Friday, August 20, 2010

The Enchanted Forest: Simple Adventures


Childhood's simple adventures begin.....
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again." ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Carmi's theme this week is "kids" and at this stop on the Enchanted Forest review we found lots and lots of kids. We have visited Jack and the Beanstalk, The Crooked Man, and Red Riding Hood's Grandmother. Today we find Huckleberry Finn setting out on his magical adventures on the Mississippi River. This stop is a little different than the others for you see, there is no house. Huck's raft was his house, but what a raft this is!


Huckleberry Finn's floating home

It is located in a clearing with a four way bouncing see-saw made out of wood as well as a rough hewn regular teeter-totter. The raft is made of wood, the timbers tied together and the raft base mounted on a stiff spring so that it floats above the forest floor and rocks as the children climb and walk over the surface. A cloth tent is centrally located... to protect Huck from the wind and rain on the rolling river. The large stick rudder is moveable but someone must always be available to control it, if not this raft might float off course. And what proper raft would be without a flag!


This attraction was never without visitors.... Posted by Picasa

This exhibit was voted the "Most Interactive" and while we were there it was always inhabited by children. Of course the most interesting things happened... kids started pretending and playing different parts.... making up their own adventure stories.... imagining. Yes, imagination was out in full force... isn't that wonderful? With all the video games and television the individual imagination doesn't have the chance to expand. Here it did. Kids imagined, interacted with each other and wove together beautiful adventures. What a great play raft.... as long as you aren't prone to be seasick. This raft really "rocked"!

(end of post)
Carmi's Theme... "Kids"

6 comments:

Peg Cherre said...

This looks like GREAT FUN!!

My entry is very different.  <span>http://secondwindjewelry.com/jewelry-weaving-blog/2010/08/<span>the-best-wedding-ever</span>/</span>

kenju said...

What a good raft it is!!

Ginny Hartzler said...

This is totally cool!! Did you get a picture of the see-saw or teeter toter? I'm looking for them in the picture, have I missed them? No matter, these photos do give a good view of the raft itself! It really DOES rock!

Sandra said...

thanks for the visit back in time to Huck and his friends. I loved that story, my favorite part was not the raft, but the fence he got someone else to paint for him. that stuck in my mind forever. i like doing that. this raft is great and i can see why it had a lot of visitors.

Simplycol said...

What a fabulous place for children (of all ages). :)

Carmi said...

I love how you've captured this remarkable place. It has a dreamlike patina in your photos. I'd love to take my kids there!