Four Fabulous Fairy Fungi, Freshly Found (and very special indeed!)

In the Realm of the Fae (Fairy Land), the Elements of the Realm are represented by various things dependant upon the area where the particular Fairy Land is located.  And …  just like us humans, Fairy Land has the same sort of set up with Woodlands, towns, villages, counties, states, and countries!

Each ‘Town/Village/Country’ [etc] has its own way of expressing things, (just as we all have our own localised languages or terminology), and within the ‘village’ of Freckled Mushroom Wood, the four Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, are represented by some of the most incredible mushrooms I think I’ve ever seen, and it’s some rather special specimens of these Elements that I’d like to share with you today!

All the specimens are held securely in glass test tubes, which have been sealed shut with a cork.

The test tubes you see in the photographs are all the same length:  10.2cm long – that’s 4″ (inches) to us folks who still love imperial measurements, and they’re just 1.5cm wide – which is 8/12th’s of an inch (or [roughly] just over half an inch for those who don’t do fractions).  

So they’re quite small, and getting those Elementals to be the right size, took some doing  er … searching.  I had to search high and low to find long enough, but slim enough, Elementals which would fit inside those little glass tubes.  Yes I did.  I did indeed sweat buckets trying to get the size right!  Phew.  Fairy Land gets very hot and bothersome on some days.

These are the Mushroom Elementals of Freckled Mushroom Wood, each of them embodying one of the powers of nature:  Earth;  Air;  Fire and Water.

The task of Elementals is to look after the nature kingdom.  They are responsible for the therapeutic effects you feel when outdoors amongst nature, at the beach or sea-side;  at lakes and by rivers;  in parks and nature areas.

A little bit like a Phoenix, these very special Elemental Mushrooms live for only a specific length of time but once they’ve reached their ‘age’, each of them cyclically regenerates itself and is reborn again as new.  Each of the Elemental Mushrooms not only represents an important Element of nature, but also plays its own part in the well-being of Fairy Land.

Shall we take a peep at them individually?  Let’s begin with . . .

The Fairy Mushroom Elemental: Earth

The Element of Earth shown in a Fairy Mushroom Elemental.

The Earth Elemental is responsible for creating, sustaining, and renewing life on Earth.  It helps:-

• Plants, grass, and even weeds to grow, and helps the Fairy Gardeners to grow all the food needed for the Fairies, Gnomes, Pixies and all the other occupants of the Land of the Fae.
• It encourages Trees to reach their full height and potential.  Which gives the Fairies somewhere to play hide and seek and have races with other fairies.
• It helps Children to flourish and develop in a healthy or vigorous way.  It also helps with the birth and growing of Fairy Babies.
• It is the sole purpose of all the elements, since it represents a basis for each of them.
• Earth is the element of our planet and how got its name by it too.
• The Earth Element has one very important job in Fairy land …  it helps fairies to find their way home from wherever they may be.  It’s a little bit like a satellite.  It has a certain ‘vibration’ to it, which each Fairy recognises, and so can fly home whenever they wish, be it night or day!

 The Fairy Mushroom Elemental: Air

The Air Element is important in that it connects all the other elements.  It’s invisible, but that doesn’t make it less important than any other, because, well, without it, we couldn’t exist!

The element of Air gives us

• what we need for our lungs to function
• opens our Souls 
• is important for the first breath of a new-born baby!
• Where Earth is fixed, Air is definitely a mover!
• It’s connected to the mind, spirit, wisdom and soul.
• Air is required for flight.  Not just Air-planes and the like, but for birds,  flies, insects and bats,  but also …. Fairies!  Imagine Fairies flying in the wind – tiny creatures bestowed with pure intuition who fly where ever the air whispers to them.
• The wind (and so Air) has a voice, and you have to listen carefully to it.  The wind blowing in from the South and East hints of good things.  But the wind can change direction and with that it itself predicts change – sometimes good, sometimes not so.  Listen to its voice.  Is it an angry voice, or is it gentle and soothing?  It’s what Fairies do. Perhaps we should become like Fairies now and again, so that we can see things through the eyes of the innocent and hear things in an innocent way.

The Fairies in Freckled Mushroom Wood have taught me much about the Elements – both the ones in Fairy Land, and the ones in our human realm – and I now realise that they are, in fact, very much the same things.

