Taralei Griffin

@fairyherbmother.bsky.social

538 Followers 109 Following

Writer/Photographer/Fairy Herbmother Cannabis educator & advocate, tree hugger, & Endo Warrior 🌳🎗️ No one should be in jail for a plant! 🌱🌬️ Got Loud? 💚💋 https://fairyherbmother.substack.com

Tall, spikey purple blooms rise above the thick, green mass of wild growth filling the foreground. Brown, white, and purple blossoms speckle the green. Beyond the tall wildflowers, you can see a stretch of grey sea water stretching to another coast with rolling green mountains, the tops surrounded by thick, fluffy grey clouds. A stretch of bright blue sky shines above the mountains where the clouds are beginning to part and clear. This photo was taken on the Isle of Mull, Scotland by Taralei Griffin in July 2023.
The jagged surface of a tree stump stretches away from the foreground, slightly blurred with a large, fallen green leaf seen lying on it to the left. In the top center, a small seedling topped with three unfurling leaves and two tiny ones is highlighted by a ray of sunlight, growing from the center of the dead stump. Green grass and trees of a forest fill the background. This photo was taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois in May 2026.
A patch of thistle, with spiky green leaves branching off in different directions, and several round, soft looking purple blooms is very clear in the front right of the image. The background is a blurred view of some distant evergreen trees and a mountain peak disappearing into swirling grey clouds beyond a green field spotted with blurs of color from wildflowers. This photo was taken by Taralei Griffin in Glencoe, Scotland in July 2023.
Water streaked with soft ripples stretches to the horizon, reflecting the blue sky above and the tall, green evergreen trees growing along the shore seen to the left. A hazy mist hangs over the water along the shoreline, seeming to blend with the soft white clouds low on the horizon. Photo taken at Lake Between The Lakes in Kentucky, USA, May 2025 by Taralei Griffin.
The muzzle and front leg of a small, curly black and tan dog can be seen on the right, with a dangling dog tag that reads “Whiskey”. The dog’s black nose is almost touching a single dandelion puff, standing out white and fluffy looking against thick, green grass, surrounded by stems empty of blooms or seeds. Photo taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois, April 2026
On the left of the image, three large purple iris blossoms grow on thick, curved green stems alongside the white vinyl siding of a garage. The garage wall ends on the right side, showing a small section of a white house and blue sky above it, with the full moon a white ball in the sky. The flowers appear to be leaning towards the moon as if it is the sun. Photo taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, IL, May 2026
A single red rose blossoms at the top of a single long branch with leaves and thorns, newly planted in the ground. It leans against white vinyl siding, casting a neat shadow on the siding detailing the leaves - the only shadow visible on a bright, sunny day. Photo by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois
Heart shaped green and yellow leaves are scattered on a stretch of pavement, dappled by sunlight shining through unseen trees. The shadow of a woman walking stands out, stretching from the toe of a single hiking shoe at the bottom of the image. To her right is the shadow of a small dog, its black and brown body walking off the right side of the image. Photo taken by Taralei Griffin in fall 2024
A patch of blooming irises - these have a lavender colored lower layer of frilly edged petals, while the central petals are a pale yellow, almost cream colored. Lush, long green leaves and grass leading to a dark wooden fence can be seen in the background. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois, May 2025.
A photo of a small aloe vera pup growing near the base of a mature plant. The pup has two small plump green leaves emerging from the soil. This photo was taken by Taralei Griffin.
A large patch of turkey tail mushrooms sprouting on a rotting log. The visible bit of the log is dark grey with smaller green patches of moss because it’s wet from a recent rain. The larger turkey tail mushrooms are curved, almost ruffled at the edges, and striped with variegated green colors. There are some smaller mushrooms sprouting above them with darker brown, tan, and green stripes. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin at Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky in May 2025.
A single wildflower grows tall with grass and trees blurry in the background. The green stem has several oblong leaves, and the top splits into five thinner stems, holding up small blooms with thin, white petals asurrounding a bumpy-looking yellow center. A ray of sunlight coming through the trees falls perfectly onto the wildflower, looking like it is in a spotlight. There are other curved light flares visible, including a small rainbow in the upper left corner. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Grand Rivers, Kentucky in May 2025.
