Make Riversleigh

Velida sent me these wonderful images. You can print this out and make Riversleigh using this template or come up with one of your own. If you do create one of your own please share it with us all.

You Never Know What You'll Find

Today I looked out one of the treehouse windows and I found the most interesting nest of eggs. Looks like the forest will be having quite a birthing! In your tree climbing, be careful of this bountiful nest. We wouldn't want the eggs to crack before their time.

Mail Art

Some people think that you should keep the scrap cupboard for a rainy day but I think that working in the scrap cupboard, with a friend, is a lovely artist date.

When I come to the Treehouse I will make crumpets and hot chocolate and we can sit around writing snail mail, covered with delicious art work, to each other.

I love snail mail and always 'intend' to write more letters that tell the recipient absolutely nothing of any real importance. I remember spending idyllic hours making covered notebooks for a couple of friends as I lounged around our tent at Narooma.

If anyone is interested in sharing some snail art mail with me just let me know. It could be fun to send mail where we wear our nationality on our sleeve.

Magpie Leanings - Collecting and Creating

I have been out collecting pine cones. Ever since

childhood I have collected this and that, and used to

record things in diaries, on pages, etc. What fun it was.

I come from a big family and there was always

someone to play with. We played make believe until

it was dark in summer and never, ever, wanted to come

back inside. Never enough time for creativity and

collecting, exploring and make believe. It was so

much fun. I've loved reading other's posts here too.

Fond childhood memories all round.

copyright Monika Roleff 2006.

Ghosts in the Graveyard

My favorite game was Ghosts in the Graveyard--I recall playing it very late on a summer's night, under a blanket of stars in a dark sky. We lived in the country, and neighbors weren't close by, so it was a rare occasion that there was a group of kids large enough to play. Everyone would hide but the "Gravekeeper" who would wander the yard. At a crucial moment, ghosts would leap from their hiding places, screaming in a frightful fashion--"Ghooooosts in the Graaaveyard.......Ghoooosts in the Graaaveyard!" and try to run to "home base." If the Gravekeeper tagged you, you were It for the next round. It was deliciously spooky and especially fun to hide with someone, so you could both leap out, split the Gravekeeper's attention, and make it safely home.

I Had Books, Too.

We lived in the country and I didn't have playmates so I made my own fun. I had books, too, which I read voraciously. And then, I'd go out into the fields and woods and re-enact the adventures I had read about. I was always alone, but I was never lonely. The trees, and the animals kept me company and to this day I'm able to enjoy my own company though I like being with people, too.

Vi

Giggles and Awe

Welcome, Guests! I'm glad you found your way to the treehouse. Nina has been enjoying your stories. She alternates between having eyes as big as saucers followed by fits of giggles. You've given her so many ideas she doesn't know where to start! Her list of things to do include:

• Collect pine cones to paint and decorate the treehouse
• Climb to the platform at the top of the tree on the next cloudless night and get lost in the stars
• Search magazines for people and clothing to cut out for paper dolls

She also promised that if she should ever get a doll's pram, she would use it to bring more fun things to the treehouse.

Today is bright and sunny and Nina has taken a break from her pine cone search to swing on the tire swing. She imagines her feet touching the highest branches as she swings forward and her back caressed by leaves as she swings back.

Books of the past

When I was a child my favorite thing was not a toy, but books , I loved to read .
On a warm summers day I would grab a book , and head outside there was an old tree in our yard. It had lots of wide low branches and one of them curved prefectly to form a seat of sorts.
I would take my book and climb into the seat of the tree. Here I was protected from the world. and was safe to travel where ever the book wanted to take me.
Usually I was solving a mystrey with Trixie Beldon, or The Hardy Boys, or maybe on some dangerous Space mission with Tom Swift.
I still love to curl up with a good mystrey.

