The Fairy Woods

    Everyone must have fond memories of private places from their childhood. Places that inspired the imagination to flesh out an adventure or a make-believe shelter. Places that felt safe and secure from the real world. On one of my early walks through the woodland of LeCoste I entered an ugly dump site where the rubbish of maintaining 20-odd rural houses was deposited and occasionally burned. Piles of charred mattresses, broken wardrobes, masonry, roof tiles, old sinks, even grave stones. The dump was oddly located near the top of a lovely, grassy hill, nearly the highest point on the estate. Other people's rubbish can be interesting and after helping myself to a couple of old tiles, I wandered to the top of the hill and into the most remarkable stand of young trees.

    I can't identify the trees but they remind me of the california live oak. Pinnate leaves, smooth young bark, dark and knarly, the trunks only 4 to 6 inches in diameter. Throughout the rest of the LeCoste woodland, one must struggle through tough underbrush somtimes spiney and thorny, but this wood had a clear floor covered only in leaves and a dense canopy keeping it clean, cool and dark. Looking carefully, a pattern to the planting revealed itself. Rank and file, the trees were obviously planted on purpose. Among the trees stood two tiny brick cottages with broken roofs and battered doors but enough detail to reveal wonderful, old construction. Even more curious was a strange brickworks looking like an old foundation. It took the form of a narrow trench leading away from one of the cottages to a square in the ground and then beyond to peter-out among the leaves. The bricks were old and the trench too small to be a fortification and too improbable to be an aqueduct.

    I took the first opportunity to bring the kids to my newly discovered land and they fell in love with it just as easily as I did. It became a favorite destination for them, their friends and their toys. "Fairy Woods" became the new name and everyone on the estate soon knew of it.
    Two days ago, I walked up to the Fairy Woods and found it destroyed by chainsaws. Harvested for firewood. LeCoste has been selling its woodland as fuel, sacrificing its magic for a little bit of money. My memories of the wood and the impression it left are so strong, I find myself preferring my imagination to what's left of the actual place.