"Down here I hardly see the world through water lilies
Rounded and edged distorted silhouettes
Under the waters my graceful being suspended
By a rope of weeds bound so tightly to my waist"

From my song THE CALL OF THE NYMPH
https://open.spotify.com/track/6g1myjgjoTofVbXXWpI7uw?si=7392d803a9c7438b
#swampsunday #folklore #fantasy #music #mythology

For #SwampSunday, meet the Alcyonian Lake, speculated to be an entrance to the underworld:

"There is no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake [...] not even Nero, who had ropes made several stades long and fastened them together, tying lead to them, was able to discover any limit to its depth. The water of the lake is calm & quiet but, although it is such to look at, every swimmer who dares to cross it is dragged down, sucked into the depths, and swept away."
Pausanias, Description of Greece

Some @folklore for @swampsunday - Introducing the Will O’ the Wisp - a creature of the swamp or bog who lures travellers to their death from the safe paths by showing their flickering lights as an illusion of safety. Some believe them to be spirits forced to roam the earth as they are too evil for heaven & they have in life outwitted the devil, so there is no place for them in hell. It is thought their lights were coals given to them by the devil himself
#Folklore #Swamp #SwampSunday

More conservation news this #SwampSunday, now care of #Louisiana and one of its few remaining #Freshwater coastal swamps.

#Maurepas Swamp is facing a crisis as its ecosystem can barely survive let alone prosper.

Will new #Levees save the day, or will the degradation continue?

https://www.wwno.org/coastal-desk/2023-02-13/this-louisiana-swamp-is-dying-but-a-new-unprecedented-partnership-can-help-restore-it

It's #SwampSunday once more, and so let's start with some bad news.

#Kenya's once huge #Ondago #Swamp is in sharp decline, alongside many of the world's other wetlands.

But as conservationists work to save the area, can they succeed and balance this with the needs of locals?

#Ecology #Conservation

https://nation.africa/kenya/health/the-dying-glory-of-ondago-swamp-4122328

The same week I snapped photographed my favorite swamp, these white-tailed twin fawns surprised me.

The photo is terrible, sorry, but I took this through my windshield with my old and slow digital camera. The pair were too twitchy, too—as curious about me as they were eager to find their mother after crossing the road which followed the fen on the right and the greenway along the beach front on the left.

The path they took was one along which I saw a young moose five years ago.

#SwampSunday

To celebrate #SwampSunday's resurrection on #Mastodon, I want to tell you an African story narrated by the Khwe in the South of Africa: One day Hare made a bet with Elephant that he would pull him into the river. Hare slung a rope around both their legs and told Elephant to pull when he felt a tug. Then he ran to Hippo and told him the same thing. Hippo and Elephant pulled and strained until finally Elephant pulled Hippo out of the river. Hare laughed and laughed and ran off into the forest.

Yay! #SwampSunday is back!

This is my favorite swamp at the golden hour, a fen in northern Michigan a rock's throw from one of the Great Lakes. It's particularly beautiful by moonlight if you're brave enough to view it late at night when the wee beasties come out. I've always half expected a mythological beast like a #LoupGaroup to emerge but so far the worst is a noisy coyote which cried like a baby beneath my window in the middle of the night.

A wonderful entry for #SwampSunday via Tumblr: Visit the bog, @natalja_stgermain!

https://www.tumblr.com/ivycrownedsatyr/708013828523311104

@natalja_stgermain @curiousordinary BUT! Editing is possible 🥳
If you bring #SwampSunday over, @independentpen and I will be sure to give you a shoutout in our #MythologyMonday posts! But we are still finding our way around managing the hashtag. As I understand it, you don't see *every* toot using the hashtag since there is no fedi-wide hashtag search yet. But we got it started with a few veterans like @curiousordinary and @TarkabarkaHolgy and hopefully it will grow 🙂

This #SwampSunday, spare a thought for the new #FloridaPolytechnic campus, which is a series of metaphors, cosmic ironies and Great American Novels just waiting to happen.

