Where did time go? It's amazing to think that it's now been one year, since my daughter and I discovered the fairy twins inside an apple from our apple trees. I am so thankful that the fairies chose me to take care of the twins.
Looking back at the year that has gone, I can feel a change inside my self, it's like I feel an inner peace. At the time I became the foster mother of Ebbe and Selene, my life had change dramatically. My husband got a new job in the south of Denmark, and we had to move to Als. Both my children moved away from home, and started their adult lives. My daughter had a new boyfriend, and my son a beautiful girl fiend. Next year we will have a wedding coming up, when my daughter is getting married. As a mother I went through a rough time having to let go of my son and daughter, and I think the fairies could sense that I needed help on letting go, and accepting that a new part of my life had begun.
Ebbe and Selene opened a new world to me; they gave me the courage to travel into unknown land, in more than one way! As an artist I felt that I found a delightful pass that I now am dedicated to follow. So now I am not only doing my botanical illustration, but also doing fantasy art. I don't know if any of you recall my blog, on how I like to do something new every day. It doesn't have to be any ting big and importuned, it can just be climbing a tree and hanging with my head upside down, to see my garden in a new perspective, or taking a left turn where I always take a right turn to discover a new road. I have developed this idea, and put it into my art, and I feel that it has given me a lot of new inspiration, to go down roads I never explored before.
Through Ebbe and Selene I found my sanctuary that I call Nidlongdir. I enjoy venturing into this world, exploring the life of the fairies, and to be given the opportunity to let my imagination run wild. I truly feel like a bird that has been set free, and I am ever so thankful to the good fairies of Nidlongdir, who let me into their world, and trusted me to tell about them in the human world!
Ebbe's Honey Stick.
Although Ebbe and Selene are twins they are still like night and day. Ebbe is as light as the inside of an apple, he loves the sun, and he mostly feed on apple juice and honey. His flying skills are improving, but he will never be able to fly with the speed and precision Selene does. Ebbe has other skills that are very interesting to watch, he is able to heal plants. I discovered it, because one of my roses in the garden looked miserable. The summer has been very dry, and this rose was suffering badly, I had tried to water it, and nurse it, but it still didn't look like it was going to survive the summer. I was very sad because this particular rose has a historical value to the place I live. It was bred after the Second World War, as a celebration of the end of the war, and this rose has bloomed out site our house every year since. I enjoy keeping the garden, and taking care of the plants the pervious owners have planted, knowing I carry on their hard work.
Ebbe sensed I was worried about the rose, so yesterday I watch him doing a miracle. At sunset we went on our usual garden round, and when we passed the ill rose, he put his finger on the stalk of the Rose; I could see a green light coming from his finger, and spreading through the rose. The light spread through the stalk to all parts of the plant, I could even see its root glowing through the soil. I knew he was trying to save the rose, so I kissed him and hugged him, and we ended up playing the frog game he so much loves to play. The next morning I could see the rose was healing, it had new buds, and the leaves looked fresh and green.
Although the roses still are blooming, I can sense the turn of the year. The farmers have started the harvest, and in Denmark the harvest has been celebrated for many generations. The traditional celebrations take place in a decorated barn. The decorations are plants from the harvest like wheat, pumpkins, apples, roses and what ever is available. People dress up in their best clothes, and have a harvest dinner. After the dinner there is a harvest ball. If you are not a farmer you might not have this celebration, but, many Danes still have.
For me harvest is the time of the year where I look back. I know most people use the New Year to review the year, but to me harvest marks how this year have been in my garden. This is the time where I will know if my new projects worked or failed, and I can compare how many vegetables, berries, and fruit I got compared to last year. This is also the time of the year, where the children will start in a new class or perhaps even on a new education. I will start to think about the autumn and winter. Some of my Yule preparations starts now, buy making sure I have collected the things I need for the Christmas dinner and decorations, so harvest does set a mark in the calendar! It's the end, and the beginning of a new year of gardening.
I would like to answer a few questions that my visitors have asked me about Nidlongdir, and the website www.nidlongdir.com.
