New post on my blog looks at some of scents used in 19th and 20th C Jamaica to repel troublesome spirits. #folklore #anthropology natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2026/05/10/d...

"She is called ‘the Green Glaistig’ from her wan looks and dress of green, the characteristic Fairy colour. She is said to have been at first a woman of honourable position, a former mistress of the house, who had been put under enchantments and now had a Fairy nature given her." (J.G. Campbell)

Even in parks and commons you find Wood Sprites. To be honest, that aren't exactly hard to detect. If you've live in the county for an length of time I think it becomes instinctual. You look at a tree and just know a Wood Sprite lives there. – Becky Roper #VOH

"Rabbit rabbit rabbit", something people say on the 1st day of a month ensures good #luck for the whole of it. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once confessed to a friend that he did so, "and would not omit the utterance on any account." 🐇🐇🐇 #FolkloreSunday #rabbits #superstitions

Our next online talk will be taking place via Zoom on Saturday 16 May when ecological storyteller Lisa Schneidau will be joining us to tell TREE FOLK TALES Folklore, storytelling and trees! Book now at bit.ly/flaevents - tickets £5 plus fees, which includes access to a recording of the event

In the owl's opinion everyday is long 🦉 Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828) #BookWormSat 😍Yukio Katsuda (1985)

“Monarchs aggregated in trees covering about 7.2 acres of forest in Mexico, up substantially from 4.4 acres the year before and from 2.2 acres the year before that” 🌎🧪 www.vox.com/climate/4829...

Long before modern science confirmed the neurophysiology of it, nursing founding mother Florence Nightingale, born on this day in 1820, wrote beautifully about the healing power of nature www.themarginalian.org/2022/05/22/f...

Phlox divaricata, another American, is lovely in a shady place, pale blue and a rampant grower. #gardening

🌱 #thicktrunkTuesday A mighty Oak at the end of Wisley’s Bonsai Walk.

The Fairy Way by Margaret Winifred Tarrant

New #ebook at Project Gutenberg: The fairy caravan by Beatrix Potter https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78504

A spectral woman dressed in white accompanied by a white stag is reputed to wander Hillborough Lane. In a rhyme attributed to Shakespeare, he described Hillborough as “haunted”. Could she be one of the shades he alluded to?

Native plant nursery at GreenUP's Ecology Park in #Ptbo opens for the season on the Victoria Day long weekend. Many hands are involved in preparing the nursery for the season opener on Saturday, May 16. kawarthanow.com/2026/05/07/n...

The Wisdom of Gardens 🌷 #gardening #wellbeing #horttherapy perennial.org.uk/gardens/gard...

Dandelion clocks looking like an army of spirit orbs.

Sing a song of May-time. Sing a song of Spring. Flowers are in their beauty. Birds are on the wing. 🎨 Queen Guinevere's Maying, John Collier, ca 1900 #Spring #MayDay #flowers #poem

off I fly 🦉🔥🧹

Restaurant for #BlueMorpho #butterlies. Orange slices are the only item on the menu, but no one seems to mind. #ButterflyConsevatory, #Niagara, #Ontario #butterflies #ButterflySky

Leith Allotments Fox sun bathing and not caring one wee bit. #Leith #Allotment #Gardening 🐛🌱🦊

Looking forward to this workshop at Abbey Gardens! 💮 Designing Gardens with Native Plants 🐝 Thurs. April 30th - still time to sign up! abbeygardens.ca/event-detail... #gardening #gardensky 🐝 #workshop #comewander #myhaliburtonhighlands

The witch in legend of the Rollright Stones megalith complex on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border turned herself into an elder tree. Local lore held that if the tree was cut it bled. #FolkloreSunday

Common chickweed (I think) tangled up with cleavers in a Stoneleigh hedge #wildflowerhour #hedgerowchallenge

A little patch of blue in the garden is a welcome site! 💙 Scottish folklore states that b/c they're a favourite flower of the fairies it's bad luck to pick bluebells & take them indoors. #fairy #folklore #flowers #bloomscrolling #gardensky

Pollinators have been disappearing. It’s time to bring them back! Whether you’re tending a yard, a community garden, a local park, or even just a tiny balcony, our Bring Back the Pollinators program has you covered with guides, videos, free events, & more! Get started ➡️ bringbackthepollinators.org

Sunday plans: 🖼️ Vilko Selan Gliha.

