Fairy Ring

Have you ever seen a fairy ring? It's also called an Elf Circle or a Pixie Ring. We tend to get them after a few rainy cloudy days. Often the mushrooms don't form a complete circle, just an arc, but it is still called a Fairy Ring or Faerie Circle. There was one out in front of my house the other day. The mushrooms were large and formed a good portion of a circle. Unfortunately, some of the neighborhood kids couldn't resist kicking away a bit of it, but I still managed to get a photo of Jimmy in the Fairy Ring.....

Those are some BIG 'shrooms! The fairies that made them must have been giants of their kind!

Good thing I took the photo when I did, the next morning, the kids had finished it off and there was nothing left but a few broken chunks.

So this leads me to my next, yet related, topic....Did you know that corgis are known as Faerie Steeds? 

Legend has it that it all began with the faerie folk. They lived in the woodlands of Wales and spent a happy time wandering the forests. Their delicate wings could not take them very fast, and they became lazy about traveling long distance, so they decided to create a fast steed upon which they could ride.  So after much hard work and deep thinking, they came upon a perfect solution, the dwarf dog. The dwarf dog had the physical characteristics of a fox, but not it's sly personality. Later the faerie folk found out that this dog could not only travel by fast speed, but was also a loyal, and pleasant creature. When the faeries weren't riding their dwarf dogs, they would send them among the children to play, and even watch over them. 
    One day while riding upon their dwarf dogs, the Queen and the King of the Faeries spotted mortal humans, doing hard and rough work just to keep themselves and their families alive, for the people they spotted were poor farm hands, working on the land. Distracted by this, the King of the Faeries fell off his steed, and the Queen rushed off hers to save him. The dwarf dogs, which were actually puppies,  not knowing that the royalty had fallen, ran off, thinking everything was fine. By the time the Queen had revived her fallen husband, the puppies were out of sight, and the king and queen had not the speed to catch up to them. "What shall we do?  Our dwarf dogs will certainly get lost among the land. We must organize a search at once!" announced the king. But the Queen comforted him, saying, "You must not worry. We have lost but two dwarf dogs, which we only used for our pleasure, but these dogs will soon be lost no longer, for they will be found by mortals more needing of them than us."
    After awhile the pups did become lost, and wandered into a hollow. Not having a care in the world, the working dogs started to play together, and had a delightful time. They did not even notice two poor mortal children watching them play. After awhile of watching, the children picked them up, and carried them home, happy with what they found. When the farmer men came home and saw the dwarf dogs the children found, they smiled. One man explained to the children that these were gifts given to them by the faeries.  The people did not know a proper name for these creatures, so they called them Corgis, the ancient Welsh word for dwarf dogs. The Corgis worked on the farm land with such means, herding cows and the like, that they became loved and cherished among the folk of Wales, and hundreds of years later loved by the world. 

Jimmy: I thought they said "stud" not steed! Sheesh! At least she doesn't weigh too much.