Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A Fairy House
A few weeks back my friend A was telling me about how she and her son D made a Fairy House in their yard. At first I wasn't really grasping what she was talking about, but it sounded cool, and like something the kids would enjoy making. A week or so later I tried looking up "Ferry Houses" on the internet but couldn't find anything. Then it dawned on me - Oh, FAIRY house! I had been thinking of ferry boat houses.
I got a video from the library called "Kristen's Fairy House" It is a documentary about a little girl's visit to an island off the coast of Maine where they have "a special tradition of children building small houses out of pine cones, twigs and leaves for the fairies of the woods to live in" I have to say, I was not real confident the kids would actually watch it. I thought it might be too slow moving and long (40 minutes) even for my 4.5 year old. I confess I myself fell asleep for about ten minutes in the middle. J amazed me though and watched the whole thing in one sitting. Afterwards he was very excited about making his own Fairy House. It was an involved multi-day project for us.
The first part, gathering the materials, took several days. J and I talked about how we had to find and use things that were natural. Each day we went around with him pulling the yard wagon and gathered twigs, sticks, rocks, pine cones, etc. Then we would wander around the yard and talk about where would be the best spot. Once we felt we had enough materials J picked a spot near some pretty yellow flowers he thought the fairies would like. J decided that we should build the first Fairy House "for E" and then we would build a second Fairy House for him in another spot he had also picked out. E really got into the project that day when we actually started building it. When we ran out of sticks she climbed back into the hollowed out corner hedge and came out with handful after handful of small broken twigs.
Here is a picture of the Fairy House. You might want to click on this pic to enlarge it and get a better look. You can see inside there is a loft-style bedroom with a stone staircase leading up. J gave it a pile of leaves for blankets and pillows. There is also a rock table with some stones for chairs. The roof is made of bark laid over a framework of sticks:
This one shows a close-up of the entrance. I love the way the bent twig makes an archway over the door. J had the idea to use the pinecones like bushes around the front of the house. Why shouldn't fairies have a proper hedge flanking their front door? My neighbor with the perfectly landscaped yard should be proud. There is even a step up to the door.
This shot shows a look up the front walkway to the door:
And here is one of a sprinkler-soaked, dripping E pointing out the little Fairy House hiding in the bushes:
And here is J with the Fairy House:
The plan is still to make a second Fairy House but we seem to have temporarily depleted our small yard's resources. If that big tree would just shed some more bark! J is really looking forward to our camping trip next month so he can build Fairy Houses in the woods with his friend Alexandra.
And since I was taking pics in the yard, here are a couple of our new lawn. When I was posting these I got a certain song stuck in my head ("Grass" from the album Skylarking by XTC) that took me straight back to the 80s!
I got a video from the library called "Kristen's Fairy House" It is a documentary about a little girl's visit to an island off the coast of Maine where they have "a special tradition of children building small houses out of pine cones, twigs and leaves for the fairies of the woods to live in" I have to say, I was not real confident the kids would actually watch it. I thought it might be too slow moving and long (40 minutes) even for my 4.5 year old. I confess I myself fell asleep for about ten minutes in the middle. J amazed me though and watched the whole thing in one sitting. Afterwards he was very excited about making his own Fairy House. It was an involved multi-day project for us.
The first part, gathering the materials, took several days. J and I talked about how we had to find and use things that were natural. Each day we went around with him pulling the yard wagon and gathered twigs, sticks, rocks, pine cones, etc. Then we would wander around the yard and talk about where would be the best spot. Once we felt we had enough materials J picked a spot near some pretty yellow flowers he thought the fairies would like. J decided that we should build the first Fairy House "for E" and then we would build a second Fairy House for him in another spot he had also picked out. E really got into the project that day when we actually started building it. When we ran out of sticks she climbed back into the hollowed out corner hedge and came out with handful after handful of small broken twigs.
Here is a picture of the Fairy House. You might want to click on this pic to enlarge it and get a better look. You can see inside there is a loft-style bedroom with a stone staircase leading up. J gave it a pile of leaves for blankets and pillows. There is also a rock table with some stones for chairs. The roof is made of bark laid over a framework of sticks:
This one shows a close-up of the entrance. I love the way the bent twig makes an archway over the door. J had the idea to use the pinecones like bushes around the front of the house. Why shouldn't fairies have a proper hedge flanking their front door? My neighbor with the perfectly landscaped yard should be proud. There is even a step up to the door.
This shot shows a look up the front walkway to the door:
And here is one of a sprinkler-soaked, dripping E pointing out the little Fairy House hiding in the bushes:
And here is J with the Fairy House:
The plan is still to make a second Fairy House but we seem to have temporarily depleted our small yard's resources. If that big tree would just shed some more bark! J is really looking forward to our camping trip next month so he can build Fairy Houses in the woods with his friend Alexandra.
And since I was taking pics in the yard, here are a couple of our new lawn. When I was posting these I got a certain song stuck in my head ("Grass" from the album Skylarking by XTC) that took me straight back to the 80s!
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