GREEN FAERIES & ELVES
There are lots of references to 'The Green Faerie' on Greenstone and for good reason. POG VC, pictured above in her green faerie garb, spent a good deal of time searching for (Amanita muscaria) mushrooms which often grow in faerie rings in the forests near her home. Legend has it that if one finds a faerie ring (also known as a faerie circle, elf circle or pixie) ring and returns to it under the full moon he or she will come upon faeries, elves and pixies dancing and celebrating. The mushrooms of the rings were used as stools for the faeries to recuperate during the festivities.
The Amanita muscaria is a highly poisonous species and if ingested can be fatal. The beauty of the creature, for mushrooms are creatures, far outweighed POG VC's mother's warning "If you get sick from those mushrooms I'm taking your colored pencils away!" The reason for that threat was POG VC was obsessed with rendering the Amanita. In fact, one of the most beautiful drawings POG VC accomplished as a 'Tween was a faerie circle of Amanita which she presented to her mother on Mother's Day. POG VC never found a faerie circle of Amanita but she did revisit her quest upon landing ('cause that's what POG VC does) in West Marin County where there was an amazing population of Amanita muscaria, faeries and elves, who not only danced under the full moon but took bites of the Amanita muscaria when so doing.
The Point Reyes Peninsula in West Marin County, California is a green faerie's dream and is truly an Island In Time. (Island In Time: Point Reyes Peninsula, Sierra Club 1962.) The farthest point west on the Continental United States it has been moving up the coast from Baja for millennia. POG VC lived just outside Point Reyes Station on the Inverness Ridge where the population of the town and surrounding area is a little more than 800. Separated from the continent by the San Andreas Fault, the Point is designated back country and is home to the Point Reyes National Seashore.
A green faerie and elf haven, living there was nothing short of magical. Whales, seals, abalone, egrets, eagles, red-tailed hawks, owls, pelicans, deer, rabbits, POG VC's fave the dusky-footed wood rat (Neotoma fuscipes), and an occasional mountain lion abound. Guided 'mushroom walks' take place in Point Reyes and the Park Service hosts an annual 'Point Reyes Fungus Fair' at the Bear Valley Visitors Center. A mushroom paradise - Amanita muscaria, wild chanterelles (Cantharellus) to die for, the size of a top sirloin steak (and much better tasting), and of course 'Dr. Bob's' (Growing Wild Mushrooms: A Complete Guide to Cultivating Edible and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms by Bob Harris) psilocybin parties. POG VC met an unnamed astronaut who walked on the moon at a Dr. Bob party and it was at the same party that Monroe Grisman a mere boy a the time stated that he would marry POG VC when he grew up (in the top ten compliments this POG has received).
The Daddy of Green Elves lived about fifty miles as the crow flies from Point Reyes through Nicasio past the somewhat creepy Druids Hall, down Lucas Valley Road (already named when George Lucas bought Skywalker Ranch) in San Anselmo: George Ivan Morrison 'Van the Man.' Van's parents ran a little record store there called what else VAN's. Mr. and Mrs. Morrison looked like two little leprechauns with Mr. Morrison smoking his Meerscham pipe. Good Irish stock and my first inkling that they were parents to a green elf (Thank You Falettinme Be Mice elf Agin). In the early '70s Van the Man used to play in a little venue called the Lion Share in San Anselmo. One evening on POG VC'S 
thirty-something birthday she, her best friend Susan Deixler and a few other people decided to go to the Lion Share. It was in the middle of the week and we didn't expect it to be crowded. We also didn't expect that Van the Man would be playing...but he was...to us and just a few others. I noticed then he had all the qualities of an elf; youthful for his age, diminutive size, living in a natural place of great beauty, immortal and possessing mystical powers. "We were born before the wind, Also younger than the sun...Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic," Moondance, 1970. From that time until today POG VC remembers that wonderful, magical birthday party with the Daddy of Green Elves serenading the Green Faerie.
And there is LA FÉE VERTE but that's another POST, POGS!
The Amanita muscaria is a highly poisonous species and if ingested can be fatal. The beauty of the creature, for mushrooms are creatures, far outweighed POG VC's mother's warning "If you get sick from those mushrooms I'm taking your colored pencils away!" The reason for that threat was POG VC was obsessed with rendering the Amanita. In fact, one of the most beautiful drawings POG VC accomplished as a 'Tween was a faerie circle of Amanita which she presented to her mother on Mother's Day. POG VC never found a faerie circle of Amanita but she did revisit her quest upon landing ('cause that's what POG VC does) in West Marin County where there was an amazing population of Amanita muscaria, faeries and elves, who not only danced under the full moon but took bites of the Amanita muscaria when so doing.
The Point Reyes Peninsula in West Marin County, California is a green faerie's dream and is truly an Island In Time. (Island In Time: Point Reyes Peninsula, Sierra Club 1962.) The farthest point west on the Continental United States it has been moving up the coast from Baja for millennia. POG VC lived just outside Point Reyes Station on the Inverness Ridge where the population of the town and surrounding area is a little more than 800. Separated from the continent by the San Andreas Fault, the Point is designated back country and is home to the Point Reyes National Seashore.
A green faerie and elf haven, living there was nothing short of magical. Whales, seals, abalone, egrets, eagles, red-tailed hawks, owls, pelicans, deer, rabbits, POG VC's fave the dusky-footed wood rat (Neotoma fuscipes), and an occasional mountain lion abound. Guided 'mushroom walks' take place in Point Reyes and the Park Service hosts an annual 'Point Reyes Fungus Fair' at the Bear Valley Visitors Center. A mushroom paradise - Amanita muscaria, wild chanterelles (Cantharellus) to die for, the size of a top sirloin steak (and much better tasting), and of course 'Dr. Bob's' (Growing Wild Mushrooms: A Complete Guide to Cultivating Edible and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms by Bob Harris) psilocybin parties. POG VC met an unnamed astronaut who walked on the moon at a Dr. Bob party and it was at the same party that Monroe Grisman a mere boy a the time stated that he would marry POG VC when he grew up (in the top ten compliments this POG has received).
The Daddy of Green Elves lived about fifty miles as the crow flies from Point Reyes through Nicasio past the somewhat creepy Druids Hall, down Lucas Valley Road (already named when George Lucas bought Skywalker Ranch) in San Anselmo: George Ivan Morrison 'Van the Man.' Van's parents ran a little record store there called what else VAN's. Mr. and Mrs. Morrison looked like two little leprechauns with Mr. Morrison smoking his Meerscham pipe. Good Irish stock and my first inkling that they were parents to a green elf (Thank You Falettinme Be Mice elf Agin). In the early '70s Van the Man used to play in a little venue called the Lion Share in San Anselmo. One evening on POG VC'S 
thirty-something birthday she, her best friend Susan Deixler and a few other people decided to go to the Lion Share. It was in the middle of the week and we didn't expect it to be crowded. We also didn't expect that Van the Man would be playing...but he was...to us and just a few others. I noticed then he had all the qualities of an elf; youthful for his age, diminutive size, living in a natural place of great beauty, immortal and possessing mystical powers. "We were born before the wind, Also younger than the sun...Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic," Moondance, 1970. From that time until today POG VC remembers that wonderful, magical birthday party with the Daddy of Green Elves serenading the Green Faerie.And there is LA FÉE VERTE but that's another POST, POGS!
Labels: Amanita muscaria, Bear Valley, faerie ring, Green Faerie, Lions Share, Monroe Grisman, Nicasio, Point Reyes, Skywalker Ranch, Susan Deixler, Van Morrison, Van the Man, West Marin County
posted by P.O.G. VC at
12:44 PM
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