Cultured Views

The books we read as children

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Books open up the world to the minds of children; a child’s vivid imagination can transport them to places they have never seen and people they have never met through the words they read.

Far better than doing this via the internet!

Reading was my favourite past time as a child, it still is today, and I still love those special books I read when I was a young girl. My favourites were the Donna Parker series (pictured left). 

Donna was a teenage girl; very independant, clever and was always finding wonderful adventures wherever she went. The books followed her through school and beyond where she became a nurse - the books were set in the 1950’s but Donna was very much a girl ahead of her time.

I also loved the story of Helen Keller and her life and work was told wonderfully in a children’s book I still have today; I would love to see books like this included in the school syllabus. But then today the kids have Harry Potter and his magical adventures, the deliciously ‘dark’ books of Roald Dahl and, of course, The Lord of the Rings series of books.

Books are important in childhood; not just for reading but for stimulating that wonderful sense of imagination, fantasy and adventure we sometimes seem to lose as we grow up. 

Popularity: 12% [?]

Never let those new-age gadgets replace good old fashioned brain power

We are getting a spate of guests lately who clearly assume that an expensive piece of technology can do what the brain cannot - or do it better for that matter. I am talking about those who use a GPS.

In the last two weeks we have had three lots of guests getting totally lost whilst trying to find us and all due to them using their SatNav rather than our simple directions. One couple last week phoned us from a mere 90 km’s away - which normally meant a trip of no more than an hour to reach us - and yet five hours later were heaven knows where and still trying to find their way to our place.

They eventually arrived at 2am !

They rose the next morning to leave at 7am (unbelievable!) and set off for another nine hours of driving - only for him to leave his Lenovo Thinkpad under the bed. They had to double back two hours to retrieve it - and guess what - they got lost again!

Switch the gadgets OFF and switch your brain ON !!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Total eclipse of the sun

Great excitement amongst astronomy enthusiasts today with a total solar eclipse - the centre line of the eclipse being over Siberia/China. We were at the last event in Turkey in 2006 but found the current location a bit out of the way for us to travel to.

The real die-hards will be there in force though!

We are all geared up for the partial eclipse this morning. When we were in Turkey we were issued with those little viewing glasses but somehow they have got lost since then; what we have done is buy a couple of sets of those arc welding masks - just a few pounds they cost - and they do the job brilliantly.

Don’t forget; don’t look at the sun prior to totality unless you are wearing protective eye gear especially designed for looking at the sun. Once the dun is totally eclipsed - when everything goes black around you - then you can remove the eye gear and view the wondrous and fantastic sight in the sky. It is truly a magnificent phenomena.

Once the moon starts to move away and the sun starts to peep out again - put the eye gear back on.  This is natures most brilliant miracles and one you just should not miss!

Popularity: 11% [?]