← back to the campgrounds

pitch 01 · the door is a flap and it is open

a yurt in the campgrounds

Faery Yurt

Helen’s candlelit yurt on Stimpunks.World, pitched at the edge of the woods. Lots of books, music, Faeries, candle light and weird thoughts and happenings.....

A white woman with reddish brown hair and brown eyeglasses smiles at the camera with a woodland scene at her back and the sun shining from behind.

This is my yurt, pitched at the edge of the woods in the campgrounds of Stimpunks.World, with a stream tracing the trees; follow the fairy lights from the treeline and you will find it. It is always night here, the good kind of night, candles lit along the shelves and fairy lights strung low across the canvas so the whole room glows amber instead of going properly dark.

The sofas are too soft to sit in properly (you sink, and then you stay), the beanbags were claimed by a hamster some time ago, and the ivy worked its way in through the window frame years back and was never asked to leave. The flap of the door is always open. Come in, take your shoes off, and stay as long as you need to.

Like More Realms, the looser, weirder realm beyond Autistic Realms, this is not a place of conclusions or answers. It is a place to wander, to feel, to think sideways, and to deep dive monotropically into other ways of experiencing the world. There is no map, but there are threads, glimmers, and soft, weird spaces to explore…

HOW LOUD DO YOU WANT IT?

Starts wherever your device says. In here MAX lights the fairy lights and turns the record, and makes the stars sparkle behind any portal door you open and the amber and amethyst glow in the Alchemist’s Arch; nothing else in the yurt moves unless you ask it to, below.

Myths & Legends

Through the Alchemist’s Arch, set with amethyst and amber, is a room of the old stories: Stonehenge and its sun, King Arthur and Merlin, the boggarts and hobs and black dogs of English folklore, a wheel of crystals, a herbery with a cauldron, and the old books that wrote them down.

Through the Alchemist’s Arch →Stonehenge and its sun, Arthur and Merlin, the folk under the hill, and the old books of fairies and myth.

Inside, too: the Crystal Wheel, photographs of crystals round a circle, with what each one really is and the meanings people have given it; and the Herbery, herbs with their myths and folklore to gather into a basket and stir into brews and stews, made of words.

Round the arch are the Crystal Wheel’s own photographs, each a way to its card: Amethyst by Gonzalo Devia (CC BY-SA 4.0); Citrine by Didier Descouens (CC BY-SA 4.0); Garnet by Moha112100 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Moonstone by Didier Descouens (CC BY-SA 3.0); Labradorite by Parent Géry (Public domain); Lapis lazuli by Hannes Grobe (CC BY-SA 2.5); Turquoise by Robert M. Lavinsky (CC BY-SA 3.0); Rose quartz by James St. John (CC BY 2.0); Clear quartz by Didier Descouens (CC BY-SA 4.0); Smoky quartz by Rob Lavinsky (CC BY 3.0); Obsidian by Ji-Elle (CC BY-SA 3.0); Tiger's eye by Marek Novotnak (CC BY-SA 4.0). All from Wikimedia Commons, resized and cropped to a circle.

The Bookshelf

The books that live behind my desk outgrew this page, so they have a room of their own now, through the door below: every one I keep, on shelves of its own, with a fire, a sofa and two chairs.

What is on the gramophone through there: every record on Library Music, my own playlist on YouTube, read off it on 2026-10-25 in its own order. Press a line and it takes you to that record on the shelf in the Reading Room, which is where it plays, whole or one record at a time.

Step through to the Reading Room →
Through to the Reading Room →Every book I keep, a fire that has caught, and a chair that is yours while you are in it.

The Soundtrack

The sound of this room is a yarn of songs I keep coming back to, spun into two playlists. They play in the Music Room, through the door below, from the top until you stop them or one record at a time; in here the songbook under the phonograph lists every song on them, for looking through. Nothing plays before you press, and nothing plays on this page.

Every song on Faery Yurt’s Yarn and Strange things will happen and Symphrenia Chill, my own playlists on YouTube, read off them on 2026-10-25, each in its own order, a book each. Press a line and it takes you to that record in the Music Room, which is where the music plays, whole or one record at a time. A song I add plays there straight away, and turns up in this book the next time somebody reads the playlist again.