A green mountain scene underneath heavy grey clouds. The photographer was standing partway up a mountain, looking back at another three rolling mountains. They are all shades of green, getting darker in color the further away due to distance and fog, the furthest a dark blue green silhouette. A dry rocky streamed snakes between them all. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in the Lake District, UK, in July 2023.
A pine tree seedling with a knobbly thin trunk with slim green needle like branches fills the foreground. A single tiny pinecone hangs about halfway up the baby tree. Beyond the shady area that the baby tree is in, the blurred outline of a large fully grown tree glows a light green color in the sun, framing the baby tree, foreshadowing what it will look like when it’s fully grown. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Port Orchard, Washington, in June of 2024.
A black man with short purple hair wearing a yellow jersey is speaking into a microphone, silhouetted against stage lights casting an orange and white glow on everything. In the upper left hand corner in green font accented with hemp leaves, it reads “Fairy Herbmother Presents” and in the middle of the image, in purple typewriter font it reads “Lyght_Strife”. Green text in the bottom corner says “read more at fairyherbmother.substack.com” This photo & it’s editing was done by Taralei Griffin.
A photo of a portion of the photographer’s backyard. Bright green grass and heart shaped leaves are growing low to the ground, nearly hidden by hundreds of small, vivid purple blooms with four or five round petals: the common blue violet, or wild violets. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois in April 2025.
A large pink rose blossom in full bloom and a small orange bud just beginning to open rest on the end of a thorny branch, leaning against a black iron fence post. Green leaves and thorny branches extend below these blooms and across the other fence posts. Beyond the fence, you can see a blooming pink rose bush next to a stone walkway, just out of focus. This photograph was taken in Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Scotland by Taralei Griffin in July 2023.
A small yellow flower with a fuzzy center is blooming at the front of the image, with three vivid purple wild violets in a semi circle around it. Green leaves and more violets can be seen in the background. The light is dappled from tree branches filtering the sunlight. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois in April 2025.
A photo of a black and tan dog with curly fur. He is looking past the photographer, and his pink tongue is just sticking out of his mouth. He is wearing a green collar and a blue bow tie with a colorful floral pattern. The black bone shaped tag hanging from reads “Whiskey”. He is sitting in a grassy yard dotted with the purple blooms of wild violets, blurry in the background. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in April 2025.
A photograph of a woman from her shoulders up. The background is filled with a wooden fence, behind which you can see distance power lines and towers. The grey sky has been edited to looks like it is made from crumpled paper. The woman has long curly hair that is dark brown until just below her shoulders, where the ends are dyed a mossy green. She is wearing a yellow and black striped button up shirt, open to a black tank top. Held in front of her is a bouquet of three flowers, one a warm, yellow sunflower, the other two light purple bell shaped blooms. The stems have a couple of long, limp leaves. The blooms mostly obscure the woman’s face, and you can only see part of her large, round glasses and dark eyes looking directly at the camera above the blooms, and just the corner of her mouth curled up peeking from behind them. This self portrait was created by Taralei Griffin in October 2019.
A woman stands on a wooden deck at sunset, facing the left side of the image in silhouette. She has her head thrown back, her long dark hair arcing towards the sky, caught mid flip. She is wearing a long skirt, and has her visible arm bent at the elbow, hand on her hip. The sun is right at the edge of the deck railing in the background, causing light flares, including a large green one on her skirt. The sun looks as if it could be emerging from her chest, blowing her and her hair back with its power. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin of friend Cheyenne Quick in 2020.
A photo of Frodo and Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings where Gandalf is smoking a long stemmed pipe. Superimposed on the photo is a screenshot of a tweet by “MPREGMAFIA” that reads, “‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘Haha,’ said Gandalf, hitting his weed pen for the eighteenth time in the past hour. ‘Hahaha. Fuck.’”
