It takes a long time to become young.
— Pablo Picasso
Welcome to my hundredth post, a different kind of fairy tale today,
dedicated to someone well loved
who turned one hundred last Friday.
He was grumpy, nearly blind, taking small steps with a walker,
but still his blessings outnumber his age: Continue reading
A new Adventurous Fairy Tale, named Sprite Spite, is now available to read. An excerpt follows:
Sprite Spite
Wings swiftly beating, Amadou dodged saplings and swung wide around old soul trees, the wind pulling his curly, brown hair straight back. He felt the tree spirits slumbering in the cool midday, their leaves turning golden shades of autumn.
Amadou had been unfurling fiddlehead ferns all morning, and he needed to blow off steam. He was looking for a wide ledge of fungus, just the right height above the ferns. He could see it in his mind’s eye. That day, rain had created the perfect conditions. Diving sprites give a tremendous scream, arch their backs gracefully, wings folded. Then they take a running jump from the fungus ledge, falling through the thick, damp air, eventually bouncing from fern to fern and water slalom skiing in the dew on their tiny feet.
To continue reading, click on Sprite Spite.
Used with permission of acuriousgal
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Some photographs used with kind permission of acuriousgal, a very talented photographer.
Check out Lady Fi’s stunning Dragon Sky! Hurry before it disappears like the other dragons. 😉 Have a great Thursday, Brenda
The autumn equinox rushed in
Like a ragged brow across the sky;
A dragon breathing fire clouds
Of orange and rain.
The strange light in the sky
Pulled us up the hill
To witness the sight of purple turmoil in the sky
In contrast to the calm surface of the lake.
(A few seconds later, the heavens opened
And a gale force wind started blowing
Making us dash for home in a whirlwind
Of laughter and leaves.)
For more amazing skies, please visit: Skywatch.
“Mr. Puffy!” Jane walked by a small patch of clover and two red leaves, calling for the Lord of the Stone Family. “Puff Monster!” The family cat definitely ruled their roost. Her father worried over him like a hen over a chick, Jane thought to herself with a smile.
She heard a gasp behind her, and she turned to look. Nothing. Except, beside the clover patch, was now a toadstool circle. All the toadstools looked down, as if not wanting to draw attention to themselves. They seemed to be hiding. Continue reading
A Curious Gal has a great eye for photography, and a lyrical commentary. I hope you enjoy her mermaid! Brenda
Friendly Fairy Tales is proud to offer its newest Adventurous Fairy Tale, Fae Cousins.
Photograph of Osaka used with permission of Mohamad Reza
Excerpt of
Fae Cousins
From a distance, cities like Osaka seem all concrete and steel, not a place for a fairy’s magic. Jade Lion Fairy knew the opposite was true. Urban Fairies are the busiest fairies, sprinkling their magic over long distances and up high heights. They look after patio flowers, green squares, Castle Gardens, parks, tightly confined trees and small children. If nature pushes through the concrete and flourishes, then a fairy enchants.
Jade Lion rode the tide of heat from a vent all the way up to a balcony. A fairy in a glamour could appear as a shimmering heat wave or a large insect. She tucked her sparkling wings neatly on her back and sprinkled fairy dust from her bag on the tall purple orchids, which seemed to glow from within. Meanwhile, she also looked around for her necklace.
“Where did I lose it?” she wondered to herself. She thought back over where she had been. The last time she remembered taking it out of her dahlia-petal dress was when she showed it to that Tokyo sprite.
“Ouch! Hey, I’m Spit Spite Sprite – Just call me Spritester,” the small, blue-skinned sprite and she had collided under a Japanese maple tree by Osaka Bay. He danced on a salty breeze, laughing.
Click here to read the rest of Fae Cousins.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: First photograph published by Folliculostella and was taken by Mohamad Reza.
Here is a wonderful, lively and joyful Haiku from Source of Inspiration. I hope you enjoy! Have a magical rest of the week! Brenda
Shining eyes at night
Floresta life is awake
Fairies dance with joy
Photo Courtesy of Busymindthinking
Keep love in your heart.
