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Well I liked all kinds of things as a child bikes skipping etc, however, my favourite outdoor activity was painting if it stood still I would dive in to the garage and mix whichever paint was half used to get the colour I was after (most paints when mix turn brown) once I put mums grave browning in the paint to achieve the richer shade. I loved banging the hard paint crest off the top of the paint with a hammer and paint .My parents arrived home one afternoon I had painted the whole garage red and all the windows black! as a spy den . I also painted the Victorian hallway from top to bottom with garage floor red as a wonderful surprise for them coming home. Window sills, bikes, pots, nothing was safe with my design projects also I would collect leaves and flowers and paint over them for added affect. I remember once winning the art class completion at around 7 years old. God bless my mum and dad them they never shouted once . I still love painting and studied art and architecture. My home is full of half finished projects LOL.

Picking blackberries . We took a picnic each time. Tea in a bottle wrapped in newspaper to keep it warm. Meat paste sandwiches. Lemonade made with powder and shaken hard. - great days.

Hidden footpath walks with Mum on Sunday afternoons, looking for wild flowers, taking them home, identifying them and pressing them

My absolute favourite outdoor activity was swinging on my garden swing. It was given to me for my 5th birthday, it had a wooden seat and proper ropes suspending it from its shiny blue painted A frame. I loved playing on it, using it so often that I wore a bare patch in my dad's well tended lawn. The day I mastered being able to work myself higher and higher I was triumphant and felt as though I was flying! My favourite memory is of sitting on my swing in the sunshine (it's always sunny in good childhood memories isn't it!) waiting for my friends to come for my birthday party, I was probably about 7 but I can remember the feel, smell and colours of that day even down to the party dress I was wearing.

Years later, I still enjoy a playground swing, both with my own 3 children and now with my grandchildren, trying to teach them how to coordinate the push & pull process so that they too become masters of the skies. I have yet to find one of the modern baby swings where the adult and baby swing together, but I hope by the time my next grandchild arrives I will have tracked one down!

Meanwhile, in my own back garden, there is a patch of grass slightly more tired than the rest, just under our handy horizontal apple tree branch. It bears witness to the enthusiastic use of a plastic bucket swing seat from years gone by when my children and their friends would take it in turns to wear the bare patch ever deeper. The swing may have disappeared long ago, the branch certainly would not be trusted now, but the memories and marks remain if you know where to look.

And me? Two years ago I treated myself to a beautiful timber garden swing complete with wooden canopy and little shelves on the arms where I put my long cool drink! It's positioned facing south but sits in the dappled shade of the old apple tree and has become my favourite place in the garden and yes, the grandchildren love it too!

playing in the fields with a group of friends, camping at night, and just generally having a good time

I can remember making dens and jumping streams but my favourite was sinking in corn fields. The local farmer must have hated us. We put our coats over a patch of corn and jumped on top. The corn took our weight then gradually sank. Great fun. Early version of crop circles wink. ?

I had several skipping and dancing outdoors but if the weather was bad making 'potions' using talcum powder, soap, shampoo, bath cubes (the pre cursur to the bath bomb), mud and water then 'feeding' them to my dolls.

Playing in by the brook - we'd be gone for hours and only returned when we were hungry!

Playing in the fields and by the river near to our home. Sad when land was finally taken to build a new housing estate.

played in and around a shallow burn running outside our "but and ben" cottage where we paddled, netted minnows in
jam jars, made mud pies at the bank. The good old days.

Going to the seaside and building sandcastles. I've always loved the coast, probably because I'm a cancerian.

Playing football or rounders with all the other kids on our street. Jumpers for goalposts/bases. On really good days, it would be about thirty-a-side! Happy times!

Riding my bike with my friends. We would be out all day, exploring the countryside.

in the woods or on mountain. picking wild herbs, holly, elderflower/berries, winberries, blackberries, strawberries and taking home for nan/mam to bake tarts/wine/cordial. while there feeding carrots and fussing wild ponies. l
looking for and playing with insects/worms

I loved walking as a child and still do, I would walk forever along the beach with my grandad or parents.

We used to go on long walks looking at plants and birdwatching. I still do it occasionally but it is difficult without it car

Play Lawrence of Arabia with my friends, using head scarves and rubber bands on our heads to look like Arabs we loved the stories and loved playing being in the desert

Definitely skipping to Cowboy Joe from Mexico.

I loved playing in the lanes and fields around the house with friends that lived nearby. We could go off all day in our own, I am sure our mums were very pleased.

Pretending we were going shopping. We used to build our own shop, using stones as money and grass and other litter we would find as groceries. It was so much fun!

Jumping in between rubber joined together and stretched around chair legs.

Holidays on my uncle's farm with fields, trees, barns and (most of all) cousins to play with.

I loved playing hide and seek - living in the country there alway was great selection of places to hide safely

We would go on picnics. Whilst everyone else was eating sandwiches, our family was cooking up a Sunday roast on a calor gas stove. It included a desert of steamed pudding and custard. Hilarious

Making mud pies and potions in a den built out of twigs and logs. The great outdoors was so much fun to explore