For folklore often holds the swan as the witches' bird. A deliverer of messages to our dead sisters. A wide-wing psychopomp that can fly between life and death. We make cloaks from its gifted feathers. We tell it our submerged secrets. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #FolkloreSunday

Damn right. youtu.be/nXbHOUeFe8s?...

Straight up #Botany being given a boost on the New York Times today with this story. And yes, botany is fun, interesting, educational, entertaining, but also crucial to understanding our world! Gift article. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/r...

Vernal pools page spread. From my new book PONDS: An Illustrated Guide. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... 🧪🌿🌎🪶🐡 #wildlife #scicomm #scientificillustration #visualscicomm #scicomm #ponds #Books #Nature #Naturewriting #naturebooks #naturebookchallenge #booksky #freshwater #wetlands #lakes

Frederick Church, 'The Witch's Daughter' (1881) #OwlishMonday #owl #witch #witchcraft #illustration #oldillustrations #artsky

Sing a song of May-time. Sing a song of Spring. Flowers are in their beauty. Birds are on the wing. 🎨 Queen Guinevere's Maying, John Collier, ca 1900 #Spring #MayDay #flowers #poem

GOTHIC REVELRY Bats and fairies indulge in some nocturnal revelry and dancing in these gothic works by lesser-known women artists. Hilda Hechle 1902-1938 'A Moonlight Phantasy' and Florence Vernon 1871-1905 'The Fairy Haunt'. #MythologyMonday

O'Keeffe's wonderful art taught me how to see flowers. 💐

Reforestation Emily Carr 1936

John Turturro Reads Italo Calvino’s Fairy Tale, “The False Grandmother,” in a Short Animated Film

Why Abbey Gardens should be on your road-trip list this year, a 300 acre former gravel pit now transformed into a community hub. 🐾 #MyHaliburtonHighlands #Ontario #nature #tourism #comewander torontolife.com/culture/why-...

Earth Day is a gentle reminder to step outside, slow down, and feel more connected to the world around us. 🐾 🌱 #HappyEarthDay #gardensky #nature #wildlife

Petal deer, 2012 by Ellen Jewett, sculptor known for her often surreal depictions of animals #WomensArt

Sometimes they come back. From old tales. And walk among us. For #EarthDay today, we have such an old tale, about green children from the Middle Ages. And it might even be a tale along the lines of... hope, maybe? Read more in our 53rd #darkspringtide story below. 🎨 Charles Folkard

Me, being left behind…❤️

Happy Earth Day! 🌍 Let's celebrate by connecting with nature and our communities through books. Whether you're sharing seeds in a Little Free Library, exchanging nature-themed books, or simply enjoying a good read outdoors, we hope you find joy and inspiration in the world around us.

Virginia Woolf on finding beauty in the uncertainty of time, space, and being www.themarginalian.org/2020/04/03/v...

Find out which #birds you can build a #nest box or nest structure for in your region & habitat. Via: @cornellbirds.bsky.social 🐦 #birdsky #diy nestwatch.org/learn/all-ab...

Lilies of the Valley, Albert Durer Lucas, 1888.

"I had, by cross-ways and by-paths, once more drawn near the tract of moorland;" ("Jane Eyre: An Autobiography", 1847) Charlotte Brontë was born #OTD 1816 🎨 Edward A. Wilson (1944) #booksky #bookillustration

21 April is Parilia, the Roman festival honouring Pales, a pastoral deity. It’s said on this day two fishermen refused to observe her rites. In anger she turned them into an alder and a willow. They still haunt the riverbank, the willow trailing branches like lines cast for fish.

Seeing crocuses blooming is a lovely sight after such a long winter, & just in time for #EarthDay, too. 🌱🐾 #MotherNature #Ontario #bloomscrolling #flowers #plantsky

I should imagine that April, May and June see it at its best. One can learn so much by visiting a #garden such as this; it offers a short-cut to hard won experience. #gardening