Poetry

Blue Fairy in My Garden

A tiny winged creature hides under the cedar hedge

Teenie Matinee

Tiny winged and blue

fluttering under branches

what creature are you?

Swift of dainty flight.

Please, let me take one photo.

Don’t flee from my sight.

But quickly, you’re gone.

Not a snapshot for poor me.

But YouTube has one.

An exciting sight

Here’s a video taken of the ‘fairy’ I wrote about by someone’s security camera. The creature appears much larger than it actually is.

When I saw one of these tiny creatures flying around in my garden, I was astonished! It looked like a tiny fairy from a children’s book. But it couldn’t be, right? (Although, I’m always open to the possibility that we haven’t yet discovered all of God’s creatures).

I followed her across the front deck and around the side of the house, snapping my camera in a frantic attempt to capture the creature in a photo. The fascinating little flyer was only as big as a small bee. As much as I could make out she had tiny iridescent wings and a fluffy blue body. Her ‘legs’ hung below her as she danced gracefully around the summer flowers.

She hovered, taunting, for a few seconds above the blue iris. Creeping stealthily, I aimed the lens. As I pressed the button, the fairy darted off again and hid in between the gnarly branches of the cedar hedge. She played hide-and-seek for several minutes before disappearing across the lawn.

I was disappointed I didn’t get a photo of her

I thought it would be challenging to find out what she was. I mean — how do you research a “tiny blue garden fairy”? Well, turns out you do just that. I typed the query into my browser and up popped the answer.

The fantasy writer in me was a tad disappointed, but I was at least happy to discover I hadn’t been seeing things that were simply not there. My little blue fairy is a Woolly Aphid!

Not a new discovery after all. But new to me, and that’s what counts in my garden.(Eriosomatinae is her real name. Hence the title nickname of the poem, Teenie Matinee). Here’s a link to some beautiful photos of her species from Missoula Butterfly House.

And, if you’re interested, here’s another video of them up-close with some fascination facts from Bug of the Week on YouTube.

’Til next time — go explore in your garden (or a park) and see what you can find to astonish you!

Lynne

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Read more about life in my Ontario garden.