A festival of fairies . . .

. . . where you enter with a magical spirit

and leave your "grown up" at home.

"Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,

For I would ride with you upon the wind,

Run on top of the disheveled tide,

And dance upon the mountains like a flame."

~ William Butler Yeats

When I visited my mom this summer we stumbled upon a magical place
where all you needed was an unlimited imagination and an open heart.

I found proof that unicorns do exist . . . 

that fairies take naps . . . 

. . . and sometimes float instead of fly

And, if I were a fairy and had wings, I hoped they would look like this . . .

perhaps I might be spotted wearing this . . . I would be called Fairy Godmother of the Garden,

or Forest Fairy . . . maybe Mother Earth Fairy.

I found no age limit for being a fairy . . . it is about a spirit {and a little spunk}.

there was even a Fairy Statue . . . {yes the bird is quite real}

. . . and the steam punk Fairy Time Keeper

I wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to be a fairy, but regardless she was the coolest cat there. 

And then, there she was . . . the cutest little Monarch Fairy there ever was!

If you were going to be home for Halloween, that is exactly what I would be!

But when no one was looking and everything was still I caught a glimpse of the smallest and most elusive of all, the Flower Fairy.

"The fairies went from the world, dear,
Because men's hearts grew cold:
And only the eyes of children see
What is hidden from the old..."

-Kathleen Foyle

It seems the older we get the more we forget how to trust our hearts and to be open to the unexplainable.

And just because you haven't seen something . . . well, it doesn't mean it's not there.


1. Speaking of fairies one of my favorite movies this summer was "Epic" where M.K. a teenage girl goes home to visit her dad who has been for many years trying to prove that there is a hidden world in the forest. In a turn of events she finds herself {shrunk} and is recruited by the nature spirit Queen Tara to help The Leafmen {who ride hummingbirds} save their existence from the evil warriors led by Mandrake.

2. I'm afraid the Monarch activity has come to a huge halt here. I still have maybe 10 chrysalid's left to emerge, but I'm not seeing them come back during the day. It will be very strange not to have them around since I've been raising them since March.....for a grand total released back to nature of almost 300!

3. A cold front came through last weekend, of course not in time to still have to stand on the sidelines taking photos of the varsity football game in 100 degrees! It was brutal. We have only been in the mid 80's during the day and around 70 at night.

4. My boy is doing pretty well, although he did have a breakthrough in his arthritis last week with pain and swelling and stiffness in his wrists. Apparently when you have systemic JRA and you get a common cold it's not uncommon for that to happen. If by mid November to mid December his blood test continue to come back with normal inflammation markers he may get to stop his infusions all together!

5. Just one more sleep and my baby girl is coming home for the weekend, WhOo HoO!! She has been really doing a lot of research on our ancestry and is pretty sure she found someone who came over on the Mayflower! I'm sure there will be some baking involved while she is here - she makes the best cakes!

Hope your weekend is magical
"Spread your wings and let the fairy in you fly" - unkown
Love, Kim


Linking with Little Things Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things
Random Five Friday, Photo Art Journal

Do you believe?

"Spread your wings and let the fairy in you fly!"

- Author Unkown

Well, I completely ran myself out of time to prepare a proper post for today, so you get a teaser

of what's to come. Do you believe in fairies? What about unicorns?

Until then,

Happy Tuesday....Kim xo

linking with Texture Tuesday, Tuesday Muse

From my garden . . .

"No occupation is so delightful to me

as the culture of the earth, and no

culture comparable to that of the garden."

-Thomas Jefferson

It's been quite the busy week in my garden....

Both Monarchs and Queen butterflies emerged, in my dining room, although I think it now counts as an 

extension of my garden. This is one of the Queen's, not a Monarch, but a close relative. Their color

is much deeper and more brown in color. I was having trouble photographing this little lady on my plectranthus, so I clipped some of my pink penta and put it in a bottle. That's when I discovered something.

This little egg . . . I knew right away what kind of caterpillar this would be as when we first moved in

to our house, they completely devoured my pentas. Only then, I didn't realize what kind of caterpillar it was.

And, it hatched the next day. Just Check out that horn on his back end...it's harmless. This my friends is going to be a tersa sphinx moth. And I am going to try my best at keeping track of this little fella and hope he doesn't fall prey to something. After I noticed the egg, I went back to take a look at the plants and see if I could find more. Nope, nada, but I did find evidence that there had been some small caterpillars from the small chewed holes in the leaves. But so many lizards and assasin bugs...not sure what has a chance!

*(Update: I did this post last night, and upon checking this morning....it...is...GONE!

Can I hear a collective....AWWWWW! It was on my front porch because I read somewhere

NOT to bring it in the AC, so I left it outside against my better judgement.

I. Am. So. Disappointed!)

And then one afternoon after a good little rain fell, the sun came back out, and the butterflies were back out looking for food. This is a Grey Hairstreak Butterfly enjoying the milkweed . . . 

And let me tell you it has been an incredible week of close encounters. Not only did he let me get super close for a mug shot, but....he let me pick him up!

See....I have proof.

And then, he even let me put him back without flying away. It seems he must have more than one life, notice the little chunk out of his wings at the back? They were designed to still be able to fly with bits and pieces missing from their wings.

And as I was knelt down trying to see if there were any caterpillars under the milkweed leaves, this little guy pops out from the bush and comes over, curious they are. 

And it always delights me when my butterflies come home again!

And how excited am I that they finally found the feeder. But boy are they tricky to get on film...so fast!

This week is our monthly Photo Art Friday over at Pixel Dust Photo Art. The optional theme is sky. It's always the first of the month, and it sorta snuck up me this time and I didn't leave myself enough time to play with this theme since I remembered just last night. I used her textures Painting Maker, Muted Monet,

Van gogh Sky, and last a Kim Klassen texture I forgot to write down.

In other news:

1. I can't find fall...it's still in the 90's and humid. One should not sweat at a football game.

2. You remember my pink highlights? The hummingbirds quite fancy them...I was sitting on my front 

porch earlier in the week and with my camera to my eye focusing on the butterfly right in front of me

drying its wings, I hear a hummer come over and at first I think he is wanting a drink from the plectranthus

that the butterfly is on...then I hear the sound of his wings right in my ear and feel a hurricane of wind on the top of my head. I'm pretty sure he was attracted to my pink hair.

3. If that wasn't exciting enough...the next day when he came back he came right up to me at eye level about fifteen inches away and just hovered....we had a moment! And just this morning, he was back again doing the same thing!

4. The last of my Queen butterflies are about to emerge...I need to get off this computer!

Even though I've seen it hundreds of times, it just never get old.

5. Oh, and speaking of close encounters I almost forgot. A giant and beautiful dragonfly just came over and

landed on my big toe one morning while I was outside standing there. I kid you not, and I can't believe I didn't have my cell phone to capture it.

Have a fabulous weekend y'all

Love, Kim

linking with Little Things Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Photo Art Friday

Random Five Friday, Photo Art Journal

Photo-heart connection, September

Sometimes love comes from the most unexpected places

Sometimes love shows up right in front of us but we do not see it

Sometimes we just need to take it by the hand

and

Then sometimes we need to give it back through the plate of offering

Because I do believe the universe seeks to spread this passion

And if we tried a little harder and paid more attention

The world just might blossom into a garden of love

Guess what, today I'm over at Focusing on life where I'm sharing a little story about

what I learned from a fisherman. I would love, love, love if you came over (red rover)

to visit me there!

Love Kim, xo

Sharing with Texture Tuesday, Tuesday Muse, Sweet Shot Tuesday, Photo-heart Connection

Tuesdays Around the World