Kites Away!

Flying a kite is something I've enjoyed for a long time. It's only ever been on an occasional basis: I have a hazy memory of the maiden flight of my first kite- yellow plastic, with a picture of Charlie Brown- from when I was about five. Sadly, it flew only once, getting stuck in a tree (what else would a Charlie Brown kite do?) and breaking a strut.

When I was about 13 my dad gave me a kite. We only flew it every now and then, but one tradition was to fly it at our friends' farm south of Hobart, often after Christmas lunch. It eventually met its end in a tree, but before that I remember one windy spring day when I had a whole day without university lectures (unusual for me) and I luxuriated in my freedom by taking the kite to the Hobart Domain and flying it.

Every year, the City of Darebin, in Melbourne's North, has a Kite Festival. Since hearing about it a couple of years ago, I've been keen to go, and finally this year we made it. Big Bro even insisted on taking his fish kite, which we attempted to fly... which wasn't easy as at that stage I was there without B, so I was trying to marshall Big Bro into assisting to fly the kite while reassuring Little Bro that every time I ran along the grass I wasn't abandoning him! But we enjoyed watching the pros, as well as cruising the community stalls that seem to do the rounds of the festivals (Metro Fire Brigade balloons, anyone?).

Naturally the Kite Flying Association had the biggest and best- flying bears, a spinning windsock, and people using fishing rods to launch their kites! There were plenty of great designs- a bat, eagles, a shark, as well as traditional kite-shaped kits.

My favourite, though, was the squid looking down on the proceedings with a bemused twinkle in its eyes.