Helen in a dark dress and shawl, twirling at the foot of a grand staircase in a gallery.
some nights the library turns into a masquerade ballroom. Do you want to join me?
Step through to the Music Room →
Through to the Music Room →The music plays through here, and only here: the phonograph with the whole yarn on it, every song as a record to take out, and a chair in the dark.

The Cinema

The films I keep have a room of their own, through the door below: a little picture palace with velvet curtains and a silver screen, and every film on an old-fashioned reel on the wall, ready to go up when you press it.

Every reel on the rails in the Cinema, shelf by shelf, in the order I hung them. Press a line and it takes you to that reel, which is where it plays. Nothing in this book plays.

Step through to the Cinema →
Through to the Cinema →Velvet curtains, a silver screen, and every film I keep on a reel of its own. Nothing plays until you press it.

Paintings I keep going back to. Every one here is old enough to belong to everybody now, scanned by a museum or a gallery, and each hangs small on the wall; press one and it comes off the wall into a frame. The artists whose work is still their own are on the Art shelf in the Reading Room, each spine a door to their page on Wikipedia.

Each scan is the one the liner notes name, with the painter, the title and the year read off its own record.

The Glimmer Window

There is a window at the far end of the room that does not look out onto the field outside. Nobody is entirely sure where it looks out onto instead. Open the shutters and see for yourself.

  • A room in blue light, hung with strings of white flowers, a jellyfish lamp and a paper star.
  • A jellyfish lamp with long trailing tendrils glows in a dark blue room.
  • A dreamcatcher, a jellyfish lamp and a spotted toadstool lamp hang in a room lit blue.
  • The same blue-lit corner from a little further back, with the dreamcatcher, the jellyfish and the toadstool lamp.
  • A tall view of a blue-lit wall crowded with plants, hangings and lights.
  • Benji, a shaggy cream dog, sleeps with his head on a patterned cushion.
  • A tabby kitten curls up on a wooden ledge, biting a pink feather toy.
  • A small handmade fairy doll in a white daisy-petal skirt.
  • A cluster of pale mushrooms grows on a mossy mound at the edge of a field.
  • A chessboard laid out beside china teacups, flowers and a red toadstool on a table.
  • A hand holds up a little bottle of pink drink tied with ribbon and a label that says Drink me.
  • A float tank with its lid raised glows blue in a dark room.
  • Gibbles, a golden hamster with a white stripe, snuffles through shavings scattered with dried flowers.
  • Crystals, a geode, beaded bracelets and a small bowl laid out on a purple cloth on the grass.
  • A shady woodland stream with a wooden chair set on the bank among the trees.
  • Bare feet stand in a clear, shallow stream over pebbles.
  • Logs burn in a round fire bowl on a wooden deck.
  • A narrow path leads through deep green woodland.
  • A wooden chair stands in a woodland clearing beside a stream, in dappled sunlight.
  • Benji, a fluffy cream dog on a lead, sits on the grass beside a gravel path.
  • A tall pale mushroom stands in the grass, photographed from ground level.
  • Gibbles, a golden hamster, peeks over the rim of a pink bowl in his cage.
  • A tabby cat curls up on rumpled bedding beneath a wall hung with a flower wreath.
  • A hand holds a bunch of red roses and pink peonies.
  • A large purple-leaved tree stands at the edge of a green lawn under a pale sky.
  • A dandelion seed head stands tall among green leaves.
  • A path runs through woodland with bluebells and ivy on either side.
  • Pale pink blossom covers a tree against a bright blue sky.
  • A small lantern glows in the dark beside a salt lamp and a pile of books.
  • Benji, a shaggy cream dog, rests his chin in front of a glowing fireplace.
  • Bluebells grow thick under old trees in spring.
  • A snowy park at dusk, with bare trees against a deep blue sky.
  • Snow lies along the branches of a bramble hedge.
  • A snowy track runs between bare winter trees.
  • The sun sets orange behind bare trees over a snow-covered field.
  • A small figure made of brown paper and covered in coloured doodles stands in a garden.
  • A small pale mushroom among fallen oak leaves and ivy.
  • A tight cluster of brown-capped mushrooms grows in the grass.
  • Clusters of small brown mushrooms grow in sunlit grass.
  • Seen from below, grey mushroom caps spread over younger mushrooms in the grass.
  • Benji, a fluffy cream dog, sits among ivy in the woods with his tongue out.
  • Brown bell-shaped mushrooms stand in the grass in low sun.
  • A black-and-white cat rests on a brown blanket, looking at the camera.
  • A butterfly with eyespots on its wings feeds on a purple flower spike.
  • A black cat sits in a dim room under a wreath of flowers.
  • A tree with red and green leaves against a cloudy sky.
  • A tabby cat lies on the carpet in front of cushions and a bookcase.
  • A pink jellyfish lamp hangs in a green room with fairy lights and a dark wreath.
  • A fluffy black cat sits behind a tray of small toys and coloured sand.
  • A plant with huge leaves grows beside a path among trees.
  • A shallow stream runs between steep wooded banks.
  • A knitted pumpkin, orange leaf fairy lights and a wicker wreath.
  • A field of sunflowers under a cloudy sky.
  • Looking up through a ring of green treetops to a blue sky with clouds.
  • Helen, smiling, with long red hair and glasses, in a field of sunflowers.
  • A single sunflower in full bloom against a pale sky.
  • The centre of a sunflower up close, with a bee at work in it.
  • A path disappears into a tunnel of trees and ivy.
  • Two jars of seedlings tied with twine and labelled coriander and basil sit on a windowsill.
  • A fluffy black cat sits on the arm of a sofa in a living room with a fireplace.
  • Stepping stones cross a small stream between grassy banks.
  • A black cat lies on a crocheted blanket, looking at the camera.
  • A black cat sits on a cat tree draped with a leopard-print blanket, in purple light under a wall of ivy.
  • A tabby cat sits on a windowsill in purple light.
  • A narrow stream runs between thick green banks under a summer sky.
  • A sunlit wood carpeted with bluebells.
  • Helen, smiling, with long red hair and glasses, among bluebells in a wood.
  • Tall thin trees rise from a woodland floor dotted with bluebells.
  • A black-and-white cat steps across blankets on a bed in purple light.
  • Slender trees in a bright green wood.
  • A path winds through a wood between drifts of bluebells.
  • Bluebells in bloom among broad green leaves.
  • A fluffy black cat with amber eyes sits on a bed beside a pale green wall.
  • Icicles hang from frozen grass stems.
  • A snow-covered log lies across a fast little stream, with icicles hanging from it.
  • Pink blossom on bare branches against a clear blue sky.
  • Frost on ivy leaves and dried bracken.
  • Frilly orange fungus grows along a mossy log.
  • An icy branch with icicles hangs over dark water.