A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
— Oscar Wilde
Mein Liebster Bloggers, Friends and Family,
I write to you, my lieblings, to celebrate loved ones, to thank wonderful bloggers and to pass the liebe (love) along to others. My kids and I made a new video, Healing Magic of Beauty, in honor of all those fighting sickness and disease, you know who you are.
In particular, I dedicate Healing Magic of Beauty to two beautiful women, without whom my world would be a darker place.
To Belinda: she battles disease, but still finds time to look up and embrace the mystery and beauty of the ever-changing sky. Then she records it and shared it with the world. You can find this brave and lovely lady at Busymindthinking.
To Aunt Mary: I also dedicate Healing Magic of Beauty to you on your birthday. You are the original magical one — the finder of four-leaf clovers, the savior of the forlorn, the wisest and loveliest woman I know. Thank you for the luck your love has always brought me. You are daily in my thoughts, and I send thoughts of healing, magic and love your way. Happy, Healthful Birthday!!
Now to some blog business of a most agreeable kind…
Thanks to Bullying Prevention for giving friendlyfairytales the 6-award! Thanks also to the Seeker57 for handing me a giant portion of 14 more also. They both have terrific blogs and lots to offer, and I hope you will visit them. I had previously received, posted and nominated others for nineteen of these twenty awards, and thus I will gladly use my award acceptance token.
The award new to Friendly Fairy Tales is the Seed of Light. Rules: put up the icon, thank the giver and pass the award on to five deserving individuals. I’m going to gift it to the nominees below to whom I am also giving the Liebster.
Thanks to Coach Muller for awarding friendlyfairytales the Liebster Award. He is an inspiring man with feel-good stories.
This is an award to help bloggers find new friends and to encourage other new bloggers. Liebster mean “dearest” in German.* Although I have received this award before, I have never before followed the rules or learned any German. I know, shocking of me. However, third time’s the charm, and so here goes:
The Rules: Put up the icon, thank and link-back to the giver, answer questions and pass it on like a hot cake to more 5 deserving newbie bloggers with some more questions. I’ll be interpreting Newbie Blogger liberally since I’ve seen many definitions from blogs with 200 to 3000 followers.** I’m just going to pass it on to people I found inspiring, amazing or fabulously funny, because I’m saving the rest of my brain power (limited as it is at my age) for writing. I’m not sure the questions are strictly necessary, but that’s how it was given to me, and why not?
Here are some blumen (flowers) and baum (trees) from my wandern (wanderings) to thank my readers. I hope you will take a few moments today to feel loved. Shoot, why not every day?
Auf Wiedersehen!
Brenda
* http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Liebster.html
** http://sopphey.onimpression.com/2012/05/liebster-blog-award-origins.html
Note: Photograph of sky used with permission of Busymindthinking
Dedication: this post is dedicated to Skye, a gem of an island in Scotland, one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Friendly Fairy Tales is happy to present a new Adventure Fairy Tale, the Vegetable Fairy. In honor of Labor Day, we are celebrating the hard work of gardeners and others who labor to grow the food we all enjoy. Happy Labor Day!!
Squash Blossom was a Vegetable Fairy, but she sprinkled her fairy dust on the vegetables resentfully, looking longingly at the flower beds blooming with petunias, coreopsis and dusty miller. She longed for the color and brightness.
The flower she liked best was the rose bush, it had such amazing flowers. She knew the flower fairies made tea with the rose hips, the green nub left after a rose bloom had faded. Squash Blossom loved tea.
“The flower fairies have the best jobs,” she thought to herself. She thought spending all her time in the flower beds would be the best job ever!
Click here to read the rest of the Vegetable Fairy
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
This story is dedicated to all the gardeners growing food everywhere.
I have received showers of blessings. Friendlyfairytales has received so many lovely comments, praise, support and attention, that awards seem like icing. Of course, I’ve always liked icing. 🙂
The rules are partly about sharing yourself. I’m sharing something very personal today.