What fun

GREAT...I have wanted to come visit you and now I have an invitation. Childhood game ! Mine was not a game but an old suitcase I use to drag out every day to a huge lilac bush. Once settled there I would open the suitcase which also opened an entrance into pretend world. The suitcase was filed to the brim with movie star paper dolls. Rita Hayworth, Heady Lamour, Doris Day, Dwebbie Renolds, and many more. I spent hours, alone, under the lilac tree changing costumes and prancing them through a world of my imagination. Must have been preparation for Lemuria. . When I entered 7th grade my suitcase disappeared. I felt like I had suffered a great loss and still wish I had those original paper dolls.

The Doll's Pram

I hope Nina likes this story. Like her, I loved building treehouses and hideaways when I was young.


Day after day I hungered for it. My footsteps slowed as we passed the shop window, my arm stretching as I dragged my mother to a halt.
It stood right in the middle of the shop window, gleaming blue and silver, shaped like a small boat, with a silky hood and lining.
``She really wants that doll’s pram,” I heard my mother whisper after she had put me to bed.
``We’ll see,” my father replied, and that was as good as a promise.
As my birthday approached, my excitement grew. The pram had disappeared from the shop window, and I was certain it was already mine.
While my mother hung out the washing in the yard we were camping in at Dalkey, she watched me working on my house. I had been building it for ages, laying out bricks for the walls, and making little rooms for my dolls and teddy bears. I already had the kitchen and one bedroom finished. I got the bricks from a shed that had been demolished on the farm, and the house was furnished with things I had scrounged, old chairs, a rickety table, a rug my mother had been planning to throw out. I intended to cover the house with branches, like a bower or a thatched cottage.
My mother worried about me. She would have preferred me to enjoy more sedate and ladylike pastimes than mucking about with bricks and home made mud mortar.
My birthday dawned, and I scrambled out of bed, eager to unwrap my presents. My mother had made a knitted suit for my favorite bear, and of course, there were books. My parents were great believers in books for children.
After breakfast, my father took me outside and there was the pram, gleaming in the sunshine. I wheeled it up and down, reveling in the smooth gliding motion. It was so light and easy to push.
My mother produced a pram quilt and pillow she had made and set one of my dolls in the pram with them. She was beaming, plainly happy that at last I was behaving like a proper little girl.
She was sitting on the back step shelling peas when I next sailed past with the pram. She glanced up and smiled at me, then went back to her work.
Ten minutes later, I passed her again, and she was shelling peas in a big cream coloured pottery bowl.
Ten minutes later, when I again went past with the pram, she said, ``My, your dolly is getting a lot of exercise.”
As evening fell, my father came home and stopped to see how my house was progressing.
``Where did all these bricks come from?” he said. ``You must have been working hard today.”
My mother came out and shook her head at me. ``Look at you, covered in mud again. I hope your new pram is still clean.”
Then they both looked at my new pram, standing proudly outside my house.
And they both saw that it was full of bricks.

Nina's Treehouse

Would you like to visit Nina's Treehouse? It's very easy to get here. The journey isn't too long and there are no steep hills to climb. Just step off the back porch of Riversleigh Manor and you'll see a path off to your right that leads into the woods. Follow it a little ways.








Once you notice the forest becoming a bit more dense, you are almost there. At this fork in the road, take the path to the right.












Keep walking until you see a bend in the path that opens up to a lush clearing. This clearing is Nina's front yard. See how beautiful it is!?
Call up to Nina as you approach the treehouse. She'll be happy to show you the many ways to get up into the house.
You can go through the big red door in the tree and be magically transported up.















Or you can climb a rope ladder or a spiral staircase.

Either way, you'll be delighted when you reach the treehouse in the redwoods. Magic and fun await. Come on! What are you waiting for?

The photos in this entry were provided by photographers on Flickr who share their photos when given attribution. The treehouse image is a combination of two photos and Nina's own drawings. You can see more of these photographer's images at Jantik, Pikaluk, Dnorman, Katemina, Dailydog, and Evdaimon.