SUMMERTIME BLUES

 

Candle lit sandcastle by the sea, source unknown.

 

Summer is a riot of flowers. This year on clothes as well as in the garden, and every year we are reminded how well Lord Leighton captured the heat of summer in his Flaming June.

But for me water flows through the season and paints it from the blue, green and shimmering palette of the rivers, brooks and seas.

From Here:

Faded blue & green chest of drawers

An Art Nouveau brooch from my collection



Rich blue fringed velvet curtains



Magical shimmering sequinned fishes by Lainey Whitworth Art on Etsy
I had to have one.
Her Etsy shop is Here:



Buckled sparkly shoes from Top Shop



Raw silk embroidered bag from the magical Medieval Muse on Etsy
Medieval Muse Etsy shop Here:

Silver and copper dusted, sea glass, the mermaid's tears, glowing in the sand. Surprising golden, violet or indigo skies. Always.

Strange Tempests gather. Inevitably Mermaids enter my thoughts.

shells & tealights in mercury glass 

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne
 

Penelope Tree

A superb John William Waterhouse Mermaid

Dolce & Gabbana, 2014

The Sirens - Edward Burne-Jones
 

Evening Dress, Mad Carpentier, 1940s

But there is also that Midsummer Night's meeting. Water links summer themes, as does that other element, Air.



Air, elemental leather mask
From Fairy Magic on Etsy

Heady scents and potions (and sometimes a spell or two) gently incline all to sleep.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Chad Gowey 

William Morris & Co, The Brook tapestry
Here:

Titania by Arthur Rackham

Of Pirates and Pan

Peter Pan and the pirate ship, James Coleman

Johnny Depp, Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
The Curse of the Black Pearl



Galleon topped thatched cottage, image by me

 

Clothes by Magnolia Pearl

Alice, drowsily beside the Thames, her dreams conjuring a tale from Mr Carroll.

"In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die;

 

Ever drifting down the stream--

Lingering in the golden gleam--

Life, what is it but a dream?"  

 

Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family
image by Lewis Carroll



Bickleigh Cottage reflected in the river 



Alice illustration by Amber Alexander

Swallows gathering mud for their nests



Alice's Cottage, the pale blues

My Cheshire cat apothecary bottle
 

And when she is grown,
will Alice remember?

Meanwhile, Ophelia is gathering flowers for her watery grave.

Spring collection Dries Van Noten

Ophelia by Kirsty Mitchell

Ophelia, Theodore von der Beek 

Somewhere a woman waits, while a Tempest brews.



Miranda, John William waterhouse

The French Lieutenant's Woman

From  The witch's curse by W. S. Gilbert.
 illustrations by William Russell Flint. Published 1912 

 

Marikka Nakk Velvet Princess Coat

Colours of a tempest by Fired Earth

Shhhh! We must be still now, Faerie Revels and sweet potions have overpowered all and they lie sleeping.



Arthur Rackham

Potent potions in tiny Czech apothecary bottles

 

 

 

Velvet robe by Toast

 

Sleeping Beauty, Henry Meynell Rheam



Titania Sleeps, by Frank Cadogan  Cowper

Alice Liddell asleep by Lewis Carroll

Undine, Arthur Rackham

CREDITS** 

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

I have tried to find the source of any images I have used but some remain unknown. I will be pleased to credit should someone tell me.