The Psalms were some of the earliest spoken poetry I ever remember hearing. My beloved mother passed away when I was four years old. Perhaps my imagination provided me this, but if I have any memories of her voice left, it would be of her saying these words, giving me an abiding love of poetry and also a sense of security beyond my own family:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul…
My current quest for combining poetry, nature and stories harkens back to those early, peaceful memories of safety. In the spirit of thankfulness for blessings, past and present, I want to, yet again, share a brand new movie (my third ever!! I hope they are improving!!), made by my kids and I, called Water of Life:
Thanks to the Mobius Strip for the Super Sweet Blogging Award. Dreamwalkeramrita is a great artist and writer, and her blog is worth a visit.
Thanks to White Rabbit’s Gallery and The Mother of Nine9 for a new Sunshine Award. Both of these bloggers add sunshine to my life, and would add sunshine to yours, too!
Thanks to Reocochran for gifting friendlyfairytales a whole bouquet of awards from which I could choose, and she told a lovely story about the bouquet she carried at her first wedding. Since I already have received all these awards, instead of gathering up those tokens, in her honor, I’ve made this acceptance token:
Thanks to Ajaytao, who visited me with a Super-Sized Award Portion, and I’ll put the icons up because they are new to me!! Many bloggers already know Ajaytao, but if you don’t, you are in for a real treat. He has a loving, wise vibe surrounded always by beauty in thought and nature.
Notes on Awards: Liebster means dearest in German, and this is given to newer bloggers. Semper Fidelis means always faithful in latin and represents fidelity and love between blogging friends. The others are pretty self-explanatory.
Thanks to Terry1954, whose goodness shines through in every post, during the good days and the bad, while caring for her brother Al. I’m honored to receive an award she has created, the Excellence Award:
If I follow all the rules, I would be posting awards, sometimes several a day, and I would have no time for writing and creating, and soon I would be sad, and getting awards would feel burdensome. Plus I would bore all of you with the minutiae of my life answering all the questions. I do want to share the love with other great bloggers who have given generously to me of time and attention, and who daily make my cup runneth over with joy and love. If I haven’t named you, it is simply dinner time and I ran out of time. I also can’t name over 600!!
To all the lovely and talented bloggers nominated below, I give any awards they have not received above, and I also give my own created award, the You are a Miracle Award, because you are! To me, you have been the most amazing, encouraging and talented community. I could not have imagined a better world to join.
Without further ado, the very deserving nominees:
busymindthinking
anelephantcant
Old News
mrsbearfoot
Glorialana
Jon Petruschke
petitemagique
Ola Ciezak
lauralistar
Professor VJ Duke
belsbror
Mona
Paula Williams
Jessica Hagan
ksbeth
Oldest Daughter …
beingnenne
Eva PoeteX
cindy knoke
The Hook
jacquelinemhadel
If you maintain an award-free blog, don’t feel any regrets, this is just my wish to share the love with you. No obligations need accrue, no dire events follow from not accepting. Please do share the love with others if that is your way. And have the loveliest of lovely days!
A few flowers from my wanderings to thank all my readers, near and far:
May kindness and mercy follow you all the days of your life and may you live happily ever after. 😀
The End (for today)
With great affection, Brenda
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: The video Water of Life is dedicated to my mom, who I believe would have loved my blog.
Dragonfly dances;
Rainbow wings, shining, flashing,
Magic spins aloft.
Last will come winter
Leaving shadows, memories
Of summer soaring.
Never forgotten
Is the dance of the fairy
In glen, fen and den.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
“Oh no, not Mushroom Condo Village!” Fingle Daggadar Northstar said to his mother, Jin-Jangle Northstar, Fae-Mayor of Rushing Fairy Glen.
“Dear, you’ll have to live somewhere if you go off on your own.” Jin-Jangle said.
“But just look at them. Tiny, some of them are just barely taller than me!”
“Finn, darling, just live at home while you study toxicity eliminicity in Twist Trunk University.”
“Oh, mom, only dorkus fairistinkers live at home while they go to TTU.”
Friendly Fairy Tales 