From a post on Craftzine, I found a tutorial over at The Sampler on how to make your own simple kite from an umbrella – called the Gentleman’s Kite.  I’m sorely tempted, but I think I shall wait for the next really windy day and salvage the dead-brollies that are too much a feature of bins and hedges on such days.

So this, along with the earlier wishes to have a Air-Kraken kite (as well as an airship kite in anything other than primary colours) has me quite in the kite mood.  Did you know there was an intention to create a ‘Steam-Kite‘ back in 1838 by John H Pennington – a 375ft (114m) long ‘kite’ with steam paddles for propulsion.  I doubt it got off the ground, but what a Steampunk sight that would have been!

(And why not – the first vehicle propelled by kite, and a confusion to tollkeepers who charged ‘by the horse’ in 1827 Bristol).