A large U.S. flag flying at half staff is silhouetted against the sky as the sun sets over the Mississippi River. The flag’s field of blue is obscured by shadow, which also makes the stripes barely visible. The sky is a hazy grey with streaks of clouds, with an orange glow along the horizon, reflected in the water of the river. A single bird silhouette can be seen flying towards the flag from the upper right of the image. This photo was taken by Taralei Griffin in Grafton, Illinois.
Silhouetted against a cloudy, grey sky is the statue of a woman facing the lens. Details on the statue are hidden by shadow. She has both arms bent, her right hand raised with her thumb and pointer finger touching, and her left hand holding a bowl. A vine with small leaves is draped over her arms. On the statue’s head is a male cardinal, some of his bright red color popping even though he is also being silhouetted by the muted light. This photo was taken by Taralei Griffin at Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois in June 2021.
A black and white portrait of a woman kneeling in the middle of a stretch of striped zebra print carpet. The woman’s legs are obscured by a black tulle skirt spread around her in a circle. She is wearing a white tank top, leaning forward with her right hand flat on the ground supporting her, while her left arm is bent at the elbow with her hand clutching her hair at her temple. More of her long, dark, tangled hair falls over her right shoulder, the ends brushing the ground. She is wearing large round glasses, and her face is twisted into a scream, her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth open wide. This is a self portrait taken by Taralei Griffin in December of 2018.
A blooming foxglove fills the center of the photo, a thick green stem studded with small green leaves and several magenta bell shaped blossoms hanging heavy with glistening dew drops. In the background, you can see yellow algae floating at the edge of a body of water reflecting the cloudy sky, stretching to a couple of rolling mountains shrouded in fog on the horizon. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin on the Isle of Mull in Scotland in July 2023.
A wooden wall opens to a perfectly square window made of a lighter wood frame than the rest of the wall. In front of the wall, tall green grass grows, a couple of stalks seeming to peek through the window. Through the window, a cracked concrete wall can be seen behind low growing pothos plants with large, dark green, heart shaped leaves. This photograph was taken at Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois by Taralei Griffin in 2021.
An old stone wall with a vertical rectangle window right in the center fills the image. The stones are tan uneven rectangles, except for the ones below the window, which are blackened with soot from an old fire. Through the window, you can see the remains of another wall of the building. It has six windows in it, and is peaked at the top, beyond which you can see a sky grey with clouds. The roof on this building is long gone. The top two windows are small and arched at the top, with only more grey sky visible through them, while the bottom four are larger rectangles, each framing leafy green branches of trees. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin at Ha Ha Tonka State Park in 2024.
A photograph of a window at night. Everything is black, except the outline of the window frame, which glows yellow from an outdoor light. There are shades drawn back to the left side, through which you can see stripes of the dark window, the light causing the shade strips to glow slightly, too. The window frame on the right side has no shades covering it, and in front of the black window, on the windowsill sits a small potted orchid. It’s cluster of blooms glow yellow in the light from outside, and you can see two oblong green leaves to each side of the stem, right where it meets the soil in the small cup like pot. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Hartford, Illinois in March 2020.
In front of a clear, bold blue sky is a single large rose blossom, its many soft petals a peachy orange color, seeming to stretch high above the photographer. Below it are a few branches studded with thin thorns, round green leaves, and three small unopened rose buds, with almost white petals clustered into a cone shape, held by a few green leaves where it meets the stem. This photography was taken at the Golden Gate Park Rose Garden in San Francisco, California, in September 2023. The photographer is Taralei Griffin.
A crimson bottlebrush plant fills the left side of the foreground, with long evergreen branches covered with slender green leaves, tipped with round, bright red bushy blooms that pull the branches slightly down, giving it a soft, curved appearance. To the right, slightly behind the tips of some of the bottlebrush branches, is a blurred, greenish white bush. Beyond these garden plants, you can see bright green land stretching to a patch of blue water, beyond which you can see two gently rolling mountains on the horizon, mottled green and dark blue by shadows cast by the clouds. The sky is a bright blue, with fluffy white clouds passing above the mountains. This photograph was taken from a garden with a beautiful view on the Isle of Mull in Scotland in July 2023 by Taralei Griffin.
