20 July 2012

when i was a little girl, i was a tom boy

Greetings all,
I was a total tom boy growing up, my best friend was the boy one house over & we played for hours in my back garden.  I had huge rocks, climbing trees, a swimming pool & then my dreams came true, my father built me a tree house.  My father was the son of a carpenter & everything he built "would hold the Sydney Harbour Bridge" as he hammered in a zillion nails to all manner of structures.  When my big brothers were little, they had horses, in our back garden, in St Ives!!  Seriously, 4 horses on Sydney's North Shore!!  As a child i played in the barn, clearly zero fear of spiders & let my imagination run wild.  
 Now my tree house looked nothing like these fancy images - the base was the neighbour's old ping pong table - but it had a balcony, ladder, windows & a shingled roof.
 It has a steep stair ladder & was among the Jacaranda trees, you had all manner of exits.  We could reach out & eat Mulberries.  Life was ace.  
 We were even allowed to sleepover in it with friends!!  Bless the 1980's.  My mother would bring midnight snacks & hot chocolates out on a tray like room service!!
 My tree house still lives on, solid as a rock, my children play it when we visit Sydney.  I'm going to be more heart broken than i realise when my parents sell our family home next year.
 One of the best things about planning our own home, is dreaming up things like a tree house for the children or a fancy viewing platform to show off the best views to guests.   
In the latest Smith Journal (Frankie Magazine's brother) they had a great feature on tree houses, ditto google images for tree house eye candy.  When we finally buy land & plan a house, i'm going to do some carpentry courses so i can fiddle around with off cuts & build something amazing.  Don't you love the branchy hand rails??    
I might be lady like now . . . take away the sequins & fluff - give me gum boots & a hand saw - i'm right back to my roots.  I've spent the day gardening (weeding really) & tossing all the off cuts to the chickens & ducks.  I even gave them the leftover roses from our Friday the 13th party, which were gobbled down with gusto.  Can't wait to go out into the chicken run tomorrow & slip over in extremely-organic-poo.  I might sew with precision but i'm very clumsy & a slipper-overer, normally with a public audience.  Have gorgeous weekends everyone.  Love Posie

16 comments:

Bron said...

Our childhood cubby house and the one my kids have now were also not that fancy...{who really has one like that???} Glad you are still dreaming up big things for your move. x

Michelle {Jarrah Jungle} said...

I was a tomboy as well I grew up on a farm and the only kids around to play with was my older brother and all his friends. Even in my country primary school my senior year class had only 4 girls and 35 boys. Surrounded by boys will make you into a tomboy all right! My Dad made us a metal cubby house, the window was a plastic door on its side that looked out into the padocks. Its still there and I hope they never sell :) Must be hard for you, take lots of pictures so you can look back on it years from now x

alison@thisbloominglife said...

Our kids made their own treehouses out of some of the trees which fell in the drought. They weren't happy when removed them and had a huge bonfire. Re the frost, just wait 'til you're out here in the country...it is at least a couple of degrees colder without the cover of the 'burbs.

The Moerks said...

I didn't really have a tree house as a child, but I think I spent what would have amounted to many weeks sitting in the tree in our front garden watching the world going by. It was my special place. I hope you get to build your kids their special place one day.

Mum on the Run said...

Some of my favourite childhood memories are of eating mulberries up a tree.
How amazing are those images??
xx

Seaweed and Raine said...

Your post made me smile a whole lot! I always wanted a tree house - as close as it ever got was me hefting some really long planks up into the old pear tree... needless to say when Dad got home they came down again - they were so long they were sticking out dangerously. Looking forward to seeing what you do when you have your own place. :)

TexWisGirl said...

i didn't have a tree house, but i spent a lot of time in trees and swings as a kid. and hours down by the creek in the fields and woods.

Jan Maree said...

A tree house! How seriously cool! I will make the cookies to go with the midnight hot chocolates! I never had a tree house as a kid! Deprived! That's what I was!

The Accidental Housewife said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE tree houses. I have some books you might like to borrow, all of wonderful tree houses around the world. So inspiring! My treehouse (given I was very much a bush kid and surrounded by gums and wattle - neither very climbable) was a pallet tied up a very tall gumtree, to be accessed by climbing harness and prussic loops... No sleepovers there! Great view over Pittwater though.
My forever house includes a tree house too. Actually, ideally it would BE a treehouse...

Anonymous said...

Childhood up a tree, that was me. x x

polkadotpeticoat said...

I always wanted a treehouse as a kid.....I was a tom boy till mid high school...I had my own tractor, momma!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Rosie, I was a tom boy too until my teens although we too were without fancy treehouses. I always wanted one though! :)

Michelle's Style File said...

Now these are awesome! I love my treehouse as a kid :)

x
Michelle
www.michellesstylefile.com
GIVEAWAY

Elisa {With Grace and Eve} said...

Some seriously impressive treehouses there! I always wanted one as a kid! x

thehummingcat said...

Were looking at land too, found a lovely 5 acre plot, vame with a cubby and tree swing, bliss.

Anonymous said...

Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be ok. I'm absolutely
enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
Also visit my web page :: ffl