Sunday, March 06, 2016

What do elves and fairies eat?

The fairy's campfire?
This morning we spent some time at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, which seem to have been invaded by elves and fairies. Tiny houses, patios with patio furniture in Bonsai dishes, playgrounds including tire swings and rope ladders, miniature stone benches, and many more elfin-size dwellings and play spaces now nestle among the labeled trees and flowers. Some are in the mossy banks under the jungle plants and others among the cactus in the desert spaces. Not many of the elves and fairies seemed to be eating anything; just sort of hanging out in their little homes. They are so small... they probably don't need much. I wondered what they were cooking over the campfire.

They have quite a few playgrounds, including
the tire swing above (penny for size).

Maybe these birds' eggs on scallop shells are this musical fairy's lunch.


Many of the fairies and elves seem to live in the tropical part of the greenhouse, but a few live in the desert among the cactus.


A bit of food served on another shell?
We also enjoyed the plants and flowers that grow in the greenhouses, but I've taken photos of them many times before.

Even in the very dry desert display, the greenhouse
windows are fogged up.
The goldfish pond reflects the greenhouse roof.
One of my favorites: the kaleidoscope
that's trained on a flower display.
I saw no written acknowledgements of the elves and fairies' houses, and found no mention on the webpage or Facebook page for Matthaei Botanical Gardens. But maybe the fairies and elves don't want to be noticed, and confused my eyes when I was checking for a mention of them.

1 comment:

Jeanie said...

These are wonderful -- dare I say "magical"? I love this garden and haven't been there in years! We should meet there sometime!