After all, who else would have situated the tiny, fragile harebell flowers which dotted the slim, soft fairy grasses of British heaths? Every british child knew that fairies wore Harebells for hats, and they often spotted them floating in to work their faerie magic.

 I always loved the Harebells of Britain, and I was one day rewarded, when, many years after we had we had emigrated to Canada, I spotted the British variety living close to our towns' Hydro power station. I dug two of them from the field, and transplanted them into my friends' one hundred acres, situated some twenty miles away in Ferguson Falls.

That rural place was quite magic with its' sparklingly clean trout stream, marshes, and thick cedar woods. We picked acres of raspberries and blackberries in the fields there for many summers. Once, when sunbathing in the nude on one of my friends' meadows , our salts attracted a tiny fawn, who bounded out of nowhere to settle at our feet!

In a clearing, I had thought of planting flowers in between the boulders which flanked a stream which fanned out into an open marsh, suitable for canoeing. It was beauteous with Marsh Marigolds, Loosestrife, and large, very round boulders, as well as myriads of colored dragonflies. We spent many hours dawdling around the stream edge, and ,the year I dug up the Harebells, I planted them in a small sheltered spot next to the stream, where they took very well.

By high summer the Cosmos I had planted were fernily overwhelming in their tossing, gentle beauty next to the waters. We paddled and cooled ourselves in the stream, and felt the euphoria that country peope know to be perfection - utter privacy and peace.

My Harebells stood, tough and delicate in the sunshine. Each week, when we came to visit the "garden", I checked my Harebells. Were the seeds ready yet?

No sooner than it seemed the seeds should be ripe than lo!-someone ooze loud, stinken motorcycle tracks showed evidence that man had been, had plucked my delicate experiment clean out of its rock garden bed, reducing me to a ball of angry flame!

I don't know why I was so annoyed by our petty plant thieves, but I'll venture a guess:

 A. I was pretty sure I could see who HE was.

 B. He was riding with another woman besides me.

 C. They did not think to leave any seed, and took both plants.

 D. I must have subconsciously cherished my memories of England, its heathers and bells, and have considerd the Harebells beloved.

 E. When I was taking my health sorrows to a remarkable homeopath in Toronto, he often gave me Bach Rescue remedies, and also, tiny, round pills made of sugar which had homeopathic ingredients. One of them, which he called Aconitum, but made with Harebells, not Monkshood,was given to me as a mild tranquilizer, and to calm my fears.

At the time, I was a very nervous, fearful young woman, and I can remember visualizing sweet Harebells, while chanting "aconitum...aconitum..." to relieve the fear feelings that puzzled me so deeply.

Perhaps, even now, my fears (far away) have been hidden into the Harebells and dissolved by the love of God which is so overwhelmingly part of the love of Nature. But, even now, I need or want those harebells, like the elf in the poem who craved those green glass beads...."Give me your green glass beads, give me them, give me them, do!...."

Now is the  time for a bit of magic, (I am writing this in mid-December) and Harebells are, actually, an herb remedy, though perhaps becoming a rarity.

He invented  ' Bach Flower Remedies', discovering 38 flower remedies, each for a different emotional state.

A great way to preserve edible summer flowers is to preserve them in honey. Flowers of such plants as violets, rose, harebells, dandelion, bee balm (my favorite for honey!), yarrow, red clover and mint are delicious, medicinal and can be easily preserved for the year to come in honey.

Honey is a great natural preserver for flowers, leaves, roots and plant juices due to its high sugar content. Gather flowers on a cool, dry morning.

(It is important that they are not wet, this could cause mold to grow in your honey.)

Pour honey over the flowers, covering the flowers by 1–2 inches. Mix daily for 1 week and start eating, using as a medicine or sweetening your tea as soon as you can taste that the honey has become flavored.

There is no need to strain; keep flowers in the honey and eat them along with the honey. Other great honeys can be made with the leaves of such medicinal herbs as:

http://www.alandiashram.org/pdf/AGNI_2001_v5_summer.pdf