Talula Shimmerwing to the rescue.
Children who are wondering if there can be any end to the COVID-19 stay-at-home blues – and their parents – will be delighted to learn that the Queen of the Fairies has taken note of their plight.
Talula (who sometimes takes the form of human artist and children’s entertainer – and former Miss White Rock – Bryony Lake, nee Hollick) has travelled from the fairy lands to the human realm to share joy and magic with children of all ages.
And her adventures are being shared online, starting this week, through her own YouTube show Talula Time.
New three to six-minute episodes will launch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and she’s also started her own website (talulashimmerwing.com) where humankind can sign up for a fairy newsletter, and also learn about participating in virtual parties and playdates, how to buy a copy of Talula’s illustrated book, and how to receive personalized video messages from the fairy queen herself.
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The first 30 subscribers to the Fairy News will receive a free certificate registering them as a bona fide member of the fairy realm, and Lake promises there will be 10 free fairy experiences awarded online each month until further notice.
Through Talula Time – with the enthusiastic help of Lake – Talula will share not only activities, stories and insights about the magical world of fairies and nature, but also her own adventures learning about human life.
Just as wildlife is re-discovering a world relatively empty of humans, so, too, is Talula free to discover and play with many of the trappings of human life – including a magical device called an i-Phone she found on her travels and is using to share her experiences with little ones.
“It’s all about human life through a fairy’s point of view,” Lake said. “Talula feels that everyone has the magic of the fairies inside of them, and this is part of helping find that magic through play.”
As an example of how she can relate to what children are experiencing during the current pandemic, Talula explains, on her Fairy News blog, that the fairy lands also had a bad experience with a dangerous virus – the Dragon Pox, which would actually turn fairies into dragons.
“Many fairies in the Fairy Lands got it, and if we tried to speak fire would come out of our mouths and scorch the nearest fairy,” she writes. “We learned to stay in our flowers, palaces, or trees, and keep at least a dragon’s breath away from each other.”
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The ever-imaginative Lake – daughter of well-known White Rock artist Elizabeth Hollick – said she is pleased to have the present opportunity to help Talula in her task.
She credits the fairy realm with rescuing her, too, from a career in the banking industry.
“For a few summers I worked at a credit union as a teller,” she said. “Then after that, I worked downtown in a skyscraper in ‘merchant services’, dealing with debit and credit card sales. People would phone and ask for their merchant rate to be reduced – and I’m happy to say I always reduced their rate for them.
“I wasn’t very good at that kind of work. It was a great impetus to do something else. It’s challenging to be an artist in this society – there’s these beliefs that you’re not going to be able to make a living from it, and it is difficult. But I eventually realized there was no other choice for me in terms of my own happiness and sense of being able to fly.”
Her own awareness of the fairy realm she attributes, in part, to having been born in a cottage in the heart of English fairy territory, in Rochfield, East Sussex.
“I was actually named for one of the fairies in (Cicely Marry Barker’s) Flower Fairies books,” she said.
Since 2008, she has been organizing appearances by Talula and other fairies at children’s parties and family celebrations everywhere from North Vancouver to White Rock through her event company In The Company of Fairies (companyoffairies.com), she said.
While geared to children, Talula’s fairy world also exerts a strong appeal to the child in everyone, she said.
“I’ve had some adults say to me, ‘I’d like to have a party for myself,’ although they’re often a little bit shy about it.”
But she’s always been happy to share the magic with people of all ages, she said.
“Now Talula has branched out on her own,” she added, noting that the online presence – a natural extension of the live games and activities – is certain to continue after quarantine times.
“I have so many ideas of things I want to add and I want it to grow and evolve,” she said.
“For me this is what the world needs at this time – a chance to play and connect to nature. And the Queen of the Fairies is here to share that message.”
Talula can be found at talulashimmerwing.com; on Instagram @talulashimmerwing; on Facebook and YouTube by searching Talula Shimmerwing.
alex.browne@peacearchnews.com
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