Elves, Brownies, Leprechauns & Other Legendary Beings, --- By Terry Mc Namee...

Elves, Brownies, Leprechauns and Other Legendary Beings

The Faery Folk of the British Isles include a wide assortment of beings. Hobs, boggards, elves, piskies and brownies are but a few of the unusual creature based on ancient legends.

By Terry McNamee © 2013...  Do you have gnomes in your garden, or a hob hiding in your basement? Folklore is full of “wee folk” that may not be real except in children's imaginations. While legends of the Little People or the Faery Folk are found all over the world, they are especially common in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The Fae of the British Isles

In the British Isles, the history of the Little People dates back thousands of years. Often they are grouped together as Elementals, Fae, or fairy (faery) folk, and referred to as the Good People to help protect humans from their wrath, which could be quite malicious. Whether some or all were, or are, based on real beings is a question that has been debated for hundreds of years. The arrival of the Christian Church around A.D. 200 led to these old beliefs being denounced by priests as heathen, pagan or otherwise undesirable, but an undercurrent of belief in the Fae has remained to this day.

The Wee Folk of the British Isles include a wide variety of faeries, including but not limited to elves, pixies, gnomes, brownies, sprites, leprechauns, boggarts and hobs. Unlike supernatural creatures like werewolves or vampires, the Faery Folk were never human. They are often called preternatural beings, meaning they are unusual or outside the norm. The Fae all have a generally human-like appearance — they all walk upright, have hands instead of paws, have a spoken language, wear clothing, love music and so on — but they are not human, and only elves are thought to be able to interbreed with humans. Some Fairy Folk, like leprechauns, hobs, dwarves and gnomes, looked much like very small people, but others, such as pixies, sprites and imps, had a distinctly alien appearance, with large eyes, pointed ears and even wings. Some were believed to live very long lives or even be immortal, dying only if struck down by injury or illness.

Traditionally, some Fae avoided people, while others lived in close proximity with them. Some of the Wee Folk were helpful, but often they were fond of practical jokes and causing trouble. Many of the Fae preferred to go about their business without interacting with people, and most could be quite nasty if they felt they had been wronged. There are tales of them souring milk, causing crops to fail and moving, stealing or breaking items in retaliation for being slighted, insulted or harmed. A few were always dangerous and best left alone.

Elves are found in many cultures. In some, they are tall, ethereal beings, while in others they are very small. Over the centuries, the words elf and fairy have become used as generic names for various small preternatural beings, but elves are generally seen as a separate species of Fae. In Ireland, elves were described as tall and fair, much like (or even part of) the Tuatha de Danann, an ancient race of demi-gods which possibly were based on the actual proto-Celtic people known as Gaels who arrived in Ireland some 4,000 years ago. The Tuatha de Danann were tall and generally fair-haired. Elves could be benign or malevolent, but were not to be interfered with. They were often seen as an ancient race of beings of great power and the leaders of the Fae.

A woman surrounded by some of the Fae.

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Other Types of Wee Folk

Leprechauns are the best known of the Irish Fae. The tales of these small men have followed the Irish as they emigrated to other lands such as Canada, the United States and Australia. They were about two to three feet tall, solitary, unfriendly and aloof. They could be found by following the sound of the tiny hammers they use to make shoes for faery folk. If caught, they would promise treasure (or, in some cases, three wishes) in return for being released, but these tricky faeries would vanish as soon as you looked away. In the old tales, they wore red coats. They knew and guarded the locations of the wealth of the Fae and of treasure troves left behind by the Danes who invaded Ireland centuries ago. Real or not, leprechauns are legally protected in a preserve in the area surrounding the medieval village of Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland, where some believe the last leprechauns in Ireland still live. Curiously, there are never any female leprechauns. Some tales suggest that male Fae children who were too miserable or bad-tempered to keep were cast out and became leprechauns.

Gnomes were similar to leprechauns in appearance, but somewhat less taciturn and generally much smaller. They protected nature and lived underground in wooded areas. They would interact with people on occasion. In some tales, gnomes only came out at night, because sunlight would turn them to stone, which may have been the origin for the creation of the popular “garden gnome” landscape decorations. Gnomes originated in Europe and are more commonly associated with Germanic and Scandinavian lore, but the legends came to the British Isles with the Celts, Saxons and other invaders. There are stories of gnome-like creatures from countries all over the world.

Some of the Fae were said to cohabit with humans, although people might not see them, or only catch an occasional glimpse. Brownies lived in a household and were thought to come out at night to finish work that was left undone, such as folding laundry or putting items back where they belong. People with a resident brownie were expected to leave out a bit of cream or cake on a regular basis in thanks for their help. Brownies with poor dispositions from being wronged by humans some time in their past are called boggards. They played tricks and caused trouble in the household.

