And then you must convince yourself that a day spent constructing a hammock in the garden constitutes for your offspring an education, more rounded, you hope, than sitting at a school table dressed in black and white and filling in worksheets.
Then you must set about creating the hammock from scraps of old netting scrounged from whoknowswhere; some sticks from the garden, and a lot of string and ribbon. The children for whom this is an education wander off after half an hour to sacrifice dinosaurs to the pit of despair which they have dug in the middle of the lawn and covered over with leaves.
While they are busy with that, you discover that hammocks do not stay up with string and ribbon. You must then bribe Tiger to give up the nylon rope she has tied round her midriff and which she says is 'climbing equipment'. It is not climbing equipment, it is essential stuff to hold up my hammock, now trade it for three squares of chocolate and be off with you.
After some two hours hard labour, Grit staggers inside to revive herself with alovelycupoftea.
When she returns ten minutes later she finds the lovely new hammock, made with bits of rope, sticks, string, ribbon and Tiger's climbing equipment, already requisitioned by small people.
Satisfying and frustrating, all at the same time.
And someone somewhere hopes, educational.
3 comments:
i forgot to say that if you click on the last picture, you may see squirrel has attached herself to the hammock by means of an elastic cord. she tells me she is appointed 'hammock swinger' and this is the least effortful way to do it.
Love it.
I always wanted to make a hammock when I was a kid and never had the proper materials, so it pleases me very much that you did it, and judging by the pictures, it turned out well too. Kudos to you!
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