Fantastical Zoology
Did you know their was such a thing as a Goblin Shark? Neither did I, until I was shown this rather unsettling picture. Goblinish indeed! To be fair, this is not the most flattering of photos, if you click here you can watch a short video of the shark in action, and as you can see it is actually quite cute (in a sharky kind of way).
This has got me thinking about which other animals have names borrowed from the Faerie world? I know about Fairy Penguins and Fairy Wrens, Pixie-bob Cats, and that Dragonfly larvae are called Nymphs. Anything else?
Fairyland Trust
The Fairyland Trust is a UK-based charity dedicated to inspiring children to reconnect with the beauty and magic of nature. Their aim is to create Fairylands, recreating habitats and making the land fit for fairies, places where children can experience real nature. They take their workshops, which include wing and wand making, fairy banquets, fairy books, and many more, to events around the country, allowing children to play creatively while learning about wildflowers, trees, faeries and nature. They also organise a hugely popular annual Fairy Fair in Norfolk.
But here’s the thing – the Fairyland Trust is run on very little money, and the future of these wonderful workshops and events is in danger. It would be extremely sad, both for the fairies and the thousands of children who experience their magic, were the Trust to cease their work. So now the Trust is inviting people to become Supporters. For a small monthly donation, Supporters will in return receive a workshop kit to make at home, a quarterly e-magazine for children and families, and advance notice and booking priority for all events.
For more information, and to download a Supporter form, please visit the Fairyland Trust website.
Nature’s Spirits Revealed
Leon Stam is a instrumental transcommunication investigator (contact with spirits through devices like radios and televisions) with some 20 years experience. In 2003, after purchasing a digital camera he began noticing mysterious shapes, figures and faces appearing in the photos he had taken. Different Nature collects together these and many photos taken by Leon since which appear to show some sort of visual Otherworldly communication. It is interesting stuff… What can you see?
Filed under Nature | Comment (0)Fairy Castles on the Moon?
An interesting article on the NASA website talks about the behaviour of shadows on the moon. One phenomenon astronauts observed is a glowing halo around the shadows cast by their helmets. This is the ‘Opposition Effect’ – caused by tiny grains of moondust sticking together to make fluffy tower-like structures, which researchers have christened ‘Fairy Castles’. Intriguing stuff – you can read the full article here.
Filed under Nature | Comment (0)Faerie Folks Are In Old Oaks
There is an old rhyme that runs ‘Turn your cloakes for Faerie Folks are in old Oakes’, and oak is also one of the ‘Fairy Tree Triad’ of Great Britain.
Oak is known to be ‘King of the Forest’ – a single tree can live to be incredibly ancient and grow to a tremendous girth. One hollow oak was 20 metres round at the base – ample enough in fact for it to contain an alehouse!
The Greenman is more often than not depicted wreathed in Oak leaves, and acorns with a face drawn on them are considered lucky as they contain his spirit and the seed of potential. It was believed Oakmen lived in saplings sprouted from felled Oaks. They are unpleasant creatures who take delight in offering seemingly delicious food to travellers which is actually glamoured poisonous fungi.
There are several well known ‘Fairy Oaks’, individual trees with their own stories relating to the Fae. One such is found in Flintshire (Wales) – in the 18th Century a couple left their baby under its boughs believing the child to be a changeling. The next morning however they found the baby still there, thus it couldn’t be a changeling otherwise its Faerie parents would have taken it away.
