Let's go fly a kite

There are several "official" Fly a Kite days on various regional calendars, many of them in March. There's something about spring winds and the lingering effects of winter cabin fever that make going out into the open air in late March sound like a really good idea.

One of the official Fly a Kite days seems to be March 27th, though a lot of people celebrate it on the last weekend in March. Whichever date you go for, consider spending a tuppence on paper and strings, and you can build your own set of wings (thanks, Mary Poppins...now we can't get that darn tune out of our heads).

If you have a kite around, you're golden.

If you don't, get on over to the fabulous Marshall Brain site How Stuff Works and look up the instructions for building a classic diamond-shaped kite. It and other kite activities can be found at http://home.howstuffworks.com/kite-activities1.htm.

Once you've mastered the kite basics, try scoping out some of the advanced kite patents at our favorite patent lookup site, Free Patents Online. It required a membership to look at the patent plans, but you'll be rewarded by designs like this flying saucer kite illustrated below this paragraph. We've not quite got to this level yet, so we don't even know if it works, but it certainly looks impressive.