One of the things I like to do is to visit op-shops and see if there are any treasures for me to buy. One day I went and found a book called Australian Flower Fairy Verse Birthday Book by Margaret Thornton. It has been well used as there are plenty of scribbles and names in the appropriate pages and one of the front pages has been torn so it shows me that it has been a much loved book. The pages which contain the verses and pictures are still in good condition. The Common Pink Heath is the flower emblem for the State of Victoria and I would like to share the following poem with you:
Those brilliant hoods of startling pink
springing on wild slopes and by the brink
of paths, are bells no human hears -
they only chime for fairy ears.
When tired of listening to the chimes,
fairies wear them as hats sometimes.
And if a spell was cast on you,
you'd hear pink heath's bells tinkling too,
as fairies shake them in their secret dells -
those tiny bonnets, those silent bells.
Cecilia Egan
