Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A Farm


A thank you to lakewentworth for sharing this photograph on flickr.

Friday, March 27, 2009

I'm Wishing for a Clothesline. How about you?


A thank you to Lulu at Home for sharing this photo on flickr. Click here to see more of her nostalgic photographs.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Simple Beauty: Blue Eyes




A thank you to carf for sharing this photo on flickr.

Repost: From My First Blog, November 18, 2007


FarmBoy and I chatted a bit yesterday about memories of the best play times we had as children. The discussion was initiated by his witnessing my tossing away of three empty (plastic) thread spools. He related that some of his best memories of childhood play were of the imaginative sessions he and his playmates had with leftover wooden thread spools.

Today I saw Soulemama's post about similar play, and I was delighted. Her musings so reflect my own feelings about toys. See her blog here.

(By the way, my own favorite play memory is of a time my cousin Randy and I filled empty soda- pop cans with sand and raced them down makeshift tracks we created ourselves in the dunes along the coastline of Washington state. [Pop cans are not as nice as wood, aesthetically speaking, but we were deserving of points for recycling.] Nothing from my childhood kindles lovely memories like those of a day spent in soft gray sand with the ocean's rhythmic roar in the background.)

A thank you to coccinelle67 for sharing the above photograph on flickr.
Blogger Emily Allan Wood said...

I also think my fondest memories with toys are the toys that come from nature or from creative ideas like your pop cans on the beach. One of my best memories is jumping as high as I could off the sand dunes and flying several feet before landing. I am glad you guys took us to the beach when we were younger. Its a wonderful place.

November 18, 2007 4:45 PM

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Anonymous CouponAlbum said...

Interesting post!! Now a day, many amazing and wonderful toys are available in market for kids...

March 26, 2009 12:51 AM

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Blogger A Girl Called Dallan said...

I agree about the availability of many wonderful toys for purchase these days. (It was not always so.) I like to invest in quality toys that can be passed down for generations. Inasmuch as manufactured toys encourage imaginative play, they are great supplements to the toys which children create for themselves.

Thanks for the comments.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Yup

There is a free download of this poster at readymade.com.

Don't you just love people who share?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Simple Treasures: Childhood's Passing

A Good, Good Lesson


This little video starts off slowly, but hang in there. You will be glad you did.

A thank you to Jess Gonacha for sharing this today on her blog, Treasuring.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

The PlayPumps Water System

I love this!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Letting the Air Freely Dry the Laundry


A thank you to "meaghan" for sharing this photo on flickr.

I recently bought one of these and I love it. It has eleven drying racks and what works well for me is to wash nine or ten large items plus some assorted socks and washcloths every day (except Sunday). The damp laundry sits overnight on the rack next to my electric dryer. The next morning I do a new load of wash. When it is done washing, I remove the previous day's laundry from the rack and put it into the dryer to tumble on the lowest heat setting during the few minutes it takes me to put the new load of wet laundry onto the rack. This little bit of dryer time softens the laundry items and dries up any dampness still in them.


A nice side-effect of this method is that I have only a dozen or so things to put away each day, and that works very nicely for me. I'm looking forward to seeing the dip in energy usage in our next electric bill, as electric clothes dryers are one of the biggest consumers of electricity in a home.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Spectrum


spektrum, originally uploaded by to01.

A thank you to to01 for sharing this picture on flickr.

To see more simple, beautiful toys, visit oompa.com. We are big believers in investing in a few quality toys, rather that spending the same amount of money on more common playthings with less aesthetic value.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

An Upgrade for the Homeless


There are some inspiring pictures over here of some little, inexpensive houses which could be constructed for those who currently live in tent cities such as this one in Olympia, Washington. If the state could step forward and pay for them, I suspect that money would be saved on balance by reducing emergency room visits by these folks. The cottages are not necessarily larger than a tent, but they do provide more shelter from the weather, and, most importantly, a lock on a door.

A thank you to televiseus for sharing this photograph on flickr.

Hmmmm. Did you know about this, Judie?