Whispering in the Woods

Dick stood still when he was in the wood.

"What a strange noise the leaves of the trees make." he said. "It is as if they were talking to one another - telling secrets"

"Wisha, wisha, wisha, wisha," whispered the trees.

"They are talking secrets," said Bessie. "And do you know, Dick - if the trees have any message for us, we can hear it by pressing our left ears to the trunks of the tree! Then we really hear what they say."

"Wisha, wisha, wisha, wisha", said the trees

from The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

Slip into the grove at the back of Riversleigh and press your left ear to the trunk of one of these trees. What are they whispering to one another?

Remember that the real skill of fantastical writing about magical woodlands lies in the ability to give an authentic voice to a landscape, even if that landscape is imaginary. Tolkein's Middle Earth oozes Oxfordshire. Fairy stories were rooted in local soil, gave the reader a sense of the locale.

So spend some time with these trees before writing what they have to say and let us see if we can recognise the locale you come from.