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There are nights, deep in the forest, when the fairies don't sleep. They get to weave all night. They weave beautiful hair. Hair that use to decorate the forest with. Long, thin strings of delicate, fragile ice. They work unstoppably. Their little hands don't stop moving, their tiny fingers don't cease spinning their magic looms.
If you listen carefully, you'll hear them. A distant, buzzing sound of the fairies chatting and their looms swirling. The nights are long and tiring, but the pixies that come along to flirt with them make them a lot better.
If you could shrink yourself into their size, and secretly sneak into their forest you'd see them. The beautiful fairies, dressed in autumn leaves, their shiny hair tied up in braids, decorated with miniature, elaborate plant roots. Their transparent wings fluttering and their small cheeks blushing whenever a pixie approaches for some chit chat.
Oh! those pixies, they are real-life Don Juans. With their foxfire magic they light up the forest and what a great excuse their light is to get closer to the beautiful fairies.
- Should I light some more over your loom, my fair fairy? We don't want to get your eyes sore after weaving so long in the dark, do we?
And the shy fairies give a witty look to their friends and then smile shyly to the pixies.
- By all means! I can't thank you enough for being so kind.
Then come the crickets, playing some music to entertain the hardworking creatures of the autumn forest. With their forewings rubbing against each other they make such lovely tunes. How can you not fall in love with a pixie if you're a fairy weaving hair ice in a forest lit by foxfire and the song of the crickets playing along to please your ears and soul?
Ah! The fairies and the pixies enjoy themselves so much on those nights. But as soon as the first light of day starts coming out the dream has to end. The winged ladies quickly start packing their things away and head back to their homes. They are tired, they had beeen working all night and their warm beds await them, deep somewhere in a tree's hollow trunk or under a bush's branches.
The pixies must get back home too. They pick their foxfire and take it back to their storing place. The pixies need to rest. Tonight they'll have to come back and light up the forest for the fairies to work. They'll keep doing so for a few more days this autumn. Then the ground will get too cold and the creatures of the forest will have to take the long, winter sleep in order to wake up for spring.
And the crickets... They are tired as well after playing their music all night. They need to retrack. The lovers' songs will be performed again tonight, so they must rest their wings.
And here we are in an autumn forest, moments after dawn. Alone, feeling the morning chill preaking your cheeks, like the needle in Sleeping Beauty's loom preaked her finger in another story. You start looking around, the naked trees, the sky that starts lighting up and then your eyes turn to the ground with the fallen leaves and the rotten grass and there you see it... long, thin, silver hair! Hair made of ice! Hair weaved by the hands of a fairy. Delicate. Fragile. Short-lived, cause the moment you touch it, it melts away just like all dreams do.
Image source: pexels.com
Do you want me to break it down to you?
If you wish to keep the fairytale then don't bother reading the boring, science stuff that spoil the magic. If, on the other hand, you wish to know whether foxfire and hair ice truly exist, read below.
Hair Ice
Also called ice wool or frost beard, grows on dead wood and takes the form of fine hair due to a fungus named Exidiopsis effusa. The fungus' roots serve as a nucleation site for the ice crystals to grow on. The dainty ice formations can live up to several hours if the temperature stays close to 0°C . If you wish to see this phenomenon you need to travel in latitudes between 45-55° North (to places like: Canada, Russia, France, Germany, Ireland and Sweden).
Don't miss this amazing photo collection from: livescience.com
[For more visit the original source]
Image source - author, Dr Richard Murray - license
Foxfire
Or fairy fire, is another fungus-related phenomenon. Certain fungi growing on rotten wood might present bioluminescence (we have seen that in another past post of mine). After studying several species of mushrooms, reasearchers concluded that there is a metabolite called hispidin, which can produce the two enzymes needed for bioluminescence (luciferin and luciferase). In order to see it you need a damp oak forest with dead wood parts on the ground, temperatures mild (neither too cold nor too warm, spring is the right season).
[For more visit the original source]
Well, after reading this you can tell that hair ice and foxfires are difficult to be witnessed in the same forest at the same time, but fairytales are fairytales and our imagination knows no limits! Thank you for being here and reading this. I always appreciate your thoughts in the comments. Have a great upcoming weekend!
Here are some of my recent posts if you want to take a look:
* A Taste Of Sweden (Part 5 - Uppsala University, Department Of Geology)
* Trolls In Athens - Steemeet #2 Was Great!
* Trolls Around The Solar System (Part 1 - Mercury)
* bloodyuseless: Have You Considered Blood Donation?
* Bizarre Natural Phenomena Vol.35 - A Bouquet For The Snow Queen (Frost Flowers)
Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!