Hobs (sometimes called hobgoblins) were also small creatures of the home and yard and, like brownies, could be very helpful if treated respectfully, but could cause trouble if insulted or wronged. Giving troublesome brownies or hobs a new set of clothes was one way to rid the house of them, but boggards were harder to evict, and sometimes needed several new suits before they would leave!

A hard-working gnome takes a break from his work.

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Sprite was another name often used for elves or fairies, but it could refer to something more ethereal. The name is from the latin Spiritus, or spirit. Water sprites were closely tied to a water environment and seldom interfered with people unless threatened.

Pixies (or piskies) were both mischievous and dangerous. Their pranks could be annoying but benign, such as throwing shoes into a tree, or as deadly as luring people into the moors where they would become lost forever. In some parts of Britain, people still leave a little milk and bread outside the door each night to keep the pixies from wreaking havoc on the household.

While all the Fae seem the stuff of legends, there are still many people who believe they are real. Like the Sasquatch, there are many eyewitness reports of their existence, but no reputable proof has been presented to prove that they live among us. However, if strange things have been happening in your house, with items being moved and work mysteriously being done, you might want to leave out an occasional saucer of cream and a bit of bread or cake, just in case. But don't leave coin as payment for their help, or these proud little helpers might leave in a huff and never come back

Celebrating Midsummer, --- [June 21st, 2018], --- From "Whispering Worlds"...

Litha

Litha The Summer Solstice

The Festival of Growth

Litha is the season of expansion, when the crops burgeon forth. We forget winters cares and spend our days basking under the brilliant light. The Summer Solstice brings us the longest day of the year – the zenith of the Sun King, and also His death as the Holly King dethrones him and takes reign over the now waning year. From now until Yule, the light will fade into darkness.

This is the time of lovers and gardeners. The rutting fervor of Beltane has deepened into the passionate eroticism that grows when partners become familiar with one another rhythms and moods. It is the love between those committed by heart as well as body. It is also the love of parents for their children (be they two- or four-legged!). Everywhere we look, ripeness spills out from field and forest.

Hummingbirds & Their Food...

For nutrition, hummingbirds eat a variety of insects, including mosquitoes, fruit flies, and gnats in flight or aphids on leaves and spiders in their webs. The lower beak of hummingbirds is flexible and can bend as much as 25 degrees when it widens at the base, making a larger surface for catching insects.  Hummingbirds hover within insect swarms in a method called "hover-hawking" to facilitate feeding.

To supply energy needs, hummingbirds drink nectar, a sweet liquid inside certain flowers. Like bees, they are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they normally reject flower types that produce nectar that is less than 10% sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is higher. Nectar is a mixture of glucose, fructose, and sucrose, and is a poor source of nutrients, requiring hummingbirds to meet their nutritional needs by consuming insects.

Hummingbirds do not spend all day flying, as the energy cost would be prohibitive; the majority of their activity consists simply of sitting or perching. Hummingbirds eat many small meals and consume around half their weight in nectar (twice their weight in nectar, if the nectar is 25% sugar) each day.^[100]Hummingbirds digest their food rapidly due to their small size and high metabolism; a mean retention time less than an hour has been reported. Hummingbirds spend an average of 10–15% of their time feeding and 75–80% sitting and digesting.

Because their high metabolism makes them vulnerable to starvation, hummingbirds are highly attuned to food sources. Some species, including many found in North America, are territorial and will try to guard food sources (such as a feeder) against other hummingbirds, attempting to ensure a future food supply for itself. Additionally, hummingbirds have an enlarged hippocampus, a brain region facilitating spatial memory used to map flowers previously visited during nectar foraging.

Hummingbird beaks are flexible^[98] and their shapes vary dramatically as an adaptation for specialized feeding.  Some species, such as hermits (Phaethornis spp.) have long bills that allow them to probe deep into flowers with long corollae. Thornbills have short, sharp bills adapted for feeding from flowers with short corollae and piercing the bases of longer ones. The sicklebills' extremely decurved bills are adapted to extracting nectar from the curved corollae of flowers in the family Gesneriaceae. The bill of the fiery-tailed awlbill has an upturned tip, as in the avocets. The male tooth-billed hummingbird has barracuda-like spikes at the tip of its long, straight bill.

