Fungi or toadstools come in the most amazing variety of shapes, colours and patterns. They appear over night and often form rings. No wonder they have a strong association with fairies and other magical beings. In folk law fairies are supposed to dance around them and draw unwary travellers in to dance too until they die from exhaustion. Some ring formations are ancient and date back hundreds of years.
As a child, my mother, who was always of a fanciful nature, told me all about fairies and elves and I used to long to see one. She told me that the little pools of water in the hollows of trees were fairy baths and that pixies could be watching me from holes in trees in the woods. When she told this story to our 6 year old cousin as well he started to be afraid of the woods because he thought there were eyes staring at him!!
However, I was delighted by the idea and would spend hours on my own looking for fairies under leaves or in the cups of flowers. Butterflies were the nearest I got to finding a fairy except in my dreams. There I would sometimes be lucky enough to spy one or even a ring of them with hands joined dancing in mad circles in the moonlight with toads holding the glow worm lanterns and stars twinkling above.