A photograph of some blooming echinacea. Six blooms are fully visible, clustered together, each with green and orange centers that look like puffballs, surrounded by many delicate, oblong pink petals. The topmost bloom in the left hand corner has a fat, yellow and black striped bumblebee sitting on the puffball center, its thin, sheer wings slightly flared to each side. Large green teardrop shaped leaves fill the background, and you can see parts of three other pink blooms peeking through the thick leaves. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota in August 2020.
A close up photograph of a cluster of 6 rhododendron blooms. Their raspberry pink petals form a trumpet shape opening to reveal dark polka dots speckled around long, thin stamens. The background is a green blur, out of focus trees and shadows. The blooms are in a ray of light filtering through other unseen leaves above, causing interesting shadows, streaks of light appearing to beam out from the petals, and a round yellow bubble-like light flare in the top right corner. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Port Orchard, Washington in April 2024.
A photograph of a single wildflower blooming in a patch of soft mossy ground. There are three heart shaped dark green leaves around the base of the thin stem, topped with a bloom with five round, bright purple petals, surrounding a white center with black veins creating a striped pattern at the bottom of the white patch. This photograph of a common blue violet was taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois.
An image made from three different photographs using a multiple exposure technique. The shape of a hand with its fingers spread fills most of the frame. The hand appears to be blooming with pinkish purple wildflowers and green leaves. Green leaves can be seen to each side of the hand too, and the entire image is full of dappled light, as if shining through a thick forest canopy. Barely visible across the entire image are the veins of a leaf. This image was created by Taralei Griffin with three different photographs she took in April 2024.
A photograph of the hulls of two abandoned herring boats resting on a mossy shoreline. The bow of one is sticking into the air, while the other is leaning, pointing towards the photographer. The broken boats are discolored, mottled with greens, greys, blues, and black from the rot. A tree sprouts from the deck of the leftmost ship. The water in the background reflects the bright blue sky, broken by thick, grey and white clouds. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin on the Isle of Mull in Scotland in July 2023.
A close up photograph of dead leaves and grass on the ground. They are brown and crumpled, in various states of decay, all shiny with ice and damp. Near the center of the photo, a small, round white ice ball sits on the stem of a leaf sticking up from the pile. Just to the left of this ice ball is a bright green sprout with five small leaves, each barely bigger than the ice pellet, poking up through the leaves. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in February 2025.
A photograph of a winter scene. The background shows a snowy expanse with several human and animal tracks crossing it. It extends to an iced over river, with a shore full of bare trees on the horizon. The sky is a clear, light blue with no clouds, and the sun is not visible, but the snow is bright from it being high in the sky. In the foreground are a few thin tree branches with clusters of brown, dead leaves scattered along them. There is a cluster at the end of a curved branch in focus right at the front, glowing almost golden the way the sun it hitting it, despite being brown and papery. This photograph was taken on the banks of the Mississippi River in Grafton, Illinois by Taralei Griffin in February 2025.
A close up photograph of a blooming foxglove. The background is a green blur, while very clearly in focus there are four oblong bell shaped blooms, hanging from a sturdy green stem. There are four or five leaves cupped around the base of each bloom, almost looking like a green flower themselves. The bottom two purple blooms are open, showing a pattern with white outlines of circles decorating the inner bottom-most petal. The top two are near to opening, but still closed enough that you only see the ends of the petals puckered together. This photograph was taken in Port Orchard, Washington in April 2024, by Taralei Griffin.
The photo is focused on a small sapling, a baby wintergreen tree with thin, curved branches filling most of the screen. Beyond the sapling, you can see a blurred river-side winter scene. There is fresh snow on the ground, leading to the still river, reflecting the purplish/blue sunset color of the sky and the underside of a lift bridge and its control tower. The bridge and tower are made of green metal trusses, making geometric patterns. The top branch of the sapling in the foreground appears to reach as high as the control tower on the left side of the photo. This photograph was taken by Taralei Griffin in Hardin, Illinois in December 2024.
