Thursday 30 April 2009

Where have all the lost kites gone?

As a child I seem to remember it was a pretty standard feature of the countryside and parks to see old tattered tangled kites hanging in trees, alongside deflated footballs, the odd plimsole... Is it just me, or do trees these days seem remarkably bare of these things?
I have some theories, exasperated by walking the dog through woods crying out for a few oddities to be dangled in the branches, this morning.

The Wallop ponderings of the day then;

1. Children are taller these days. Or have evolved longer arms.
2. Children do not play out. Ever. especially near trees due to health and safety tree-might-fall-on-them issues.
3. Kites are not for children anymore. They have DS lites. Kites are for dads. Dads don't abandon them when they get stuck in trees because they're ridiculously expensive titanium clad whizzy ones from 'Iwantoneofthose.com' or some such and dads would rather chainsaw (probably also purchased from the same site) the tree down than leave their 'toy' for some snotty nosed kid to get hold of.

Regardless of the reason for their disappearance. I'd like to see more kites. Think I may force, ahem ... sorry, encourage my kids to make one this weekend even if just for the right of passage in watching it crash several times before getting stuck in a tree. For old times sake.

Todays Rubbish Picture is 'Lost Kite' and consists of frozen pea packaging, a Weetos box, a garden centre catalogue which was very timely shoved through my letter box just as I was looking for some more 'green'. The little girl is dressed in the lid of a Dunkin Doughnuts drive through box and a fetching pair of Ellas kitchen smoothie pouch boots.

3 comments:

  1. As a fanatical kite-flier, had a good chuckle at your ponderings :-) Kids certainly spend more time indoors these days. Perhaps beaches are more popular than ever, due to Kite Festival publicity and other kite-related publicity involving Power kites and kite surfing. Hence many kite-fliers might be drawn away from the local parks, since 'beaches are where you fly a kite'.

    If you want to get your kids interested in how to make a kite you'll find a bunch of possibilities on the Web. One site in particular ;-)

    More people than ever are making their own kites, but maybe they are older, more serious about it, and hence less likely to end up catching their kite in a tree!

    Well, there's some more ponderings for you...

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  2. I posted on my blog about us finding a kite in a tree on St George's Day (although we were later told it was a dragon!). As a family we love flying kites, but it is sad you don't see so many children doing it these days. It's always simple treasures & pleasures that get lost.

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  3. Oh the joys of flying kites! I used to absolutely love them and got through loads because I was always getting them stuck in trees too high for even my brave Dad to want to climb.

    The only things I seem to see stuck in trees nowadays are plastic carriers, which I find really depressing!

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