Na Gurnaidh Update
Lovely day yesterday - warm and sunny - perfect day for hill-climbing. Some of my friends and I packed a picnic lunch and took off on a ramble, planning to hit places where we'd had good luck aillse watching in years past.
That was then, this is now.
Our first stop was a lovely little strawberry patch not far from the Dragon Preserve. Last year, we had to step carefully, the aillse sùbh-làir had been everyWHERE! This year, we saw ... maybe ... one, but it zoomed off as we neared.
We did, however, find signs that someone had been picnicking there - if you can call bottles of absinthe and sicking up all over the place "picnicking". I'm not sure that I would.
Next, we visited a blackberry patch. Best blackberries in the shire - the smallest of them as big as cherries. We actually did spot aillse there, a goodly number of them, - clustered together deep in the centre of the canes, buzzing as we neared. And apparently the self-same "picnicker" had been as well.
And so it went. We did manage to find some good swarms of the lovely creatures deeper in the Dragon Preserve, but even there, they were extremely ... remarkably ... shy and skittish. Didn't add any new varieties to my life-list, but it was a lovely day.
Aside from finding the nasty remains of the unknown absinthe drinker. I wonder though ... perhaps I'm being too hard on him. According to folklore, absinthe grants Sight to those who have lost it due to age or ... otherwise. Perhaps this person unknown simply wanted to enjoy the same sights of which I, myself, was out in search? In that case, s/he is more to be pitied than censured, poor thing. Can you imagine - needing to be drunk-sick in order to see the fey? Poor thing.
That was then, this is now.
Our first stop was a lovely little strawberry patch not far from the Dragon Preserve. Last year, we had to step carefully, the aillse sùbh-làir had been everyWHERE! This year, we saw ... maybe ... one, but it zoomed off as we neared.
We did, however, find signs that someone had been picnicking there - if you can call bottles of absinthe and sicking up all over the place "picnicking". I'm not sure that I would.
Next, we visited a blackberry patch. Best blackberries in the shire - the smallest of them as big as cherries. We actually did spot aillse there, a goodly number of them, - clustered together deep in the centre of the canes, buzzing as we neared. And apparently the self-same "picnicker" had been as well.
And so it went. We did manage to find some good swarms of the lovely creatures deeper in the Dragon Preserve, but even there, they were extremely ... remarkably ... shy and skittish. Didn't add any new varieties to my life-list, but it was a lovely day.
Aside from finding the nasty remains of the unknown absinthe drinker. I wonder though ... perhaps I'm being too hard on him. According to folklore, absinthe grants Sight to those who have lost it due to age or ... otherwise. Perhaps this person unknown simply wanted to enjoy the same sights of which I, myself, was out in search? In that case, s/he is more to be pitied than censured, poor thing. Can you imagine - needing to be drunk-sick in order to see the fey? Poor thing.