"Genius or Insane? #College Campus Built in a #Florida #Swamp"

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/genius-or-insane-college-campus-built-in-a-fl/

This #SwampSunday, spare a thought for the new #FloridaPolytechnic campus, which is a series of metaphors, cosmic ironies and Great American Novels just waiting to happen.

"Genius or Insane? #College Campus Built in a #Florida #Swamp"

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/genius-or-insane-college-campus-built-in-a-fl/

This #SwampSunday, spare a thought for the new #FloridaPolytechnic campus, which is a series of metaphors, cosmic ironies and Great American Novels just waiting to happen.

"Genius or Insane? #College Campus Built in a #Florida #Swamp

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/genius-or-insane-college-campus-built-in-a-fl/

RT @IoannaP_Author@twitter.com

Water Babies by Anne Anderson

In Charles Kingsley's book Tom falls in a river and becomes a water baby, a childlike creature that lives in water bodies.
#SwampSunday #WomensArt

Also in #SwampSunday news, enviromental groups are protesting a building development in #Bermuda's #DevonshireSwamp. The development has implications not only for Bermuda's environment, but its fresh water supplies.

Devonshire Swamp is also home to the island's largest #peat marsh, and plays a vital role in purifying #rainfall.

https://www.royalgazette.com/environment/news/article/20221202/environmental-groups-appeal-to-minister-to-stop-devonshire-marsh-plans/

Also in #SwampSunday news, environomental groups are protesting a building development in #Bermuda's #DevonshireSwamp. The development has implications not only for Bermuda's environment, but its fresh water supplies.

Devonshire Swamp is also home to the island's largest #peat marsh, and plays a vital role in purifying #rainfall.

https://www.royalgazette.com/environment/news/article/20221202/environmental-groups-appeal-to-minister-to-stop-devonshire-marsh-plans/

This #SwampSunday, it's worth remembering that marshes play an important role in regulating #greenhouse gasses and so slowing or preventing #climatechange.

But when temperatures go up, low-lying marshes start emitting more carbon. The hotter it gets, the more marshes release Co2.

#environment #ecology #CapeCod #MBL

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-temperatures-marsh-emits-carbon-gas.html

#SwampSunday: #Welsh lake maidens or Gwragedd Annwn enjoyed settling down with human men and made excellent wives. However, there was a firm taboo against ever lifting a hand to such a lake maiden. Even a blow struck in jest caused them to leave husband and children behind, taking all their fairy wealth—which could be substantial—and plunging into the nearest lake.
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`
/
RT @KarenSloan@twitter.com
In Welsh #folklore, the Gwragedd Annwn are beautiful #female fairies who live beneath lakes and rivers. 💧 Similar to Greek Naiads, they're also known as Lake Maidens & count among the Tylwyth Teg or Welsh #fairy folk. 🧚‍♀️#FolkloreThursday #InternationalWomensDay

#SwampSunday: Sea captains were often born from the mating of this Highland mermaid, who was also known as the maighdean na tuinne or “maiden of the wave.” Like other captured #fairies, she was said to grant wishes to her captor. But like any other seagoing siren, she was also capable of capturing humans, who usually lost their lives upon entering her watery domain.
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`
/
RT @writerlynds@twitter.com
The Ceasg is a Scottish mermaid half-woman, half-salmon. In some tales, she swallowed men whole, trapping them in her stomach. To rescue them, her soul - often contained in an enchanted egg - had to be destroyed. If caught, she could also grant three wishes. #FolkloreThursday

This #SwampSunday, be sure to follow the #advice of the US #NationalParkService - stop licking #toads (specifically, #ColoradoRiverToads), you weird, druggie bastards!

For as #TheVerve might have sung it, "the toads don't work, they just make you croak..."

(Featuring cameos from #MikeTyson, #HunterBiden and the #Loveland #Frogman, for some reason.)

On a serious note, this may be causing the species' partial #extinction in #NewMexico

#drugs #hallucinogens #5MeODMT

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/06/1134615997/the-national-park-service-wants-humans-to-stop-licking-this-toad