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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think leaving your tat in the woods isn't 'magical'?

149 replies

OpiningGambit · 13/08/2018 23:45

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45168316

Looking at some of these 'fairy doors' - they're not even good! I've seen beautiful ones hidden away before, and actually quite liked them, but this is just leaving your kids toys in the woods, surely?

Or am I a mean old lady? Grin

OP posts:
PolkerrisBeach · 14/08/2018 09:30

The problem with ribbons is that way back when the whole "prayer" thing started, ribbons were silk or cotton. They would naturally rot away and biodegrade over time. Nowadays it's just littering and mess.

Go home and light a candle instead or something.

UterusUterusGhali · 14/08/2018 09:31

It's littering.

DP is an arbourist and it drives him potty. In the woodland he manages they're often nailed into the tree too.

Momo27 · 14/08/2018 09:41

Yanbu , it’s incredibly self indulgent to think that anyone else wants to see your plastic tat, quite apart from the risks to wildlife.

If I go for a walk in the woods it’s to see nature. And though my kids are grown up now, they enjoyed plenty of walks in the woods playing with natural objects ... building dams, making dens, creating obstacles courses, playing hide and seek. It’s a pretty sad indictment if adults honestly feel that children can’t enjoy the magic of nature in its own right. Play with plastic as much as you like in your own home and garden - not in forests

arethereanyleftatall · 14/08/2018 09:51

To be honest, my two girls love finding stuff like this.

elephantoverthehill · 14/08/2018 09:57

May I add an outdoor plastic rant also? Please could people who feel the need to leave flowers where someone may have tragically died take the wrapping off. The flowers are totally biodegradable but the cellophane is not. If you want to enshrine a bit of public space please show some respect to the space and the person in question by not littering.

ThomasRichard · 14/08/2018 09:58

YANBU. If it was a lovely, natural fairy garden like in Cannock Chase forest then it would be nice. But the photos just show plastic tat and crappy doors leaned up against the trees. Yuck. 'Memorial for dead pets' - grow the jeff up.

to think leaving your tat in the woods isn't 'magical'?
Plimmy · 14/08/2018 10:07

When did so many adults become so obsessed with twee rubbish? Maybe it’s always been like this, but I can’t help feeling that previous generations were more inclined to be glad to leave childish thoughts behind.

Bluelonerose · 14/08/2018 10:30

Dd made a wooden one at some group we went to (many years ago now) we put it in our back garden to encourage the fairys in. She used to think they cane into the garden every night. As far as I no it's still in the side bit of my jungle garden.
I never even thought about wildlife.

ErrolTheDragon · 14/08/2018 10:40

A wooden fairy door in your garden is fine - it's probably providing homes and food for a variety of mini beasts now.

DD did some volunteering at a local nature reserve when she was a teenager, part of what they did was helping to create themed 'outside classrooms' for the use of visiting school groups etc. Apart from the structures (dead hedging, arches, path making, tree planting) they helped make 'fairies' for one of the rooms - wood, of course.

If anyone wants to reclaim overgrown areas and help transform them into sun-dappled spaces where flowers, insects and other animals can thrive, join a local volunteer group (local Wildlife Trusts usually run some) - much more 'magical' than plastic tat.

ThomasRichard · 14/08/2018 11:59

Plimmy in days of yore they would have collected commemorative plates and teaspoons instead.

Plimmy · 14/08/2018 12:12

Fair point. And thimbles.

KurriKurri · 14/08/2018 12:14

Why do people feel the need to 'improve' upon something that is pretty damn amazing anyway?

Show children what a woodland is like, let them be enchanted by the natural things, by the age and majesty of the trees, the patterns of sunlight through the branches, a glimpse of a deer or the song of bird.

Plastic rubbish doesn't add to nature, and it is indicative of the entitled attitude that prevails - 'I can do whatever I want, because I want to'. If you aren't sensible enough to go into a wood without leaving a load of plastic harmful litter then go somewhere else.
if you want to build a plastic shrine do it in your own house or garden, where those who don't want to see it don't have to.

This is the point - if you want to look at plastic tat (and obviously many kids do) that;s fine, but don;t force it onto people who like their natural spaces natural. You have a choice of doing it elsewhere, people visiting the woods are not being given the choice not to see it.

Quite apart from the harm it does to the environment which if you don't understand you are beyond dim.

Rather than people who don't like this littering being grinches and not liking Christmas or whatever. I would suggest that people who do like this kind of stuff are those people who like to see their dogs running through a field of sheep ('because he likes chasing them') or who like to take eggs from birds nests (because they won't miss just one).

