Kathryn Cribbes builds Caerphilly enchanted garden over 10 days
Kathryn Cribbes turned the exterior of her home in caerphilly into an enchanted garden after spending over £3,000 and 10 days on the display. The 47-year-old opened it to visitors, who can donate and leave handwritten wishes on the tree.
Kathryn Cribbes
The installation measures 18ft long and 8ft wide, and Cribbes built it with eight pool noodles, six metres of armature wire, two metres by one metre of insulation boards, expanding foam and hundreds of artificial leaves. She said, "Making the tree itself took three days and the whole garden took ten days. The base is a huge pipe with insulation boards making a cross frame inside."
Her husband, Graeme, 55, fashioned the supporting framework from insulation boards, while her daughter Lowry Roberts, 22, helped construct a tree from pool noodles. Cribbes said, "The branches are made from pool noodles with wire inside so they can bend into shape. Then we wrapped them in newspaper and masking tape and covered it all in expanding foam."
Make-A-Wish Foundation
The garden is raising funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Cribbes said she chose the charity because of the tree theme. "Everyone always looks for a reason why I do these displays. I chose Make-A-Wish because what's more perfect than a wishing tree for that? I wanted to be able to give back, and I love kids and think life is made for making memories so it felt a good fit," she said.
Visitors are welcome to make a donation, and Cribbes said she wanted them to have a place to sit, talk and write down a wish. She said, "I just wanted people to come and enjoy the space and have somewhere nice to sit and talk, then if they want to donate some coins into the bucket they can."
Caerphilly visitors
Handwritten wishes have become part of the display, with local Brownies, Rainbows and Girl Guides groups among those who have visited. Cribbes said some messages have been hard to read, including wishes about wanting children, wanting a father to spend time with them and missing dead partners.
She also described helping an older man who could not write his own message. "He couldn't write, so I wrote his wish for him. He wished to not feel down all the time and to feel happy again," Cribbes said. The tree now sits at the centre of a project that started with seasonal themes over the past year, from Halloween and Christmas to an Alice in Wonderland-inspired Easter.
