G and I were walking through a paddock we call Springbank. There are ferns, and fuchsias and trees of many different types that cluster round in conversation, catching the light and splitting it a hundred different ways.
‘I especially like it in here when it’s raining’, I said ‘Those trees,’ I added, pointing to my right to a cluster of Acacias, ‘for some reason get really foamy.’
‘Oh, Fairy Baths,’ he casually replied. ‘In Yorkshire, when we asked what the weather was doing, they would reply, “It’s Fairy Baths”.’
How have I never heard this?
Such was my delight, Fairy Baths became my instant Happiness.
xx Jane
For your learned selves:
Fairy Baths require a very specific set of conditions, where there is no wind and the rain runs straight down the trunk of the tree to create a little patch of bubbles at the bottom.
It’s also called Stemflow, where the rain mixes with the saps and tannins in the bark, but you could never use this term, of course, when the alternative is Fairy Baths.