The two halves of a hummingbird's bill have a pronounced overlap, with the lower half (mandible) fitting tightly inside the upper half (maxilla). When a hummingbird feeds on nectar, the bill is usually opened only slightly, allowing the tongue to dart out and into the interior of flowers. Hummingbird bill sizes range from about 5 mm to as long as 100 mm (about 4 in). When catching insects in flight, a hummingbird's jaw flexes downward to widen the gape for successful capture.

Perception of sweet nectar

Perception of sweetness in nectar evolved in hummingbirds during their genetic divergence from insectivorous swifts, their closest bird relatives. Although the only known sweet sensory receptor, called T1R2, is absent in birds, receptor expression studies showed that hummingbirds adapted a carbohydrate receptor from the T1R1-T1R3 receptor, identical to the one perceived as umami in humans, essentially repurposing it to function as a nectar sweetness receptor. This adaptation for taste enabled hummingbirds to detect and exploit sweet nectar as an energy source, facilitating their distribution across geographical regions where nectar-bearing flowers are available.

Tongue as a micropump[edit]

Hummingbirds drink with their tongues by rapidly lapping nectar. Their tongues have tubes which run down their lengths and help the hummingbirds drink the nectar. While capillary action was believed to be what drew nectar into these tubes, high-speed photography has revealed that the tubes open down their sides as the tongue goes into the nectar, and then close around the nectar, trapping it so it can be pulled back into the beak. The tongue, which is forked, is compressed until it reaches nectar, then the tongue springs open, the rapid action traps the nectar and the nectar moves up the grooves, like a pump action, with capillary action not involved. Consequently, tongue flexibility enables accessing, transporting and unloading nectar.

Feeders and artificial nectar

In the wild, hummingbirds visit flowers for food, extracting nectar, which is 55% sucrose, 24% glucose and 21% fructose on a dry-matter basis.^[112] Hummingbirds also take sugar-water from bird feeders. Such feeders allow people to observe and enjoy hummingbirds up close while providing the birds with a reliable source of energy, especially when flower blossoms are less abundant. A negative aspect of artificial feeders, however, is that the birds may seek less flower nectar for food, so reduce the amount of pollination their feeding naturally provides.^[113]

White granulated sugar is the best sweetener to use in hummingbird feeders. A ratio of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, or 25% concentration, is a common recipe,^[114] although hummingbirds will defend feeders more aggressively when sugar content is at 35%, indicating preference for nectar with higher sweetnessand sugar content.  it to the nectar. Some people speculate red dye could be bad for the birds, although this claim has not received scientific attention. Commercial products sold as "instant nectar" or "hummingbird food" may also contain preservatives and/or artificial flavors as well as dyes, and are not necessary, although the long-term effects of these additives on hummingbirds have not been systematically studied. Although some commercial products contain small amounts of nutritional additives, hummingbirds obtain all necessary nutrients from the insects they eat, rendering added nutrients unnecessary.

Other animals also visit hummingbird feeders. Bees, wasps, and ants are attracted to the sugar-water and may crawl into the feeder, where they may become trapped and drown. Orioles, woodpeckers, bananaquits, raccoons and other larger animals are known to drink from hummingbird feeders, sometimes tipping them and draining the liquid. In the southwestern United States, two species of nectar-drinking bats (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae and Choeronycteris mexicana) visit hummingbird feeders to supplement their natural diet of nectar and pollen from saguaro cacti and agaves.

Hummingbirds hovering at an artificial nectar feeder

Visual cues of foraging

Hummingbirds have exceptional visual acuity providing them with discrimination of food sources while foraging. Although it is commonly believed that hummingbirds are attracted to color while seeking food, such as red flowers or artificial feeders, experiments indicate that location and flower nectar quality are the most important "beacons" for foraging.  Hummingbirds depended little on visual cues of flower color to beacon to nectar-rich locations, but rather they used surrounding landmarks to find the nectar reward.

In at least one hummingbird species – the green-backed firecrown (Sephanoides sephaniodes) – flower colors preferred are in the red-green wavelength for the bird's visual system, providing a higher contrast than for other flower colors. Further, the crown plumage of firecrown males is highly iridescent in the red wavelength range (peak at 650 nanometers), possibly providing a competitive advantage of dominance when foraging among other hummingbird species with less-colorful plumage. The ability to discriminate colors of flowers and plumage is enabled by a visual system having four single cone cells and a double cone screened by photoreceptor oil dropletswhich enhance color discrimination.

Lestat In The Garden, --- [My darling boy]... =^_^=

The Barn At Night: Checking on Kittens & Goats Before Bed, --- [So sweet]...

On A Great Mini-Farm:They're Finally Free! (Goats, chickens, & pigs escape to the pasture!!!)...

