Balancing the Arts with Technology

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mood: overwhelmed

Monday 2 April 2007
:: Malham, England - Yorkshire::

Early to rise our fine adventurers stumbled down to the hostel breakfast buffet to fill their bellies for a 7-9 mile hike around Malham, it's scars, and many waterfalls. 'Tis also the morning they set out to meet the Faerie Queen of Janet Foss in hopes that she'll grant the spell to remove the enchantment placed on Lady Vanessa's ring. Vanessa's bunkmate, a Lady Marion of Salsbury near Stonehenge, came down and joined the delvers for breakfast. Very nice warm woman - geographer and former geologist. She would have joined the adventurous party, but she had already made plans to do a different route - though thoughts were that the paths might cross through the day. The adventurers also had a very dangerous scramble they would need to scurry up after Janet Foss. The adventurers packed light, the hostel supplied them with sack lunches, and Sir Ingo the Great relentlessly volunteered (well since he had the smallest and lightest pack) to carry the lunches and the gear so Lady Vanessa of the Rhine, and Sir Thomas Leaf could have their hands free. Many thanks to Ingo the Great!!! Set forth out of town, the adventurers followed the river, through more fields of newly born lambs, and into very garlic scented lush woods hidden into a magical valley that led to Janet's Foss. Wild garlic covered the lush gully wall to wall floor to foot. Along the path appeared a tree trunk ... that looked very strange indeed ....

What in the Faerie Goddess's name is wrong with that trunk?

gully wall to wall garlic - definitely guaranteed to keep werewolves, vampires, and blood suckers from this magical gully!

Approaching Janet's Foss ...

It was hundreds upon hundreds of pennies hammered vertically into the wood. Then they came across another - and another - and in a fallen tree. All leading up to Janet's Foss. Sir Thomas Leaf, purportedly very knowledgeable about Faerie ways, could only guess they were offerings for the Faerie Queen. But he wasn't sure. He'd expect it of the Irish certainly, just not the English. This was too overwhelming for him. He had to know the truth. Had he not been sooo brainstunned by these amazing elements of lore on the path, he would have thought that he too should have paid tribute in such a way as the tale shall soon tell. Legend has it, the Faerie Queen lives in a cave behind the waterfall. Thing is, the first cave one would see is off to the right. Our adventurers at first thought this was the Faerie Queen's cave ... they walked in. It was empty. It was the wrong cave. Sir Thomas Leaf then spied hidden just to the right of the waterfall, moss hidden behind a large round rock, another cave. Lush and beautiful, only fit for faeries. He immediately without thought, set off to hop stone by stone and attempted to go into the cave without pre-thought or most importantly, permission from the Faerie Queen ... and to his fate learned his lesson quite quickly ....

Penny offerings for good luck and as gifts to the Fae

Sir Thomas Leaf in the wrong cave - a false faerie cave to distract faerie hunters from the real cave ...

Janet's Foss (can you see the Faerie cave?

Oh Sir Thomas Leaf the cartographer ... not using his wit in his anxiety to meet the Faerie Queen ... One foot up to climb into the cave and .... whoooosh!!! down into the pool he went, inches away from it being quite a tragic fall either wounded on the stones or completely submerged in the pool. Sir Thomas sprang up and while cold and wet ... he realized he could not make it up into the cave. It was not to be. His mind played tricks, he thought he heard a beautiful woman whisper in his ear ... "go to the mighty all-knowing one's at Avebury ..." He shook his head. Did not know what it meant. There was no means to go to Avebury or Stonehenge. Too far away and not in the budget or the ability of these travels.

The real faerie cave behind the waterfall ...

It was ever soo much an enchanting grotto and gully. Never before did Sir Thomas Leaf in all his travels visit a more magical waterfall, pool, cave, and place. You could feel the faeries watching. Laughing. playing. In front of the waterfall, facing it, across from the pool, was a carved limestone throne. There was the crystal clear pool. The mesmerizing falls. The cave to the right. The cave behind the waterfall. Wild garlic everywhere. There is even a sign telling all about the Queen and the Foss. Of course, there was also Sir Thomas Leaf with his wet boots, shoes, and butt. Much laughter from the Lady of the Rhine and Sir Ingo the Great.

"ON THE EDGE of the National Trust's Malham Tarn Estate, Janet's Foss is a unique site of particular conservation importance. Foss is an old Scandinavian word for waterfall or force. According to legend, Janet (or Jennet) Queen of the local Faeries, lives in a cave behind the waterfall. The cave was formed by limestone bedrock being dissolved and eroded by the action of water and then re-deposited on mosses growing at the lip of the fall. This has caused the remarkable but fragile tufa screen, which reaches to the plunge pool below.