A photograph of a cluster of bright red roses blooming on a bush. There are about 8 blooms filling most of the photo, clustered on the end of a green, leafy stem, barely seen in the bottom left corner. The topmost bloom is fully open and you can see the dark center, and the others have their delicate yet bold petals still protecting their centers. Behind the roses are soft grey clouds, with a patch of bold blue sky peeking through in the bottom right corner. This photograph was taken near the Lochaline Ferry Terminal in Scotland by Taralei Griffin in July of 2023.
A curly haired, black and tan dog is lying next to the photographer, who is sitting on a blue and white quilt. You can only see the bottom of their pink and white striped sweater and one leg clad in loose grey pajama pants, with their foot tucked out of sight. One of the dog’s shaggy, tan colored legs and paws are wrapped around his human’s thigh while his head rests on her knee, gazing up at her with round, black puppy eyes.
A photography of a grassy field at eye level, looking up through the grass to a silhouette of a distant mountain under blue sky thick with two big, fluffy clouds in the upper right hand corner. Amongst the grass, you can see four Bluebells of Scotland growing in a row, thin green stems with a bell shaped violet colored bloom, hanging and pulling the stem into a curve at the top. In the lower left hand corner, behind two of the bluebells, is a low, tan and green mossy boulder. This photograph was taken on the Isle of Mull in Scotland in July 2023 by Taralei Griffin.
A bushy, blooming patch of wildflowers fills the foreground of this photograph, the small flowers with four or five petals range from white to lavender purple in color. They are clustered on bright green stems with slim, oblong leaves. Beyond the wildflowers, a white sand beach stretches to a strip of foamy white ocean water in a bay. To each side, you can see deep green mountains, thick with vegetation, enclosing the bay. The sky is bright blue with soft, fluffy white and grey clouds scattered above the horizon. This photo was taken at Calgary Bay Beach on the Isle of Mull in Scotland by Taralei Griffin in July 2023.
A photograph of a scenic view along a hiking path. A gravel path stretches from the bottom right corner parallel to a wall of different shaped stones held together with wire that starts in the bottom left corner. Both run through green grass meadows, the one beside the path scattered with small boulders. The wall and path seem to grow smaller as they meet at the horizon, beyond which you can see blue and green mountains on the left, and some leafy green trees on the right, much closer in the foreground. The sky is a brilliant bright blue, scattered with fluffy white and grey clouds. This photograph was taken in the Lake District in the United Kingdom by Taralei Griffin in July 2023.
A rocky shore with large, tan sandstone boulders fills the foreground, with slightly choppy gray water in the background. A large tree trunk that has become driftwood lies horizontally on the shore, seeming to split the boulders from the water, its broken roots creating a jagged silhouette on the left side of the photo. Sitting amongst the boulders to the right, in front of the log, is a snowy owl looking over its back towards the camera. It is all white, except for a striped black pattern across the wings folded on its back. Its large, round yellow eyes squint in the sunlight beaming on its face. Three small twigs are visible on something behind the owl, sticking up from behind its head, almost as if it is wearing a crown. This photograph was taken in December 2021 on the banks of the Mississippi River in Alton, Illinois by Taralei Griffin.
A photo looking up at a large sandstone structure in a wooded area. The rock formation ranges in color from tan to brown and red, changing with each stripe horizontally, where the layers of sandstone formed. It appears to be partially split in two vertically, with sunlight filtering in from above, casting interesting shadows. At the bottom of the photo, there is a hole through the sandstone where the split meets, and you can see sunlight and more sandstone beyond the main structure, highlighted like another photo through the hole. In the top right of the photo, you can see a few branches of trees surrounding the rock formations, heavy with bright green leaves that are shining in the sunlight. This photo was taken at Garden of the Gods in Herod, Illinois, by Taralei Griffin in July 2024.
A close up photo of a dog’s snout lying on a blue and orange fleece blanket. The wrinkled pattern can be seen on his black nose, at the tip of a shaggy tan snout leading to a face with eyes looking up at the photographer sweetly, black curly ears, and bushy white eyebrows. The dog’s name is Whiskey, he is a 5 year old Aussie doodle.
