Fairy Log-quit

On a dark Tuesday night, a couple of officers from Ealing Patrol Service sat in their car, watching hypnotising flashes of the lights mounted on top of their vehicle. It was the most exciting sight they could hope for in the tranquillity of nighttime Walpole Park.

Suddenly, three wheelbarrows rolled in front of their car. The officers blinked in disbelief.

Are those wheelbarrows?!

We are a volunteer group called GoodGym. We borrowed some tools from ranger Jon to help in the community garden across the road. We know it's dark and that it looks weird.

The people with wheelbarrows disappeared into the darkness. The officers weren't sure whether they were hallucinating or not.

In the neighbouring Lammas Park Enclosure, fairies were having a party at the wooden circle in the middle of the community orchard. When they heard loud wailing, they hid in the holes of the trees and under the bark of old logs surrounding the party area. No one would tell that the pixies were having a good time there a few seconds ago. Only a blue plastic carrier bag with an empty beer can inside rolled through the orchard like tumbleweed.

The wailing noises were coming from a wheelbarrow borrowed from Trevor of Ealing Transition, the mastermind behind tonight's movements in the Enclosure. And there were quite a lot of movements happening! First, the GoodGymers, the people who brought the haunted wheelbarrow and three well-behaved barrows, moved the old, rotting logs from the fairies' circle into a dedicated log decomposition zone. They replaced the decommissioned logs with new ones that would make nice seats for the fairies. The GoodGymers even built a coffee table in case Tinker Bell and her mates needed some caffeine to pick them up the next day after the night out. Finally, they spread woodchip from a nearby pile onto the ground at entrances to the Enclosure. Fairies didn't need it to avoid walking on muddy paths. They can fly over the mud after all! The woodchip carpet was made of milled thuja that brought an irresistible forest scent into the Transition Garden.

Once the GoodGymers were gone, the fairies resumed the party, wrecking the new wooden furniture in their magic circle and rolling in thuja chips.

Next week, the GoodGym crew will be wheelbarrowing a different cargo - check out the session in Acton here. We hope to see you there!