Maretha at Fauna Park Tales

8 July 2020 – Spring and Summer Garden Glimpses – Wonderful Wednesday #FaunaParkTales

PHOTO-2020-05-04-18-32-05 (1)
Photograph by Sarah

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY – a perfect time to sit back and think about all that which makes gardening such a pleasure – besides writing or reading a good book, of course!

BLUEBELLS
During Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, carpets of enchanting, sweeps of blue erupt from sleep during April and May. These fairy flowers can be found everywhere along woodland edges and under trees, and for a few short-lived weeks, you might have opportunity to walk among them.
Our garden has the foreign Spanish bluebells – unfortunate in a way – because they are more robust than the native British ones and might endanger them. Even so, catching a glimpse of early dandelions for the first bumblebees is also a pleasure.

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Such a wonderful sight often inspires us to write poetry or even to paint them. Here, as part of the slide show is a watercolour done by Elizabeth Aaron, who was inspired while walking with her mom, Sarah, in the western Pennines near their home to paint blue wild flowers,  and below is my poem, “A Brief Life” and  in Afrikaans, “‘n Lewe van Kort Duur”.

A Brief Life
Trapped dewdrops sparkle on bluebells’ petals as the sun appears above an eastern hill. They dance lightly in the breeze, inviting an early bumblebee to have his nectar fill –
What a delight!
Yet, suddenly the earth beckons and soon,  they disappear to face another long night.

~*~

‘n Lewe van Korte Duur
Doudruppels skitter op blou hiasinte blare en sodra die son bo die heuwels verskyn
Dans hulle ligvoets in die windjie en roep na ‘n hommelby om sy nektar te kry –
Wat ‘n plesier!
Maar gou roep die aarde en spoedig verdwyn hulle vir nog ‘n lang nag.
 – M.M. Botha

~*~

Thank you for popping in at my Wonderful Wednesday post today. Please be sure to come back for another glimpse into my garden on the 8th of July! Should you wish to comment and/or follow this blog, please check below the About Me section. Thanks again. 🙂 

 

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Published by Maretha at Fauna Park Tales

Maretha is a South African Italian, born in a small town called Montagu. She grew up in nearby Worcester in the Western Cape – a town reminiscent of living in Switzerland among the snow-capped mountains. Worcester had a small library. Young Maretha’s visits were limited to three times a week, because the librarian told her, “You spend too much time with your nose in a book and neglect your school work.” Nothing much has changed, because she's still a confirmed bookworm who constantly strives to raise more bookworms who enjoy reading, not just as a pleasant past-time, but as an excellent tool to be used when grown-up. Before immigrating to the UK to settle in Lancashire, Maretha worked as a librarian in a private school in Botswana, where one of her tasks was to encourage children to enjoy reading. That was a labour of love for this bookworm, providing valuable help in carving her own career as a children's author/illustrator. It brought her face to face with the literary industry’s toughest critics – children and preteens. She saw that many students also enjoyed reading about birds and animals, their care, habitats and general well-being, especially when a few added catchy rhymes here and there made reading sessions interesting and alive. In 2012 her job was localised and as things often happen, this unforeseen occurrence led to a new chapter in her life. To remain motivated, she wrote down everything she could remember about her family's pets – their little habits and characteristics. For example, the character of the working-dog hero in Fauna Park Tales is based on the different traits of every single dog her family ever owned. Researching habits, habitats and interesting titbits about martial eagles and eagle owls, as well as many smaller birds such as crimson-breasted shrikes and hoopoes,made it easier to illustrate them and tell a believable story. Her illustrations appear throughout Fauna Park Tales. Maretha Botha admits to being a chocoholic and unreformed coffee addict, a keen gardener and bird watcher, who likes to walk on the moors where the stiff breeze coming in from the sea, quickly clears her head, making way for more inspiration.

12 comments

  3. What a lovely photo, Maretha! Ann Stewart, the wonderful woman who ran Fresh Ink Group for me its first two decades was a Texas “gal” who every year took a week in late June to travel with her family to “Hill Country” when the bluebells dress the countryside in magnificent cloaks of breeze-stirred bluebells. She always sent me photos as if to say, “This is MY Texas, where the bluebells come for all!” We lost her suddenly five years ago, but it seems every year SOMEONE shows me the bluebells, a reminder of my friend and how she believed that we need to protect the beautiful world so new generations can be overwhelmed by the simple beauty of a place and its moments of exquisite grandeur. Thank you, Maretha, for taking me places I’ve yet to visit, and for reminding me of a remarkable woman who never forgot to appreciate them.

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  4. Thanks for a lovely post, Maretha! Ann Stewart, the wonderful woman who ran Fresh Ink Group for me for its first two decades lived near Dallas/Ft. Worth. Every year she took a week off and traveled with her family to Texas’s “Hill Country,” timed for when bluebells cloaked the landscape with exquisite undulations of breeze-stirred natural wonder. She always sent me photos of the bluebells as if to say this is why she will never leave her beloved Texas, just as the bluebells will never leave her. I lost her suddenly five years ago, but every year SOMEBODY shows me new photos of the beautiful bluebells wherever they bloom, and it reminds me of my friend. Thanks, Maretha, for bringing me to places I’ve never been. Sure, it’s just a pretty wildflower, but I’ll always appreciate how for so many this glimpse of the extraordinary proves for all time that they have come home.

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    • Oh, how kind you are Stephen! I love your memories of a good friend, and if the sight of bluebells brings back such happy thoughts, I’m glad that I chose to write about them first. And here in Lancashire, the winters can be long and of course, there is not always a clear distinction between the seasons, so you might imagine how much I look forward to seeing the bluebells back in the garden every year and along the hills when everything is still very bleak during April and May. We’ve been in the U.K. for seven years now, and the appearance of the bluebells gives me the same thrill as the times we waited for our wonderful wisteria pergola to be in full purple splendor in October (Southern Hemisphere). Thanks for popping in. I hope you have a pleasant weekend.

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