I debated posting any Faerieworlds photos until I’ve had time to edit and, in several case, photo shop. But summer has been upon us with glorious dry days. My computer is upstairs and it gets pretty darn toasty up here in the summer (and stays toasty in the winter, this is an all-around perfect place for my computer since I hate cold! And anything below 72 degrees F is sweater weather to me). It has been a tad bit too warm upstairs to sit and photo shop. And a whole lot too nice to come inside, so I have been sitting out in the lawn chairs with my newly retired lover, enjoying the hummingbird wars.
I have hundreds of hummingbird photos.
Back to Faerieworlds. Three of us traveled together this year and we hooked up with my dear friend, Mary, for tea in the afternoon. Actually, because it was so stinking hot this year, we had lemonade instead of hot tea – a much nicer refreshment for bodies that craved electrolytes and fluids! I loved the hot, but my companions began to melt early in the day and even my persistent use of a spray bottle to mist with did not help (this Nevada girl always carries a mister in the hot summer time).
The costumes…
Well, there were several above-sea-level jelly fish floating around.
The usual parade of beautiful fae and Amazons.
A Giant meets a Green Woman. The giant seemed intrigued by the slow-moving mossy persona as she crept around the dancers and vendors, stealthy and steady as northwestern mosses are.
Any number of warrior fae patrolled the grounds.
This Steampunk Adventurer regaled us with a story of clinging monkeys. I don’t remember much of the story – I hated to tell her that I seriously loathe monkeys and the one on her helmet made me very nervous!
I think he was quite proud of his kilt and stein combination!
My friend said, “When we are old, I am *not* going to Faerieworlds with you any more.”
“But there are beautiful older fae here,” I replied.
And next year, I am getting a parasol rather than trying to shield my eyes with a hat or a hand!
There were some costumes this year that were not worthy of my blog, Beautiful People trying to be more beautiful by taking more off. I’m not opposed to nudity and not especially offended by it. Sometimes, however, there is a fine line between nudity and exhibitionism. Very often, there is a greater bent toward exploitation than hedonism – and I certainly noted that at this year’s festival of the fae.
Good Faeries and Bad Faeries. I’m more on the Good Faerie side, I guess.
She deserves a blog post of her own, but I will fit her in here, in context, in the center of Faerieworlds where she moved, shadow-like, a figure so haunting and ethereal that I could not take my eyes off of her.
She knelt and thought, her breathing controlled.
What being is she, I wondered? SO aloof and distant in the midst of laughter and music and joy?
A figure of death? Or a shadow of the Afterworld? Is this what a Banshee looks like?
She tucked her head and waited, offering no explanation.
Alone. Her movements were fluid and poetic. silent and contemplative.
She was, in short, beautiful. There did not seem to be a dark magick about her, only a lonliness and a distance. She reminded me of the forest, after a fire. Or a dying snag, beautiful with the fungus growing out of it – the very fungus that killed it.
Then there was this – I scarcely had time to raise my camera to capture it: a faerie in red offered the sad fae a gift, and then I understood. She was simply Beauty and Beauty is often a lonely entity, a silent thing that creeps into our world overnight in a sudden snowfall that hushes and mutes everything – then melts away as suddenly.
I ran into the Genie. He’s there every year. We posed together and joked before he continued on his journey. What I did not know was this: a Black Fae had attached itself to my camera lens! There it is, hovering before my face, the naughty Tinkerbell of Faerieworlds.
And the reason I really wanted to photoshop my pics before posting them.
One last photo – my favorite. Faerieworlds is a place for alter-abled fae as well as the rest of us.
I asked if I could take their photo and these beautiful alter-abled fae grinned. “Of course! replied the one with the white parasol. And so I snapped their photo. My favorite photo. Beatiful fae out to enjoy a beautiful day!
Jaci Dawn 
It was a lovely time despite the winds. And I enjoyed visiting with you over lemonade. Your description of that spirit we both encountered in the stone circle is spot on.
Thank you, Mary. I really try to be the anthropological student at these events. I had forgotten the winds! Oh my! If only they would have blown when we were walking from parking lot to faire! Next year, I have a different plan of action: take all items to Mary FIRST so we can store them in your poor cooler and avoid the hike back to the car to get them before high tea (and subsequent heat-induced loss of direction…).