Wish Season – Happy End of Summer and Beginning of Fall

The first thing I wanted to share with you, are the wonderful images I’ve received from family and friends of their milkweed seedlings, the little wisps that ride the end of summer breeze to continue on the next season of milkweed plants.

How adorable are they?

Here is a whole bunch of them together. Their silky skirts, interestingly enough, can be used for insulation for gloves, mittens, jackets, and even upholstery padding!

You can see how I had to turn these little guys into characters in my book. The seeds look just like little heads on a dancing skirt!

Here is the Tales of Whimsy series logo with all of the wondrous little wisps including Flit snug atop Whimsy’s back.

Here they are, still in their pods, lined up in rows. A family friend sent this wonderful gift in the post, so that I could have my very own milkweed pod. Who knows, perhaps planting the seedlings will help me continue on the next season of milkweed plants in my own backyard!

Milkweed flowers come in many colors. Here are some with beautiful lavender-colored petals. I’ve seen vibrant orange and pink as well!

Milkweed is necessary in the life cycle of Monarch butterflies. The milkweed leaves are the only food source a Monarch caterpillar will eat. Without the milkweed plant, the Monarchs would completely die out. Just another reason to continue on with the traditions of planting milkweed seeds so that the next generation of the flowers can grow (these aren’t Monarch butterflies in the image below, but the sweet nectar attracts other butterflies and hummingbirds as well to the plant).

The Wishweaver isn’t the only one who needs these little seedling wisps.

If you are familiar with my series, Tales of Whimsy, you might have also heard the term: Wish Season.

Wish Season starts after the milkweed wisps have flown from their pods. In the end of summer breeze, they ride the West Wind with hopes of landing in the webs of the Wishweaver. Only then, with her wish magic, wrapped in her webs, can they become wishes for the coming Wish Season. Wishes just waiting to be made by those that need a wish granted.

What would I wish for if I had such wish magic in hand?

It’s certainly a question I’ve pondered over these past months quite a bit. I don’t know the answer either. Certainly I’d like COVID to be a thing of the past. I’d love for our kids to be able to return to their normal days of going to school, coming home, and heading to the park to play. I’d love for the fires to stop burning here on the West Coast of the United States. I’d love to be able to schedule events and share my books with others in a public space, not just online. There are lots of things I’d wish for, but only picking one… that’s the hardest thing isn’t it? So, I put the question back to you…