I thank all the wonderful artists who commented and fav'd my last image. You are too kind and they make me feel so great and much appreciated. Thank you. I hope everyone in the USA are having a fantastic and safe holiday weekend. I can't believe summer is coming to an end. Well, do I have a scoop for you! My anonymous source tells me there is going to be a big do in the Forest. Yup, apparently this is the time of the year the fairies get their wings. Well, not all the fairies of course, some already have them, this is for the Fairies that have earned their wings for this year. There will lots to eat after the ceremony. Scented iced petal juice with Blackberry foam and Honeysuckle punch, Strawberry fluffs and melon pudgies with a dollop of nutmeg cream. And of course Esmeralda will have sent to the South for special confections of delicious delicacies from far away places. Eloise from Little Eastlick Wallop on the Ups and Downs stream, which is not in the East at all, but in the North near the mountains of Morton's Groove and the palace of the Ugly Troll. The Troll isn't evil or bad, just ugly as most trolls are in the region, with a small eye in the center of his forehead and largish wart on the end of his crooked nose. But that is not important to the news, just a point of reference so you know exactly where Little Eastlick Wallop is located. It is said that Eloise comes down the left fork of the Green River every year in September on the full moon. Bringing the 'Book' with her. The 'Book' is a very magical Book and has every fairy's name in it. It has all the tallies for the year of what the fairies have been up to and it calculates itself, well of course it calculates itself, it's a magic book! Geesh. Anyway, The week before the full moon of September, Eloise and the elders of the region go over the results to learn who are the fairies who are to get their wings for that year. It is all in the Book and the Book cannot be changed. Someone tried once, so it is said and it wasn't a pretty sight, gives me shivers just to think about it, but that's another story too. :o) Eloise sends a message to the Forest elders to let them know when the ceremony and celebration will be and when she will arrive. She then prepares for the journey. That is not as easy as it sounds, she has many things to assemble, which go into her much traveled trunk. No one and I mean no one, knows what is in the trunk, a few have tried to sneak a look, we won't go into that right now, but they were never seen again...or so I am told. :o) The trunk is also said to rumble, shake and burp. I know, rumble and shake...maybe, but burp? Yes, burp. But then I have never seen or heard it, so I really can't say, that's what is rumored and my source is never wrong, well hardly ever. Eloise glides silently down the Green River which flows into the Great Pond in the Forest, on her Swan boat. There is a small island in the middle of the pond which is used for the 'Wing Ceremony.' It will be decorated with Chinese lanterns and Fairy Lights. If you go down to the Great Pond on the night of the first full moon of September and hide among the cattails and reeds, (take your Wellies, it gets damp) you'll have a clear view of the little island and maybe you will see the twinkling of the fairy lights and Chinese lanterns swaying in the last of summer breezes and the inhabitants of the Forest in full celebration ... but then it may only be the moon and mist on the pond and the marsh gas tricking your eyes in the darkness... I don't know, but that's what I have been told. :o)