A new wooden ramp is underway for the Bird’s Nest. Soon, little feet will flutter up the ramp, bringing worms to waiting birdies. Lark, the music fairy, will be very pleased.

The Faerie Cottage is due for some upgrades, too, in preparation for Enchanted Woods’ 10th Birthday in 2011. Here’s the stack of supplies awaiting the project’s start.  Won’t it be fun to play in Enchanted Woods this spring?

A touch of the old world visited Winterthur on Friday, November 5th.  William Cahill, originally from County Galway, Ireland returned to Enchanted Woods to check the thatching on the Tulip Tree House and the Faerie Cottage.  A master thatcher who apprenticed for five years in Ireland, Mr. Cahill thatched our Tulip Tree House in the fall of 2007 and the Faerie Cottage in 2008. He  returns to Winterthur annually to monitor their condition and to do any repairs. Enjoy these photos of his work and come inspect on your own!

(By the way, some of Enchanted Woods’ water features are turned off for the season to prevent frozen water lines. The misting mushrooms will mist again in the spring!)

Quercus, our elf friend who helped create Enchanted Woods, has been busy at work preparing the new Upside-down Tree for the garden. In February, starting at the top of the tree, he removed the bark and the dead wood, notice the color differences.

By mid-March he had removed all the bark. This week Quercus has been chiseling a texture into the surface. See close-up photo. Glimmer, our magician fairy, is working on the design for the door that will go in the long cavity and the window that will be in the circular one.

Join us on June 20th for Enchanted Summer Day when the tree will be officially unveiled.

I am pleased to announce that the Faerie Cottage in Enchanted Woods has been re-thatched. Our thatcher, William Cahill, spent several weeks replacing the mossy and worn roof on the cottage with fresh thatch. In the spirit of recycling and conservation, our new thatch roof uses phragmites, a common wetland grass found throughout the area that is considered by many to be a nuisance. Our phragmites roof should last much longer than a traditional reed thatch and uses a local weed that many consider fit only for the landfill.