Wand 'er' lust?

Listen, I’m as bigger admirer as most of all things ‘non-muggle’. I delight in the creativity of the stories and the pleasure it gives my children to re-enact these adventures.

After a recent trip to the Warner Bros Harry Potter studios, I was equally impressed with the tour and marvelled at the work and detail that has gone into producing this magical world to the screen, and was particularly entertained by Warwick Davis and Nick Dudman’s beautifully comical guide to special effects.

However with all these things the tour throws you out into the gift shop, and whilst you always attempt to prepare yourself for the worst, my surprise at the merchandise prices was matched only by my realisation that Professor Snape was one of the good guys.

In my family, this is how it works; as I don’t have an overflowing vault deep in Gringotts, the parents pay for entry and children earn pocket money for spending on any superfluous items they desire. That way they make their own judgement on good value for money……they all left empty handed.

Back at home in the garden, (yes, there is a tenuous link) whilst my children had fashioned Hagred’s Hut from dust sheets and our garden furniture, and were unsuccessfully performing spells with cricket stumps, it dawned on me.

Not wanting to harp on or rant about ‘in my day’ stories prior to the current health and safety influences that occasionally blight our children’s creativity. I certainly recall having a small collection of penknives and can remember my joy at receiving my first Victorinox knife and the comparative discussions with friends about how useful the various tools were. ‘It’s for cleaning horses hooves of course’ ‘oh yeah, really useful!’ We would whittle all sorts of various items and even produced a line of well designed fishing priests.

Back to the present, I asked my children to find a wand sized stick or branch, and with careful supervision, we used some knives to remove bark, sandpaper to smooth and created some magical, spell bounding and truly unique devices. I know these will be treasured for years to come.

Real magic!