Since childhood I have had certain dreams of my perfect bedroom, and over the past week I have culled these dreams into my top 3, practicalities temporarily suspended. Here they are, counting down--
3.The Attic-Not sure where exactly this dream came from, but it's probably a common one. Attics are awesome. Mysterious, a bit creepy, they have a triangle roof, and cool windows. Also, you are separate from the rest of the house, and you can hear any intruders coming up the stairs.
2.The Gypsy Caravan-This one came from a book I loved as a kid, Danny The Champion of The World. This boy lives with his Dad, out in the country, in an old dilapidated gypsy caravan. They don't have electricity, but have a paraffin lamp. And they hunt pheasants. Awesome.
1.The Hollow Tree-Oh, yeah. This is the greatest, most loved dream of mine. It started also from a book, called My Side Of The Mountain, which my teacher read to the class in grade 5. A boy runs away, and lives in a big hollow tree. He hunts, he fishes in a stream, he makes cool stuff. He communes with nature, and watches the seasons. He has a pet hawk. So great.
Imagine: It's winter, and you live in this big warm hollow tree (don't burst my bubble, in the dream it's warm- I even have a little campfire in my tree). You make a cool door flap out of an animal hide. You find a baby hawk and train it (actually, I would choose a baby owl, myself). You read at night by candle light, while you drink billy tea and write in your journal about your day, as the wind whirls about outside. Oh yeah.
Anybody feelin' me?
9 comments:
Oh yeah, I hear you. Especially on the hollow tree house. Before I read My Side of the Mountain, I read Enid Blyton's Hollow Tree House - kids run away from their nasty aunt and uncle, and go and live in a hollow tree house in the woods. Robinson Crusoe for kids... gave me a lifelong desire to live in a hollow tree!
Hi Joanna, It's nice to hear of someone else who knows My Side Of The Mountain. Nobody ever knows what I'm talking about. It's kind of 'In To The Wild'- for kids!
You might like this clip..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJg7SpJoJQ&feature=related
ps- sorry I haven't emailed you about the paintings; I haven't forgotten, I just haven't gotten my act together yet.
I remember my side of the mountain too!!!! We read it at school. And I have a triangle roof on my room! I live in the attic of a granny flat. but I'm not a granny.
wow, a real triangle roof person.. we're not worthy. I envy you.
yeah cool book huh!
I saw a program on the travel channel on luxury 'tree houses'. Some of those were pretty amazing and surprisingly simple....but man, did you totally want to live there.
cool, treehouses are awesome, though, being a sleepwalker I would be frightened my night travels would result in me falling from a great height.
Love the clip. I think MSOTM falls into a whole genre of what I'd call 'competence fiction' for kids - stories where kids have or develop all sorts of skills (usually without much adult help). I've never heard anyone talk about this, but I think that emphasis on skills is incredibly attractive to kids. The Swallows and Amazons series is another that has lots of detail about how to make stuff (and sail boats, light fires, signal...). I loved all that kind of writing... sadly it hasn't come in very useful yet!
And no rush about the paintings!
That's great to read that other people had similar fantasies as mine =]
The gypsy wagon, preferably as part of a whole caravan! But not for a bedroom, for my whole life. Wild freedom, dancing by the fire every night to a sweet gypsy fiddle. For that I would leave all else behind!
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