elizabethlevett

The other day I was standing in the schoolyard watching the kids play at recess. Over in one corner of the yard we have an area called the bio-swale. Is that even a real word? I can’t find it in the dictionary, but that’s what we call it. It’s an area with some shrubs, boulders for climbing, a fair amount of bark chips and little rocks, and dirt, glorious dirt to play in. The bio-swale is where I would play if I was a kid. It’s where anyone goes who doesn’t feel like kicking a ball, climbing on the play structure, chasing, or being chased. Anyway, here I am at recess and I notice something strange; there is a bunch of garbage in the bio-swale. It’s strange because our kids don’t throw a lot of trash around. And when we do see some, it usually gets picked up. So, what’s with the empty chip bag, used napkins, and bits of plastic wrap on the ground? And why is it concentrated over there among the dirt and boulders and shrubs?

Okay, so I can’t figure it. And after so many cold and wet days, all the kids seem ridiculously angelic and blissful playing in the sun. So, I decide not to worry about solving the mystery and opt to just go pick it all up. But stranger still, when I get to the bio-swale and start gathering it up, I notice most of the trash seems almost to have been placed very deliberately, and with some measure of design, around a small yellow plastic cone. What the? As I start picking it up, two little girls come over and stop me. “Don’t take that! It’s for the fairies.”

Right. There has been scuttlebutt in my classroom at playtime about fairies. It seems some of my students are cultivating fairy dwellings in their gardens at home. Right.

“Oh man, you guys, I’m so glad you told me! This is very serious. Fairies hate garbage. In fact, if you put garbage in here they’re definitely going to be scared off. They’ll never come back! You have to be very careful with these things.” I know a thing or two about fairies. And no, not because I have so many friends in town who like to put on frills when spring is in the air. I’ve been to Ireland. I’ve seen the bogs, the ring forts, and the souterrains where fairies hang out.

The two little girls, plus a few others got busy helping me clear all the bits of garbage out from under the shrubs and around the rocks and we removed the offending yellow plastic cone.

Of course now I think I’ll have to bring in a few pretty rocks, maybe a feather and a seashell or two when I go to school tomorrow. Have to set things right with the fairies. St. Patrick would be proud.