It always pays to look with attention to the small things.

For instance, the tail on the kite: kite won’t fly without it!

When you first look at the basic kite structure, it seems straightforward enough: a couple of light cross-pieces covered with some weightless material, a tail knotted with old rags and a quantity of tether*. As with most "simple" recipes (biscuits being a case in point), the best results are obtained not just with the proper ingredients, but also by the experienced hand which blends them. We rarely could coax our kites into flight without Dad’s expertise, but we certainly spent hours trying!

Our preferred material for covering the frame was brown wrapping paper. This was not the heavy stuff you can buy now for wrapping parcels, but a lighter variety that squatted in a cast iron holder on the sales counter at my favourite store. Practiced sales clerks could rip a piece off along the handy blade that also acted as a side to the holder and perform some sleight of hand with string pulled from a matching iron string-holder mounted on the ceiling. A good clerk could tie the string in such a way that it could be easily untied when you opened your package at home. You could save the string and the paper: for wrapping your own parcels, for covering your school books - or for kites.

Anyway, this paper was tough (unlike newspaper) and light (unlike old pillowcases, which we sometimes resorted to using) and offered the greatest likelihood of lifting the kite high enough to ride the wind. When the new plastic garbage bags arrived on the scene, we found that they worked really well.

Yes, you can get a kite for a dollar these days, but working out the engineering details is so entertaining! Why would anyone want to buy one? For the sheer joy of flying a kite, you say? You might have a point.

Last week, as I discussed kites with a youngster, a friend said quietly, "I’ve never flown a kite." The next windy day, I invited her to come to the dyke with me. She was delighted with the kite: a thing of brilliant nylon and so wonderfully balanced it swoops up and away on a mere whisper of breeze... or does so when the cross-piece is locked into place (another small detail!). We were a mile out on the dyke before we realized the cross-piece had been left behind: the kite had broken wings. Undaunted, we found a branch that fit between the plastic sockets and launched the kite over the river. The red and blue wings of the kite braced against a sturdy wind and soared.

"Oh," she said between giggles as she pulled the handles of the reel, "It’s just like fishing, fishing in the sky!"

*There are some basic directions here that look similar to the way we constructed our kites: www.skratch-pad.com www.skratch-pad.com

Looking for more detail, more attention to the small things? www.pbs.org www.pbs.org