Glow Wild Hollow

Down and into the rhizome, under a great glowing mushroom, is a hollow at night where every light belongs to something alive: foxfire in an old log, glow-worms in the grass, a sea that sparkles where you touch it, and a jellyfish that lights up.

Down and into the rhizome →Foxfire, glow-worms, sea sparkle and a jellyfish that lights up: living light, in a hollow with no moon and no lamp.

The Play Pod

Through the little round door is my sensory play pod: a tuff tray under a UV lamp, with ideas for families for glow play, tonic water, messy play, mark making and tuff trays, every one credited to who shared it.

Into the Play Pod →Glow play under a UV lamp, messy play, mark making and tuff trays: ideas for families, and the people I work with.

The Looking-Glass

Where my other rooms have wooden doors, this one has a looking-glass. Press the glass and it goes soft, like a bright silvery mist, and through it is Looking-Glass House: my yurt the other way round, with a pin board of Alice quotes, the chessboard country, a looking-glass book and Tenniel’s pictures.

Step through the glass →
Through the looking-glass →My yurt the other way round: a pin board of Alice quotes, Alice’s way across the chessboard country, a looking-glass book and Tenniel’s pictures.

The Regulation Nook

Every good library has a regulation corner, even if nobody calls it that officially. Here is what is in mine.

The Stim Tin

My stim tin: things to fidget and stim with, and what each one feels like in the hand.

In Motion - Subtitled, Sophie Broadgate · 11 July 2023 · 2:22. In Motion, a short film by Sophie Broadgate, with subtitles.

The photographs are their photographers’, each credited under it, and the film is its maker’s, on her own channel; nothing of hers is hosted here and nothing reaches YouTube until you press.