The Fairy Mushroom Elemental: Fire

Fire has something particularly special about it.  It’s the only element that shines.  Water can sparkle,  but only if it reflects the light created by Fire, whether a campfire or the Sun.

Of course, in the Land of the Fae the most Fire is found within the annoyance and anger of a Fairy Dragon.   However, a Dragons Fire is a much-needed and very welcomed Fire, for Fairies need it to:  Toast Apples;  Roast Chestnuts;  Cook Mushrooms;  Bake Acorns;  Warm Berries to eat and to make Fairy Jam with, and oh!,  all sorts of other things!

Note Well:  Humans won’t often find a Fairy Dragon – but if you do, treat it kindly and don’t disturb it if it’s asleep, for when baked in fire, you are crunchy, and Fairy Dragons discovered Ketchup on toasted  ‘umans works wonders!

The Fairy Mushroom Elemental: Water

The Water Elemental is the element of constant movement, moving sometimes slow and steady, and at other times rushing and a torrent;  a destructive force of almost unimaginable proportions.

Fairies need water not only to drink and use to water their flowers, but to bathe, feed the birds and to make the dew drops which will sparkle in the early morning sunlight, and add joy to the early morning chorus.

If you’re really quiet, you might come across a Fairy playing or washing her hair under the dripping water of a Mushroom Water Elemental, for the Mushroom will drip, drip, drip continually, supplying water to the earth beneath it’s feet.

It was  r.e.a.l.l.y.  difficult to capture, in a photo, the dripping water on this Mushroom Water Elemental because water is transparent,  but I share about the best shot I managed to get . . .

And that concludes our four Elementals.  However … the observant among you will have noticed that there is a 5th Glass Test Tube in the two photos at the top of this post. . . 

. . .  can you spot it?  That one right in the middle.  “What’s that?”  I hear you asking . . .

Well …  it’s a Gnome … or a Tomte . . .  or  a Nisse.  This little figure has different names depending on where in the world you find him,  and … he’s a Protector.  In this case, he’s a Fairy, Mushroom Elemental Protector.  A very important job indeedly doodly!

This Gnome / Tomte / Nisse hides himself in little places so that he won’t be spotted by anyone rambling through the woodland which he’s protecting.  This particular Gnome/Tomte/Nisse is a very special protector, for he is in charge of protecting all the Fairy, Mushroom Elementals which live in his wood.

He was almost impossible to capture a good image of him on film, because the little rascal kept moving!  He would turn or stick his nose in the air, or generally refuse to hold still just for a moment, while I captured his image on film.  You can barely see his nose … but I did manage a slightly blurred photo which kind of shows it in close up and share that with you . . .

A Gnome / Tomte / Nisse, captured (slightly blurred) in a photograph.  (Blurred because he just wouldn’t keep still!).

His beard is of the whitest white, and it twinkles like nothing else I’ve ever seen.  Again … I just couldn’t see to capture it in a photo.  It looks incredibly magical when seen with the naked eye.

I admit that taking photographs of these Test Tube Elementals was one heck of a job.  Lights bounced off the glass.  Shadows showed up where there were none before.  Patterns played across the glass from things on either side of the room and it made viewing the Mushrooms really difficult.  Aw … it’s not something I’ll undertake so lightly again.  Next time I go in for photographs of anything in a test tube, I’ll be more aware!  (probably still take a hundred rubbish photos, but I’ll be aware.  LOL).

Well…  that’s me done and dusted regarding the Fairy, Mushroom Elementals.

So …  how are you?  I trust you are well, that life is treating you kindly and that things are going in a nice direction for you.  Anything happening in life that you’d like to share?  Need some advice from someone?  Post your question in a comment and I’m sure you’ll get an answer – even if only from me!

Here in Cobweb Towers … it’s been a little cooler the last two days, and we’ve had some rain!  [doing a BIG happy dance here!].  Finally the sun has given us a couple of days break and sleep has been much more comfortable for the last two nights.  Such a blessing.  I know that Dorset holiday makers won’t be finding it a blessing, but we very much-needed some cool weather for a while and the gardens desperately needed some rainwater.

All that’s left for me to say is that I hope your Monday was a decent one, and I wish you terrific Tuesday.  May your day tomorrow begin with a smile and end with one, and may the hours in between have smiles shared and dotted throughout the day.

Sending squidges, from me in my corner, to you in yours.