Morgan, Echo, & W.B. went on a recent adventure to the 2023 International Fairy Convention. They attended sessions on everything from Fairy Rings: A Practical Guide to The Dangers of Wing Rot. They came back excited to tell everyone about their adventure!
Hello everyone! Oh my goodness, we had the BEST time at the 2023 International Fairy Convention (IFC)! The weather was beautiful. The scenery was outstanding. The company of the other fairies was much needed. Sometimes it is hard to be away from your friends and to be able to reconnect, in person, is always a joy!
We traveled by dragon to the IFC and arrived on Sept. 2nd. We got settled into our fairy cabins and had a wonderful bonfire with all of our friends, old and new. Echo, W.B., and I decided to bring two of our youngest magical creatures for the Magical Creatures: Care and Training class and spent a lot of time settling them in and introducing them to new friends our first night. We went to bed early to gear up for the next 3 days of fun!
We spent the next day with our newest dragon, Falkor, and our spooky but oh so friendly gargoyle, Onyx. Falkor and Onyx are our newest magical friends at the library and while they are settling in nicely, they are still so young. They are rambunctious and full of high intense energy - think puppy! They are a wonderful addition to our library family, but we wanted to make sure that we were providing them with the best care! All of the wonderful care tips we learned will also be useful with our longtime magical residents, Snickers the Gargoyle and Dozer the Dragon. Haven't met Snickers or Dozer yet? Stop by the circulation desk and say hello!
After a morning of learning how to care for our new additions, we started some basic training sessions:
How to fly with a rider.
How to safely transport cargo.
How to control your fire.
How to remain calm when you are anxious.
How to NOT eat your human friends.
How to protect your home & family.
Falkor and Onyx were AMAZING in training! They were wonderful, attentive, and we all learned a lot!
Day three brought more training for Echo, W.B., and me. Because Falkor and Onyx were so well behaved in their training session, they were allowed to tag along! We spent the morning discussing fairy rings and the different elements to create an amazing ring. We were able to scout out several spots and used our fairy magic to create colorful rings in the beautiful forest.
You might be wondering what exactly is a fairy ring? There are lots of myths and stories around fairy rings. Everything from fairy rings are caused by fairies or elves dancing in a circle to dragons burn them into the ground. It has even been said that if humans joined in the dance they would be punished by the fairies, and made to dance in the ring until they passed out from exhaustion. This of course is rubbish! So the next time you see a fairy ring, jump in the middle and dance away! For us fairies, it is just a way to create more beauty in this already beautiful world with a little fairy magic. We love to dance! We love to sit at mushroom tables and eat a fine meal! We do not want to punish our human friends to the point of exhaustion!
After our wonderful fairy ring class, we headed to a quiet place in the forest with the coolest mushrooms to learn more about thoughtful letter writing. We have a lot of tiny human friends that leave us mail at the library and we love to respond! We decided to sit in on this class to learn more about how to communicate with our little human friends! Remember, you can leave W.B. a letter in the children's floor mailbox or drop a note to Echo or me in the mailbox on the main floor!
Our final day started off on the creative side and ended on a somewhat scary note! We began by attending the Building Your Own Furniture class! We met in a tiny fairy woodworking shop in the middle of the forest. After learning how to safely cut out all of our furniture pieces, we took our pieces outside to assemble. We were so glad to have Falkor & Onyx with us again! They are so strong and could easily carry our pieces for us. Such good little helpers! We spent the rest of our time assembling our cute little table. Onyx really wanted to carry our table back to the fairy cabin for us... and so did Falkor! So we let Onyx carry the table for the first half of the journey and Falkor picked up the second half of the trip!
Thankfully they were extremely careful and the table made it back in one piece! Echo has been working on decorating the table and it should be out by my door soon! Stop by and take a look at her beautiful work!
Our final session was The Dangers of Wing Rot... it was kinda gross! We learned how to identify wing rot - gross. We learned how to treat wing rot - gross. And we learned how to prevent wing rot. Prevention is key! We learned a lot, but will not share any pictures from this session because... well, gross!
All in all we loved our time at the IFC! It was an experience and we flew away with a lot of wonderful new information! Now that we are back we will be focusing on spooky season! Changes will be coming soon to the fairy garden on the main floor! Hope to see you soon!
Your Library Fairies,
Morgan, Echo, & W.B.