Midsummer night, of all the nights, is the one associated most closely with fairies and is when passage between the fairy world and our world is possible.

Shakespeare wrote about the magic of Midsummer in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which the King and Queen of the fairies and their followers cause mayhem and mischief on a Midsummer night. The fairy couple are at odds over a young page to the Queen Titania and the resulting antics cause trouble for the mortals who are in the magical woodland that night.

Shakespeare was well-versed in the myths associated with Midsummer, many of which involve plants and flowers that take on magical properties in the Midsummer moonlight. In his play, Shakespeare made fairies and mortals susceptible to the charming properties of the magic Midsummer blooms.

One of my favourite descriptions in the play is of Titania’s sleeping place.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.
(Oberon, Act 2 Scene 1)

Visitors to our fairy dell, where our fairies will dance, play and lay down for a little sleep, should similarly be filled with the sight and scents of seasonal plants and flowers from The Fairy Photographer’s garden. And as Midsummer falls on June 23, right in the middle of our fairy photoshoot weekend, perhaps our dell will be filled with a little extra Midsummer Magic!

Vintage Fairy Photoshoots 2018
June 23rd/24th
July 14th/15th
Sept 22nd/23rd
Nov 10th/11th – Snow Fairies