

p.s.s.s See I told you there would be no quotational footnotes!! SEE!!

A Tea Party!

Yay! A nice sunny day with very little wind... what a perfect day for a tea party.

The Clay Potters were out chatting away, sipping on drinks and having snacks.

You can view their individual photos in a Facebook album. 

Vienna by Meagan

So the Nursery was lucky enough to have both Meagan and Heather over this past weekend. While Heather made a beautiful faerie that reminded her of wintery days, while Meagan's faerie kept to a similar brrrrrr theme she also mentioned what her faerie likes to do on warm summer days.

I would like you all to meet Vienna and this is how her story goes...

"Vienna is a delightfully aristocratic faerie with a taste for the finer things in life. She enjoys reading the classics in a giant elm in the park on a summer day or taking a seat in a packed opera house on a snowy winter's evening. Having spend much of her life in Russia and Austria, she enjoys the cold of the North very much, just as long as it includes a toasty fire and a cup of spicy mulled wine."

Thank you so much for visiting Meagan, I hope you had a wonderful time and that you will be back again soon.

Summer Time

I have had a difficult time coming up with different ideas for my 'summer' item in the larger Faerie Suites.

Each trinket chest currently has a pair of flip flops, an envelope, a parcel and three packages of seeds but I have always added a decoration of some type. This has ranged all the way from a single flower, a bird house, a watering can ... well you get the idea, something summery.

I have seen so many different things on Etsy but unfortunately when you start to multiply the costs and how many I would need, it just makes it too expensive.

I have always loved those wee little door signs that you can get. They come in all different sizes and shapes and colours and themes....

So, I figured I was just going to play today to see if I could come up with something myself with products I already have in the nursery.

These aren't perfect by any means but I think they actually ended up quite cute. They will fit nicely in the trinket chest and look wonderful hanging on the doors.

And Who Doesn't Love SPARKLES???

Tomorrow is Art in the Park and as a last minute decision I decided I would like to do a tree display for the faeries. 

Now normally, well I have only ever done Christmas craft fairs before, I have used pine tree branches with moss at the base. Mind you this display is used for the complete Faerie Suite that includes the magical wooden door, trinket chest and a flower petal faerie. Everything is tucked in nicely to create a wonderful mystical scene with mushrooms and rabbits and faeries in the trees.

But as this is a summer fair, I thought maybe using just branches that are sparkled to hold the faeries. So over the weekend I just happened upon one of those light-up branch Christmas trees. You know the ones, just bare branches, no leaves. Well the picture on the box made it look like it was rounded and filled out and just perfect to hide little faeries in. After taking it out of the box....well lets just say it was silver branches all right, but they were all tied together flatly. There was no dimension, no nothing, just flatness!

Really need creativity here. The craft fair set-up is tomorrow morning. I don't want another Christmas scene and anyways, my table is only going to be about 3 feet long. Not nearly enough room to show a complete Faerie Suite. So what to do. Don't want to show off my Teacup Nurseries just yet. What does that leave me. The Seed Pod Faerie Babies...but but but. Nah. I am only going to take my faeries. 

So, off I went after work...need spray paint and sparkles...oh yeah and branches! 

I was lucky enough to have Georgina come over who really should go into interior design. No, really, she should! Wow. She did a fantastic job of the whole tree. She make little spaces for the faeries to sit in and everything. Plus she seems quite at home wearing sparkles :)

I will take more pictures tomorrow once everything is set up at the venue. As I am unsure if I will have access to an electrical outlet, the tree looks just fine without all the blue shiny lights. 

Wish me luck :)    

And thank you again Georgina :)

Georgina having fun ;)

Sparkles :)

Sparkles, Spray Glue and Rubber Gloves..hmmmm

 Fionn making sure we are doing things right!!

sparkly leaves

with lights

without lights