the ocean in our backyard

Warning: These are a bit loud. :)








This was such awesome fun this weekend.  This enormous blue tarp was one of a few that Atom had purchased back in February/March to keep the birth tub from leaking.  (Oh, yeah, I still have to share that whole story sometime....)  Why is it sooo huge?  Because we were in a pinch (or so we thought - baby still didn't come for weeks after this purchase), and this is what he could find....

our future masterpiece as it was

So, this enormous big blue tarp, which was folded over many times and placed as one of many layers into a leaky birth tub, looking like a big blue plastic nest, has been being used to cover the super cool old phone booth Atom acquired, that is being refinished for an art installation.  Gonna be so pretty.

With all the rain lately, the tarp had gotten pretty soaked, so to dry it out, we had spread it out on the ground, and then Atom decided to clip one end to the clothesline.  Since it was a windy weekend, and the wind happened to be eastward, which was just the right direction, the results were fabulous!  (It was an incidental bonus, right Atom, or was this intentional?)  This kept the kids entertained, hoopin' and hollerin', for hours and hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

adobe & phoenix in the tarp ocean

And what a great lesson on aerodynamics in action, without us needing to say a word about it, to intellectualize it, or explain - just for them to see, and feel, and experience the joy of it.

surfin' waves in the tarp ocean

It dawns on me in retrospect that perhaps this is how Christo & Jeanne-Claude got started, with a happy accident....  If you don't know who they are, check them out.  They adorn large stretches of land and other things with fabric.  Well, really, if you're familiar with their work, that's a huge understatement.  Their next undertaking is 'Over the River' - the Arkansas River:   

     "Over The River is a temporary work of art by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.  Christo plans to suspend 5.9 miles of silvery, luminous fabric panels high above the Arkansas River along a 42-mile stretch of the river between Salida and Cañon City in south-central Colorado.
     Christo is currently working to obtain the necessary permits so that his team can begin the installation process. He is hoping to exhibit Over The River for two consecutive weeks in August, 2014."

This ocean we've discovered in our backyard is so awesome,  I don't know if I ever want to take it down.