A photo of a Scottish loch with a crumbling castle on the opposite shore. The sky is full of thick, grey clouds, under which blue-green mountains roll across the horizon. On the left of the far shore is a ruined castle, barely the base of one tower and a small portion of what could be a walled courtyard, the top as jagged as mountains, the stones blackened from a past fire. The water of the loch is lightly choppy from wind, reflecting the scene near perfect, just blurred. This photo was taken in the west Highlands of Scotland by Taralei Griffin in July 2023. On the photo is a poem, also by Taralei. It reads: “mountains never really were my thing you either climb them til you can’t breathe or carry them til they bury you deep in the sea -Fairy Herbmother”
A triple exposure image made from 3 photographs and a poem, all by Taralei Griffin. A glowing orange river at sunset has 2 sandbars crossing it in dark silhouette, with bare tree branches in the foreground, and another dark silhouette of the opposite shore on the horizon. A bright orange sun is sinking beyond the opposite shore, left of center, scattering light flares across the image. Soft orange roses rise above the horizon, appearing like mountains. The center of one rose surrounds the sun, making it look like an eye. A large, dark orange dragonfly silhouette flies across the horizon from the right towards the setting sun. Imposed on the image is a poem, reading “don’t fear the dragon writhing in her own flames battle scars shining pain thinning her roar this inferno rages to clear out the decay soften the soil and grow anew -Fairy Herbmother”
A small black and tan dog with short curly fur sits on a wooden bar, looking slightly towards the right with a curious expression. He is wearing a blue and black harness, as well as a green collar with a bone-shaped tag that says “Whiskey”. Behind him, you can see the blurred shape of bottles lining a countertop under a painting of a woman in lingerie looking over her shoulder.
Gray, choppy water stretches from a strip of stoney, tan beach to shadowy green-gray mountains under a cloudy sky in the background. In the foreground, jagged, moss-covered stones meet the beach, just under some conical purple blooms on long green stems with oblong leaves, seemingly stretching even taller than the mountains. This photograph was taken on the shores of Loch Lomond, Scotland, by Taralei Griffin in July 2023.
A photo of a smooth body of water with a few slabs of snowy ice floating on top. On the far horizon are leafless trees under a late afternoon sun, visible in a blue sky with no clouds. A silhouette of a bird flies towards the trees. The land on the horizon is reflected in the water where the ice has broken apart. Photograph taken by Taralei Griffin of the Mississippi River in Grafton, Illinois.
A photo of a tall tree, looking up, with the green leaves and branches at the top blurred in the background, while the crackled brown pattern of the trunk is clear. A small green shoot with 5 small leaves is highlighted, growing at a much lower level than the rest of the tree’s leaves, at human eye level. Photo taken by Taralei Griffin in Godfrey, Illinois, April 2024.
Candid photo of an aussie doodle. A black and tan dog’s chin is held by a human hand, the dog’s head tilted back so you can only see his black nose above the tip of his pink tongue sticking out of his mouth. His long curly ears hang down on either side, and green grass can be seen in the background.
Portrait photo of a curly haired dog named Whiskey sitting on the corner of a bed with blue blankets. The dog is an aussie doodle with curly black and tan fur and a green collar with a green and yellow bow tie. His head is tilted to the side, and he appears to be watching the photographer curiously.
A black and white photo of a stretching, curving potted aloe plant and a potted begonia with large teardrop shaped leaves silhouetted against a window where snow is falling against a grey sky, illuminated by a porch light. Across the bottom of the photo in white script is a poem written by the photographer, Taralei Griffin. It reads: “I hear your bitter breath howling to smother the embers sparking in my chest. even your icy hold can’t break the rhythm of my soul thunder snow. -Fairy Herbmother”
A photograph of a long, pocked driftwood log along a shoreline in the foreground, the background showing the waters of the Puget Sound with the mainland of Washington in the distance, below a sky full of clouds glowing pink, blue, and lavender from the hidden, setting sun. Photograph by Taralei Griffin on Vashon Island, WA, December 8, 2024.