Hello everyone, hope you are all well?

I love this time of year and I think the faeries do too!  A lovely time for faeries and humans alike to spend time being busy or relaxing outdoors and everything green is flourishing.  Every tree and flower looking drowsy and content in the sun but underneath all that they are busy all the same producing nuts and fruits for us, woodland creatures and the faeries to stock up on for winter.  But we shan’t dwell on that season for too long!

At this time I feel so inspired and feel so blessed to live here on the Isle of Wight.  I’m sharing a few pictures I’ve taken over the last few years which show just a tiny bit of the beauty of the Island.  I always feel the faeries are never too far away here waiting to emerge to be sketched or painted from winged fae flitting amongst hedgerows and branches, to pixies and mushroom men in deep forests and goblins hiding amongst tree roots and rocky crevices underground.

 

Another faerie that dwells underground is the spriggan which I’ve included my little sketch of.  Supposedly they are exceedingly ugly and small although able to enlarge themselves at will.  They are said to guard treasure at such places as the Giant’s Holt, a stone structure in Cornwall and can be found around old ruins, quoits, old castles and barrows where treasure might be.  On Trecroben hill whilst a tinner was attempting to dig for treasure here, the weather suddenly darkened, a wind blew up and hundreds of spriggans emerged causing the tinner to flee and take to his bed for several weeks!

 

They also cause other mischief and can be destructive and dangerous, blighting crops, thieving, attacking those who mock the faeries and stealing human children, leaving spriggans in their place.

 

I’ll bear all this in mind when out looking for faeries to draw and make sure I stay away from places where spriggans may be lurking.  Even though supposedly they are found only in Cornwall, I’ll not risk it – I don’t want them to think I’m interested in taking their treasure!  Have any of you ever come across something that might be treasure, only to have to abandon it as strange winds blew up, tools inexplicably break, or other odd happenings occur?  Might this be the action of spriggans or other guardian faeries…?