The girls built a tent in one of their rooms out of a sheet this weekend. They filled the tent with pillows, sleeping bags and duvets, and laid three sleeping pads and a carpet on the ground. They went in there on Saturday morning with a bottle of pop, several bags of chips, one of the computers and four or five movies.
They emerged on Sunday morning...at different times...Eldest-nascent-adolescent MUCH later...
They had a lovely time.
We forced them out for a couple of hours yesterday to go for a walk in the hills, and to eat a little (plus a little homework, the poor darlings).
They went to bed - that's a misnomer, they barely got out of it- about 1am last night...I went to bed hearing them giggling over 'Flubber'!
They haven't been as cranky as they might have been given the lack of sleep...we even went for a second delightful walk in the mountains today. I remember going to wild places with my folks when I was a kid, and they are some of the sweetest memories of my childhood, though we were far from wilderness explorers and never went anywhere hugely remote...though sometimes when we were cruising...still, I remember those places closely. Sometimes when I am in the hills with my kids, or when we were on a remote beach or anchorage, or picking carefully through places where birds flutter, where there are tracks on the ground that don't come from shoes, where things grow all on their own...I look at my kids and wonder how it is affecting them. It is strange that you never know what is going to catch inside a child. Eldest has been saying for several years that she wants to be an ichthyologist...to study fish; a direct line off from our lives on the boat.
I am listening to the Barça game while I type (hey, a little cultural immersion here; the Catalan equivalent of Hockey Night in Canada), Eldest got up for a snack during halftime (it's a lot of work this growing business) and listened to the Barça theme...you can listen to it here. She mentioned how very much the theme sounds like a national anthem...you know how they have that tone...the reality is, that this is true to some extent...I know the holy kingdom of sport and all, but that is not where I am going. The reality is that under Franco, the only place the Catalan flag could be flown was at a Barça game..it became one of the few places where Catalans could come together in public and cheer for a symbol of their culture and nation - there is not an adequate English word that I can think of...culture is a little weak and nation is not accurate, strictly speaking; but truly, for many Barça was the only open voice for Catalan nationalism and cultural support. So, it sounds like an anthem. It was, and in some ways, still is.
I have GOT to get the camera out....
update...crapola, Barça lost and now it's raining...I wonder if the two are tied?
6 comments:
Those tents of sheets and blankets were so fun as a child. I loved making forts as did our kids when younger. I love it when they hibernate for awhile in their own little world. It is interesting and a wonder at how the things we expose our kids to affect their lives and their decisions. And I often wonder for myself how I may have done things differently with different choices for me and for them. It is neat to see where our choices lead.
It sounds like your darlings had a great weekend, except for homework, lol.
I was hoping for more rain but I also wanted Barça to win...
(I went to the consorci Catalan classes!)
How wonderful that your girls are friends as well as sisters - I love it that my sisters and I are still so close.
Ted (middle son) just called - will be in Barcelona within the next few weeks (???). He plans to give you a call to say "hello." (Just a call, no visit...)
Will get on that recipe thing. (Arghh!)
I used to love making tents with blankets and sheets. Sometimes we would even do them outside and sleep in the garden. My audio thing is still not working, so I couldn't hear the theme, not that I haven't heard it before, but just to try. I hope to get it fixed soon because it's driving me nuts.
Dawn, tent and pillow sheets RULE, though I don't remember ever sleeping in one when I was a kid, and outside in the yard? We never made it all night. Though I have to admit, the sheet tent the kids made closely resembled their space on our boat...a fact they never mentioned, but something that must have contributed to their sheer happiness in there.
Mar, Oooooh, and concorsi has on-line courses too!!! thanks for the link! Are you going to go for D?
Beth, My sister and I are close too, I hope my kids keep it, I love that I feel that way. Ted and girlfriend are more than welcome to call, or if they need anything, want a meal a walk around town, whatever....don't sweat the recipies...I am just short of them, and I forgot how much you hate to cook when I was contemplating victims on my contact list.
Theresa, i am trying, though I lack time...I want to try and embed a player in the site...which would be neater an easier, I just haven't had time to do the homework and the blogger help pages are never really what they could be....sorry, I'll keep working on it. It is a quick time player I think, maybe that is why some people can get in and not others, maybe it is a question of compatability.
Odd, I don't remember doing such kind of tents as a kid. Perhaps because I used to sleep in real tents from time to time, in the middle of nowhere (which was on another level of fun). For the word you were looking for, I think nationalism is what comes closest to it.
I remember from History classes something like "national identity", which was the step between just being an ethnic group or a tribe, and really becoming a nation. Not sure what the english equivalent is for that ;)
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