Will the real Santa Claus please stand still?

This afternoon at Castle in the Air, I kid you not, the real Santa Claus came in to do a little shopping. I won't tell you what he bought, as that might give away the surprise to some deserving reader who has been good all year. Who knew that the real Santa Claus wears a green top hat when he shops?

What was just as strange as Santa's visit was what we found right after he left. Two other customers had been testing pens at different ends of the store. As they walked away, they left behind these sketches. Were they looking at Santa as they drew? It looks like one artist is putting Santa on The Nice List, the other has him down as Naughty!

A real troll? (Part 2)

Last week, when we received the puzzling message from Nils Hiekkalinna, who thinks he might have snapped a photograph of a real Finnish troll, we knew just the person to bring in to help us solve the mystery. Reginald Bakeley is Castle in the Air's fairy identification expert, so we forwarded the photo on to him at his home in Wales. Here's the reply (and the slightly clearer photo) we got back from Reg this afternoon.

"Most intriguing! My personal 'expertise', as you are calling it, extends mainly to the real world which involves the sense of smell. And it's quite a good thing that Mr Hiekkalinna was traveling at highway speed when he got his shot in. Had he been standing in the path of an oncoming troll the scent alone could have knocked him senseless. Perhaps we can borrow a scrap of his clothing and see whether by chance it picked up any trace of the troll's earthy musk??

"HOWEVER: I won't leave you high and dry here. My colleague Professor Marcus White (Inverness curator and archivist) has an unfathomable love of all this email and computer mumbo-jumbo, and he got straight to work on sorting out this odd photograph business. He's got all the latest high tech, and is especially keen to use it regarding questions of fairy sightings.

"I attach his _slightly_ clearer version of the picture. Goodness knows how he's able to do this sort of thing. Hope this helps...I'll keep you up to speed as I hear more from Prof.

"RB"

A real troll?

Ever since we started the Castle in the Air weblog last fall, we've received emails from people who never would have heard of us otherwise. They often want to know more about the products and classes we offer, and sometimes they have questions about how to use a particular sort of craft material. Occasionally, though, the messages fall into the "special case" category. Here's one such note we received this morning:

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to you from Finland and have something to tell you about that you may find interesting because your website is about the gnomes and trolls and such things as this. I always laughed when I heard of these creatures, even here where there is so much of them in the folk stories. But today I didn't laugh when I was driving through a part of the highway in Kurikka, because there I can tell you I saw something strange. A picture I have put in this email is of what I saw. I am very sorry for the quality because it is not very good, but I think what I saw might be one of the trolls of this country. I thought it was a bear maybe but it moved like no bear I have seen. Can you show it to your experts and tell me what they know of it? Maybe you can solve this strange mystery. I thank you!!! A new believer, Nils Hiekkalinna

Of course, Castle in the Air does have a few "experts" on hand in the field of troll identification, so we've sent Nils' picture on to them and will report back as soon as we can. Mysterious indeed!

A Mystery Solved!!

If you're still scratching your head over yesterday's puzzle, wonder no more! The mysterious item is none other than a darling new edition of the stylish Zenith 548, the crafting and office tool we've dubbed the "Best Stapler Ever!" I've got to admit that even in this photo, it looks less like a stapler and more like Melville's Whale. Isn't modern life strange?

We've posted the Pink Zenith to the Castle in the Air Online Shoppe, but we only have a few left, and Zenith has told us that this color will soon be discontinued. Just like some of the animal photos in that kids magazine, this one's an endangered species!

What on Earth??

When I was a kid, the science magazine at the library (Was it called World? I can't remember.) always had a fun set of photos on the back page. Each one was a close-up on some kind of animal or something you might have around the house. You looked at the photos and tried to figure out what on earth the close-ups could be showing you.

Here's something like that -- a new item that we're selling at Castle in the Air. Can you guess what it is? The answer comes tomorrow!