Germans, Beer & Hops, --- The Way of It All... :)

   That's hops, above...  My grandma was from Bavaria, where they make great beer.  She made her own beer in her basement.  It was a dark beer, flavored with hops from the vines that she grew on a trellis in her backyard in Cleveland. 

Here's a few things you may not know about beer in Germany...

The Reinheitsgebot ("purity decree"), sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law" in English, was a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany.

In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops, which had to be added only while the wort was boiling. After its discovery, yeast became the fourth legal ingredient. For top fermenting beers, the use of sugar is also permitted.

There is a dispute as to where the Reinheitsgebot originated. Some Bavarians point out that the law originated in the city of Ingolstadt in the duchy of Bavaria on 23 April 1516, although first put forward in 1487, concerning standards for the sale and composition of beer.

Thuringians point to a document which states the ingredients of beer as water, hops, and barley only, and was written in 1434 in Weißensee (Thuringia). It was discovered in the medieval Runneburg near Erfurt in 1999.^[5] Before its official repeal in 1987, it was the oldest food-quality regulation in the world.

Pale beers

• Export — a pale lager brewed around Dortmund that is fuller, maltier and less hoppy than Pilsner. 12-12.5° Plato, 5-5.5% ABV. Germany's most popular style in the 1950s and 1960s, it is now becoming increasingly rare.
• Helles — a malty pale lager from Bavaria of 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV.
• Kölsch — pale, light-bodied, top-fermented, beer which, when brewed in Germany, can only legally be brewed in the Cologne region. 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV.
• Maibock — a pale, strong lager brewed in the spring. 16-17° Plato, 6.5-7% ABV.

Märzen at Oktoberfest, served in the traditional 1-litre Maß.

• Märzen — medium body, malty lagers that come in pale, amber and dark varieties. 13-14° Plato, 5.2-6% ABV. The type of beer traditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest.
• Pilsener — a pale lager with a light body and a more prominent hop character. 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV. By far the most popular style, with around two thirds of the market.
• Spezial — a pale, full, bitter-sweet and delicately hopped lager. 13-13.5° Plato, 5.5-5.7% ABV.

Dark beers

• Altbier — a top-fermented, lagered beer. It is brewed only in Düsseldorf and in the Lower Rhine region. Its origins lie in Westphalia, and there are still a few Altbier breweries in this region. Tastes range from mildly bitter and hoppy to exceptionally bitter. About ten breweries in the Düsseldorf region brew Altbier at 5%-6.5% ABV.
• Bock — a heavy-bodied, bitter-sweet lager darkened by high-coloured malts. 16-17° Plato, 6.5-7% ABV.
• Doppelbock — a very strong, very full-bodied lager darkened by high-coloured malts. 18-28° Plato, 8-12% ABV.
• Dunkel — a dark lager which comes in two main varieties: the sweetish, malty Munich style and the drier, hoppy Franconian style.
• Schwarzbier — a bottom-fermented, dark lager beer. 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV.
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  Drinkware

  
  
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    An ornate stonewarebeer stein.
   
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    A common half-litre Humpen mug.
   
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    A Weizen beer glass.
   
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    A Pilsner beer glass
   
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    Dunkel, pictured here in a Stange glass.
   
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    A Maßkrug is the style of glassware featured at German Oktoberfest celebrations.
   
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    A German bierstiefel(beer boot).
   
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    A Berliner Weisse glass.

  Weizen glass

  
  

  A glass of Weizen
  A Weizen glass is used to serve Weizenbier.
  Originating in Germany, the glass is narrow at the bottom and slightly wider at the top; the width both releasing aroma, and providing room for the often thick, fluffy heads produced by wheat beer.^[22] It tends to be taller than a pint glass, and generally holds 500 millilitres with room for foam or "head". In some countries, such as Belgium, the glass may be 250 ml or 330 ml.
  Wheat beers tend to foam a lot, especially if poured incorrectly. A customary manner is to swirl around a bit of (preferably cold) water in the glass to wet it and afterwards pouring the beer slowly, holding the glass in an angle of approximately 45 °.

  Beer stein

  A beer stein (or simply a stein /ˈstaɪn/ STYNE) is an English neologism for a traditional type of beer mug. Steins may be made of stoneware (rarely the inferior earthenware), pewter, porcelain, silver, glass, or wood. They may have open tops or may have hinged pewter lids with a thumb-lever.
  Steins usually come in sizes of a half litre or full litre (or comparable historical sizes). Like decorative tankards, they are often decorated in nostalgic themes, generally showing allusions to Germany or Bavaria.
  It is believed by some that the lid was implemented during the time of the Black Plague to prevent diseased flies from getting into the beer.

