Fairies in the forest
I went into the woods with a friend today in search of fairies. But it seems they were out on an adventure of their own, as no one seemed to be home when we stopped by. Otherwise, we would have had a cup of tea with the Glingbobs and Tootflits who reside in Pressmennan Woods.
Pressmennan Woods is a 212-acre woodland near the village of Stenton in East Lothian. The lands are part of Scotland’s ancient oak woodland and are now managed by the Woodland Trust Scotland. And in these woods there live (at least) two types of fairies, Glingbobs and Tootflits.
Legend has it that Glingbobs are part woodlouse and part bumblebee and can sometimes be seen along the forest floor. Tootflits, on the other hand, are part dragonfly and part weevil and tend to live within the canopy of the woodlands. And some of these creatures have made this woodland their full-time home, with proper houses and everything!
As I said, we stopped by Bombi NoffNuff and Jenfrey Hoolups’ treehouses, but no one was in. And they weren’t on their bench or at any of their meeting places. So, I must assume they were out for the day. Or maybe they were hiding from me!
However, I still enjoyed my time in the woods searching for geocaches. In fact, I managed to bag a total of 5 geocaches which puts me over my goal of finding 20 caches for August and puts me at 34 towards my goal of finding 50 caches in 2020. Of course, that goal was set with the understanding that I rarely ever do geocache trails, but with the craziness of 2020 nothing is normal! I will give some thought to if I will increase my goal or not.
I also enjoyed the woods in general. There were several little bits of “whimsy” tucked in along the path including fairy artwork and Mother Nature’s keen eye for decorating!
After we finished exploring the woods, we popped into the village of Stenton to visit the kirk and to see what other great wonders could be found. One of the first wonders I saw was an old red phone box. And I was extremely excited to hear the dial tone when I picked up the handset. Yes, it’s the simple things in life that make me happiest!
When we got to the kirk, I was pleased to see that part of the “old” kirk was repurposed as a doocot after the Gothic-style “new” kirk was built in the 1800s. The headstones told an interesting story of the local villagers over the century and I found myself, as always, wondering about the people whose partial stories were told in the inscriptions.
Yes, it did seem like a lovely wee village. And if it had a pub, I might have even said I would want to live there. But the whimsy of the hedges that were shaped as troll-looking people made me incredibly happy even if there wasn’t a pint of IPA to be had!
I could certainly feel a chill in the air today and am extremely glad that I opted to wear a couple of thin layers. It won’t be long before I am breaking out my winter coat. But I’ll try not to think about that just yet as I’m still hoping for a couple more warm-ish adventures before autumn arrives!