A corner of a sage green room: a dark floral wreath strung with lights, Alice in Wonderland signs on the wall, a hanging blue jellyfish lamp and ivy, and a soft red toadstool, a frog and a green dragon among blankets below.

Nature Notes

Flowers in my hair, boots by the stream, conkers on moss, mushrooms in the leaf litter and a tree turning gold.

  • Seen from behind, a woman with long reddish brown hair wears white, yellow and blue wildflowers woven into her ponytail.

    flowers in my hair

  • A pair of burgundy lace-up boots with satin ribbon laces stands on a rock at the edge of a clear, rippling stream.

    boots by the stream

  • Looking up through a tree full of golden yellow autumn leaves against a pale sky.

    a tree turning gold

  • Three shiny conkers, one large and two small, rest on bright green moss.

    conkers on moss

  • Two pale lilac mushrooms with brown centres grow side by side in dark soil among fallen leaves.

    mushrooms in the leaf litter

  • A small pale lilac mushroom stands in the leaf litter beside a crumpled brown one.

    mushrooms in the leaf litter

  • A purple mushroom grows in dark soil under green leaves, with tiny brown mushrooms around it.
  • A small lilac mushroom with a cone-shaped cap stands among fallen autumn leaves.

    mushrooms in the leaf litter

  • A tiny white mushroom peeks up through a carpet of bright green moss.
  • Small cream-coloured mushrooms cluster on mossy bark.
  • Orange-brown mushrooms grow among small green leaves and seed heads on the ground.

All photographs by Helen Edgar. The mushrooms are here for how they look, and nothing on this page says what kind they are.

Who Else Lives Here

The library is a shared arrangement. Currently in residence:

the cats

Harry, Zara, Ziggy and Tiggy

a small clowder, all convinced the shelves belong to them

open to see the photographsclose the photographs

Cats Coven

Harry, Zara, Ziggy and Tiggy, at home on the cat tree, out in the catio, and asleep wherever is softest.

A black-and-white cat sits on the top platform of a grey cat tree while a tabby cat peers out from the level below.
In a sunny cat run hung with bunting and paper flowers, a tabby cat eats from a purple bowl and a black-and-white cat eats from a plate on a wooden ledge.
A tabby cat sleeps on its back on a teal blanket, paws curled and soft belly fur showing.
Two black cats explore the wooden ledges and curved rope bridge of a cat run, with a garden lawn beyond the mesh.
Three cats in a cat run laid with artificial grass: a black cat lies beside a blue play tunnel, a tabby eats nearby, and a black-and-white cat walks past a wicker chair.
Two black cats on a grey cat tree in front of a wall of ivy, one sleek and standing on a high platform, one fluffy and sitting low.
A fluffy black cat with amber eyes lies on purple crocheted and fleecy blankets.
A black-and-white cat hugs a soft toy on a fluffy blanket in purple light.
A tabby kitten curls up on a wooden ledge, biting a pink feather toy.
A tabby cat curls up on rumpled bedding beneath a wall hung with a flower wreath.
A black-and-white cat rests on a brown blanket, looking at the camera.
A black cat sits in a dim room under a wreath of flowers.
A tabby cat lies on the carpet in front of cushions and a bookcase.
A fluffy black cat sits behind a tray of small toys and coloured sand.
A fluffy black cat sits on the arm of a sofa in a living room with a fireplace.
A black cat lies on a crocheted blanket, looking at the camera.
A black cat sits on a cat tree draped with a leopard-print blanket, in purple light under a wall of ivy.
A tabby cat sits on a windowsill in purple light.
A black-and-white cat steps across blankets on a bed in purple light.
A fluffy black cat with amber eyes sits on a bed beside a pale green wall.

the dog

Benji

has strong opinions about the doorbell

open to see the photographsclose the photographs

Dog’s Den

Benji, asleep on the cushions, by the fire, and out in the woods.

Benji, a shaggy cream dog, sleeps with his head on a patterned cushion.
Benji, a fluffy cream dog on a lead, sits on the grass beside a gravel path.
Benji, a shaggy cream dog, rests his chin in front of a glowing fireplace.
Benji, a fluffy cream dog, sits among ivy in the woods with his tongue out.

the hamster

Gibbles

runs the night shift and answers to nobody

open to see the photographsclose the photographs

Hamster Haven

Gibbles, on the night shift in his bowl and in the shavings.