Is there a beginning or an end to this story and what is the website about?Answering this question is like answering if there is a beginning or an end to our human world. There is no beginning and no end, because it is a world where all sorts of things has happened in the past, is happening now, and will keep on happening in the feature. There are stories and events I can tell you about, some have taken place and some will. There are persons I can tell you about in Nidlongdir, but they have lives like you and me, so there is no beginning or end. Even the beginning I have written down is not the beginning, something happened before that.
Why are you creating this world of fairies, gnomes and trolls?I have a very simple answer to that question, because I am lucky to have found this world, and because I have fun doing it. It keeps my days light and bright!
I had a few people asking me if I earn money on creating Nidlongdir, and if I sell my illustrations and writing?To that I can say no not really, and to be frank I really don't care. Money would take all the fun out of it, and restrict my freedom to do what ever I want. I am not saying that I wont ever create a book, or put some prints up for sale, but it's not my goal to earn money, actually I don't have a goal with Nidlongdir, and that is why it keep my creative juices running. I am very thankful that Be asked me to create a column for Faezine, because Nidlongdir is about enjoying life and fairies just like Faezine is.
When I look at your website Nidlongdir.com, it looks like you mix the real world with fantasy. Some of your art is digital and created from photos, and some of it is drawing and paintings. Don't you think you need to find your self a style and stick to it?The Nidlongdir realm is a mix of my human world, and a fantasy realm of fairies, gnomes, trolls and other characters. I have found a way to combine my world with this fairy tale world, by adopting a set of fairy twins into my human home. I found Nidlongdir through them, and now I like to travel into this world as an explore, just like humans have explored our planet, the moon and perhaps some day will explore the rest of the universe. I use what ever medium I feel like. I like to create digital art as well as traditional drawings and paintings, so the medium I use is chosen because it talks to my imagination. I try to draw and paint this world and take photos if possible, and I try to write down what it's like to live there. I have even started to write down the history of Nidlongdir, because if I want fully to understand this world, I will need to know what it was based on, and how it came to be. The more I explore Nidlongdir the more it opens my eyes to my own world. I have started to notice the small things in my life, and in my surroundings, like how a sudden flower looks sad, or a man I see on the street looks like he is a gnome, and perhaps lives a secret life.
How do you create your Characters? Well I don't.. I travel into Nidlongdir and meet the good folks of Nidlongdir, and then I just try to describe them the best I can, by drawing or painting them, and by writing about them ;)
Do you draw and paint form photos?Some times, but not directly, I use photos as reference. I don't like to paint and draw directly from a photo. Photos are flat as a pancake, and miss the third dimension, so working directly from a photo will give a flat 2D result. I also like to draw just from my imagination!
Do you see your self as a writer or a illustrator?Both I guess, but most of all I see my self as a playful explore.
Why are some of your character ugly?Well we can't all be beautiful. Beauty is an overestimated quality in my opinion. Ugly noses are more interesting to paint than perfect noses. Wrinkles are much more fun to paint than a perfect smooth skin.
Is Nidlongdir a perfect world?No by fare! I don't think any world is perfect, it would be boring to have a perfect world, it is all the not so perfect things, that gives the world character and life.If all the fairies in Nidlongdir were perfect there wouldn't be much to explore, they would all be the same. .
I have been visiting your website and loved it, but I find it very confusing! I don't know where to start? I think you should make it more user friendly!Nidlongdir is confusing, because it's has been created as I a went along on my adventures into this fantasy world. This may sound a bit selfish, but Nidlongdir.com was not created to be user friendly, it works as my personal journal, where I put down all the things I explore in Nidlongdir, so when you enter Nidlongdir, you enter my imagination, and not a commercial smooth website, designed to please the user. If you want to explore Nidlongdir.com, you should just go on adventures in there! One story or illustration can lead you to another.In the Whispering Library you will find all my blogs about Nidlongdir in a chronicle order. Start with my first blog and read on from there, and you should find it easy to understand this world, because then you will explore it in the same way I did! I also put an introducing page up, that briefly tells how it all started.
If you have any questions do feel free to ask! I will be happy to answer you if I can!