We don't own this planet, we share it and we need to respect natural spaces because they are the homes of other living things. They don't come and shit on your carpet, don't leave your shit in their environment.

And don't even get me started on rock stacking - fuck off idiots, if you don't like nature the way it is, go and stare at your phone for six hours instead.

Willow2017 · 14/08/2018 12:40

The countryside doesnt need plastic shit to make it magical. Jeep it fir your iwn garden no? I bet you dont cos yiu dint want all rhat crap littering up your own place but irs ok to leave it in woods and vlaim its for 'fairies'. Feck off fairies have managed without plastic crap for hundreds of years.

Katielouise3 i am sure you just go on threads to be blooming awkward and disagree with anything remotely sensible. Maybe look up how long it takes for this plastc shit to degrade and how ugly it gets over time then come back and say how nice it is. Also see what plastic does to wildlife eating it/getting caught up in it and tell me its ok. And btw did you know glitter is poisonous to birds and other wildlife? So "lets kill wildlife for fun" doesnt quite have the same ring to it does it?

Nature is amazing it doesnt need help from rubbish to 'enhance' it.

When we go walking in the woods the last thing we want to see is litter and thats exactly what it is no matter what ridiculous name you give it.

Jozxyqk · 14/08/2018 12:45

As for animals choking on the bits... what utter rot. As if they're dumb enough to eat the bits.

It's never happened. And it never will.

You seem awfully sure about that.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 14/08/2018 13:06

Why do people feel the need to 'improve' upon something that is pretty damn amazing anyway?

It's a good question.

Why do people insist on infesting everything with plastic? What is the need to glitterify everything? Why do people wrap perfectly good gardens in plastic

Does it make some people feel safer? Cleaner? Better?

Elphame · 14/08/2018 13:10

Good for Pembrokeshire council. A woodland near us did a similar thing a few years back and got similar outrage from the fairy litter brigade.

Sadly the owners of St Nectan's Glen encourage that ridiculous ribbon tying thing by selling the polyester ribbons in the shop. Horrible for the environment and a desecration of what was once a beautiful site.

PerspicaciaTick · 14/08/2018 13:17

The Countryside Code was drummed into us as children, at school, Brownies etc. People don't seem as aware nowadays, but that might be because I had a rural upbringing.

paintedwingsandgiantrings · 14/08/2018 13:19

Someone has started a trend of painting stones and leaving them for others to find Sad

What's wrong with that?!! FFS some people have no sense of fun.

Totally get why the fairy doors are hazardous. But stones, in a natural environment are fine!

My DC love Secret Stones. The amount of joy they get when they find one on a day out is wonderful (and we always rehide them for others, of course).

Why would you want to stop that? If you don't like them, don't paint them and ignore them if you find one. Why would you be bothered by then?

alltoomuchrightnow · 14/08/2018 13:20

Horrid that they are selling nasty polyester ribbons that won't biodegrade and will strangle branches. In the old days clootie trees had rags tied on them.. clothes were cotton so the rags eventually eroded

Lucisky · 14/08/2018 13:23

St Nectans Glen is a disgrace. I have seem laminated photos of people dangling from the trees, as well as all the other tat. Apart from making it look like somewhere after a severe flood and all the rubbish caught in the trees, why would anyone want to commemorate a dead person in such an overtly commercial place that looks like a rubbish tip? Makes no sense to me.

LeighaJ · 14/08/2018 13:34

@katielouise3

Well someone clearly feels very entitled to leave plastic tat in the forest with their snowflakes.

Since when did picking up trash become so controversial? 🤔

alltoomuchrightnow · 14/08/2018 13:38

Those were my thoughts, Lucisky. Massive sense of entitlement and I wonder if all the deceased have ever even visited there. Some people had even climbed high up slippery rocks to place their tat in the hope that the wardens wouldn't be able to get up there. But how entitled would you have to be to go armed with a drill and a plaque and pierce the rock under the fall?

alltoomuchrightnow · 14/08/2018 13:40

The stones are fine. When I went they were encouraging people do do that as they are natural and the writing fades. The issue is the piles of plastic flowers, ornaments, laminated photos; there was a sign saying it would be swept up but more kept coming

Stimmyplip · 14/08/2018 13:43

Ds' summer camp make fairy/elf/gnome houses and cities every Tuesday in different local wildlife areas. Where we live has a pretty strict rule that nothing manmade or alive (so picking flowers or breaking tree bark off etc) is allowed.

ProfessorMoody · 14/08/2018 13:43

Ah this is near me. Apparently for an autistic child who enjoys it but it is tacky - I don't see why they can't be made from natural materials.

I love the stones though. Lots of fun.