Gibbles, a golden hamster with a white stripe, snuffles through shavings scattered with dried flowers.
Gibbles, a golden hamster, peeks over the rim of a pink bowl in his cage.

Pebbles by the door

Penguins bring each other pebbles, and so do we: a small thing somebody found and thought somebody else would like, given on nobody’s clock. There is a log basket here of things Helen has put out for anybody to take, and a bowl for leaving one of your own. It was Helen’s own idea, the day she went to the Solarpunk Hermitage to watch a film; what pebbling is, and whose word it is, is in our glossary and in the Arcade’s pebbling cabinet.

The log basket: pop one on the fire and warm yourself up!

  • The amethyst cave: Anya Gallaccio’s The Light Pours Out Of Me

    Amethyst is a violet quartz, coloured by traces of iron, and the birthstone for February. It has long been held to be a calming stone, kept for peace of mind, clear thinking and restful sleep. Wishing you a magical glimmer day. A grotto lined with it at Jupiter Artland, near Edinburgh, on YouTube via Yoga & Healing Fairy, 0:30.

The bowl in the hollow stump: leave one

The bowl needs scripts to read it.

  • Anybody can see the bowl, and only people signed on to the CB can leave a pebble in it. A handle is whatever somebody typed, so a name in the bowl is not proof of who left it.
  • A pebble goes seven days after it is left, and a full bowl lets its oldest go to make room. The base station can lift one out sooner, and so can we if you ask: what the bowls keep.
  • A link shows its whole address, so what you read is where it goes.
  • Nothing here is counted: not what was taken, not what was left, and not who came to the door. Leaving a pebble is the only footprint there is, and nobody has to leave one.

The Moon Spoon Pebbling Pot

My moon stone sits on the windowledge beside my moon spoon, pressed with flowers I gathered in the local woods. Through the window you can watch the video the moon spoon came from.

Moon Spoon is Vi Hart’s video, on her own Vimeo, 6:30, and the moon spoon is her idea: she says to make your own, or make them for each other, by hand and with love, which is how mine was made. Nothing plays until you press, and nothing of hers is kept here.

  • A long white handmade spoon pressed with small pink, purple and white flowers and green sprigs lies on a slate, beside little clay toadstools and two small clay spoons, one blue and one pink. A glittery purple stone sits behind them, with the feet of a metal figure and a red candle in a jar.
    My moon spoon, and my moon stone behind it.
  • Flowers laid out on a wooden table: white blossom, small blue and purple flowers, a yellow flower, pink sprigs and a white flower head.
    Flowers I gathered in the local woods.
  • A small woven basket with a tall handle, filled with white, purple, blue and yellow flowers, on a wooden floor.
    The same flowers, in a basket.
  • A faery garden among mossy stones and green leaves by a brick wall: little faery houses, a round faery door and a faery figure, with a spoon half hidden in the undergrowth.
    My faery garden, with a spoon hidden in the undergrowth.

Where To Find Me

The yurt itself sits on a small campsite off the main street, tucked into the woodlands with a stream tracing the edge of the trees. Follow the fairy lights from the treeline and you will find the door.

The neighbours on the campgrounds, from the pond, down a pebble path or up the cable car: David Gray-Hammond’s Emergent Future Worlds Meets Mountain Man at the summit, Jess’s Bough House at pitch 05, Ryan Boren’s Solarpunk Hermitage at pitch 03, Rowena’s Aerial Arbour at pitch 06 and Luis’s Luis’s Burrow at pitch 07. Go and visit.

Out in the wider world, my writing lives in two places. Autistic Realms is where I share grounded, practical support for families, educators, and those navigating Autistic ways of being. More Realms is where things are looser, weirder, more speculative.

Job marker — a candle stub burnt most of the way down

You have found a job marker. The Adventurer’s Guild is a shopfront on the street, and it posts jobs that send you round these rooms. Take the code below to its board and that job is done. Nothing here is scored, nothing expires, and one is a perfectly good number of jobs to do.

The job: A candle stub on the windowsill

Quest code: TALLOW

Hand it in at the Adventurer’s Guild →

A yurt in the campgrounds of Stimpunks.World, kept warm by Helen Edgar of Autistic Realms. The photograph is hers and is not under this site’s licence.