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Finding crabs and tiny fish in rock pools.
Best ever!
Still love turning the stones over and finding these little creatures.

Gardening with my dad. Back in the day when virtually all the fruit and veg was grown there - onions and potatoes grown in neat lines, juicy blackberries straight from the bush etc. Miss those days, but it instilled a love of gardening in me ever since.

My favourite outdoor activity was, without a doubt, skipping! Even when neighbourhood children had to go in, it could be played by myself, practising ‘doubles’, but the best was with a line of other girls, using the width of the street ( very few cars about) in the 50’s, and we all waited our turn to skip, chanting skipping songs all the time.
It really was quite skillful, thinking about it, was fun, good excercise and cost nothing, just as well, because nothing was what we had.

Building 'jumps' on the lawn and playing show jumping with my little sister. Funnily I was always the horse!

My gran used to take me fairy hunting in a small little woodlands full of bluebells. As I got older I would take my friends there so we could go searching together.

Playing in the fields behind our estate with other children. Sitting in dry ditches, making dens, climbing trees.

Playing in the garden with a gang of friends. We had such fun.

Making dens amongst the trees and bushes in a nearby 'wilderness', french skipping with long stretchy ropes made of elastic bands, and creating tiny little worlds with dolls house bits and pieces and miniature things I liked to collect.

making dens!

Fishing bare foot without a net, just hands in the river for minnows. Still tempted on a hot day!!

French skipping-with the elastic round 2 dustbins

Aw two baller!!i used to have two balls playing rhyme games against the coal house door I loved it drove my mum mad! Thud thud!!

Riding my bike. I used to be out all day with my friends, mum had to shout me in at meal times then I'd be back out again. It always seemed to be summer in those days. Happy times.

Mushroom - picking. My parents knew how to forage and they taught me how to pick edible mushrooms safely. It was such a thrill to find one, hiding in the tall grass!

Taking our mums cloth's maiden and turning it into a tent with a sheet draped across it,we would spend hours under it playing after helping ourselves to pots and pans from the kitchen and making pretend meals.

Bird watching with my dad.
I am retired now but I used to work for the RSPB. I now bird watch with my husband and my grown up children.
My granddaughter is only 1yr old but as soon as she is old enough she will be introduced to the pleasure of being in either the countryside or the coast watching birds. It’s not just about the birds it’s about getting outside and enjoying nature.

Making dens in the nearby woods. There were some fly tipped tiles at one time, so one den had a tiled floor. It was the marbled tiles which if you looked carefully had a chick in the pattern. Sliding down a huge hill on a piece of corrugated iron with the end bent upwards for speed! And who didn’t love a rope swing, not so much the bruises if you went too fast and crashed into the tree!

Playing with my siblings, cousins in the garden(bush with big trees around). On tree log or fallen tree, we make make shifts kitchen pretending to cook....broken cutleries- broken China using foliage and soil(sometimes) as pretend food. Play shopping.

Looking in rock pools and rivers to catch small fish and pondlife

Loved the I Spy books, searching for flowers, trees, fungi, points of interest etc.

Playing with all my friends from the road.
We used to make up plays and perform them in our back garden.
My poor little brother was made to be the audience, and told when to clap.

Going into any of the surrounding fields (you could do that, before foot and mouth) - one of the fields had several old willow trees, which were great if you could climb (I couldn't) but the trunk of one tree was hollow so you could make a camp.
Swimming in my friend's above ground pool - as long as it was fine we were in there and stayed in until our fingers were wrinkled!

Building a camp in the woods with friends. Sailing over to the other shore like in the Enid Blyton books.

Tennis ball in end of a stocking, then you stood against a wall and swung it above your head inbetween legs then under arms (not sure it had a name) ;)