  Maß

  The Maß (pronounced [mas]) is a term used in German-speaking countries for a unit of volume, now typically used only for measuring beer sold for immediate on-site consumption. In modern times, a Maß is defined as exactly 1 litre. As a maß is a unit of measure, various designs are possible: modern maß krugs are often handled glass tankards, although they may also be in the form of steins. At the Octoberfest beer isavailable in maß Krug or half litre 'Halb' .

  Stange and Becher

  A Stange (stick or rod) is a cylindrical glass that is traditionally used for Kölsch beer. A Becher (tumbler), traditionally used for Altbier, is similar to a Stange but is slightly shorter and much thicker. Stangen are carried by placing them into holes in a special tray called a Kranz (wreath). In Cologne Stanges are usually served by traditional waiters called Köbes.

  Pilstulpe 

  Beer bootThe Pilstulpe ("Pilsner Tulip") or Biertulpe ("Beer tulip") is the tradition glass for German pilsner beers. Sizes are typically around 300 millilitres (11 imp fl oz; 10 US fl oz), but can be as large as 500 millilitres (18 imp fl oz; 17 US fl oz). When used in restaurant settings, a small piece of absorbent paper is placed around the base to absorb any drips from spilling or condensation.
  
  In Germany, beer boots usually contain between 2 and 4 litres and are passed from one guest at the table to the next one clockwise. When almost reaching the bottom of the boot, it suddenly starts bubbling. By some accounts, drinker who caused the bubbling has to order the next boot. There are also boots known with 6 and 8 litres. That being said, beer boots are almost never seen in Germany, even among friends who do drink as much and more beer on an evening out together; normal glasses are preferred.Beer boots (Bierstiefel in German) have over a century of history and culture behind them. It is commonly believed that a general somewhere promised his troops to drink beer from his boot if they were successful in battle. When the troops prevailed, the general had a glassmaker fashion a boot from glass to fulfill his promise without tasting his own feet and to avoid spoiling the beer in his leather boot. Since then, soldiers have enjoyed toasting to their victories with a beer boot. At gatherings in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, beer boots are often passed among the guests for a festive drinking challenge. Since the movie Beerfest appeared in 2006, beer boots have become increasingly popular in the United States. Glass beer boots are either manufactured using a mold or from mouth-blown glass by skilled artisans.

  Beer festivals

  
  
  
  

  Inside a tent at Munich's Oktoberfest - the world's largest beer festival
  Oktoberfest is a 16- to 18-day festival held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October. Only beer which is brewed within the city limits of Munich with a minimum of 13.5% Stammwürze (approximately 6% alcohol by volume) is allowed to be served in this festival. Upon passing this criterion, a beer is designated Oktoberfest Beer. Large quantities of German beer are consumed, with almost 7 million liters served during the 16-day festival in 2007. Recently in 2015 the festival officially served 7.3 million liters of beer.

Why Not Plant A Honeysuckle???...

  
 I live in Ohio, planting zone 5, where the temps can reach the 90s in summer and -10 below in winter.  My big honeysuckle bush seemed to be winter-killed for a couple of years, but I checked it this spring and, --- it's alive!!!...   All it needs is trimming of the dead wood and some basic all purpose fertilizer.  Honeysuckles smell positively great and provide winter protection for birds who can shelter from storms among their thick branches.  Hummingbirds are also attracted to honeysuckles.  You can plant them in almost any location except hot, hot sunlight all day long.  Their roots need a bit of shade, so light with dappled shade would be ideal.  Mine is growing on the north side of my house.

   Most species of honeysuckle, Lonicera, are hardy twining climbers, with a large minority of shrubby habit; a handful of species (including Lonicera hildebrandiana from the Himalayan foothills and L. etrusca from the Mediterranean) are tender and can only be grown outside in subtropical zones. The leaves are opposite, simple oval, 1–10 cm long; most are deciduous but some are evergreen. Many of the species have sweetly scented, bilaterally symmetrical flowers that produce a sweet, edible nectar, and most flowers are borne in clusters of two (leading to the common name of "twinberry" for certain North American species). Both shrubby and vining sorts have strongly fibrous stems which have been used for binding and textiles. The fruit is a red, blue or black spherical or elongated berry containing several seeds; in most species the berries are mildly poisonous, but in a few (notably Lonicera caerulea) they are edible and grown for home use and commerce. Most honeysuckle berries are attractive to wildlife, which has led to species such as L. japonica and L. maackii spreading invasively outside of their home ranges. Many species of Lonicera are eaten by the larvae of some butterflies.