Andy Goldsworthy worthy

Just behind Stella and Zoey's school there's a little creek - not so little during the spring runoff actually, but just a trickle now. In the dry bed where last year's melted snow once rushed, the elementary students, (all 25 or so of them,) have constructed an entire fairy world.




I do my best to stay away because it doesn't feel right to inject grown-up energy into their tender and magical space, but a handful of the girls invited me in a few Fridays ago when we'd returned to school late in the day to enjoy a movie out on the hill.

Movie night

Just as many dramas unfold on the playground, the creek is full of heated social dynamics: switching fairy forts is a major chess move in the game of elementary politics.

While social manipulation might be one of the names of the game, it certainly isn't the most apparent: their skill at manipulating the natural objects around them into pieces of beauty would make Andy Goldsworthy proud.