The Fairies are Coming!

The fairies are coming to town in July! The last time they were here was in 1997, so it is an event much to be anticipated. Iolanthe, one of the fairies, was punished for falling in love with a mortal, and she now lives in a swamp, surrounded by frogs. Real? No. It's theatre!

Gilbert & Sullivan wrote the musical "Iolanthe" as one of their 13 collaborations. The Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society performs one of these every summer, and this year is Iolanthe's turn. It is a wonderful show with beautiful music and a lot of laughs, and it will be the first time since 1974 that I haven't been in the orchestra pit at least for part of the 3-week run. The last time I played "Iolanthe", my Maestro husband conducted, and even the onstage fountain and the frogs responded to his commanding baton!

In this musical comedy, Iolanthe the Fairy is living under the bridge to be close to her son, who is half fairy and half mortal. It's only fitting that in this election year he should go to Parliament as a Liberal Conservative! Isn't that just typical of today's political mess?

I take solace from the confusion of politics in the garden. In honor of Iolanthe I have created the Iolanthe garden. It's a nice shady little place, just the right size for fairies. If you look very carefully, you can see two of them in the left picture and one in the right picture. They are hard to find, as fairies often are!

The plants are hostas, heucheras, brunneras, and maidenhair ferns, and in the right picture at the end of the garden, there is an Acer palmatum 'Waterfall', which seems to me to be the perfect fairy weeping willow! 

Can't find the fairies? Here's how they look up close...

Oh, yes, and here are the froggies!