As children our generations born in the 30s,40s,50s and 60s I think were very much more in tune with nature, we had nothing to entice or keep us at home , the spirit of adventure discovery and the thought of finding something new was strong within us , we didn't have to deal with urbanisation on such a scale that todays children have to , country walks were aplenty , it expanded not only our minds but our social circle also. We did everything toay they ell you not to , like the song says" only the strong survive"
Excuse me I have tended to stray off what simple task I wanted to do which is today a dragon fly decided to grace me with its presence in my garden and changed my whole day , I did take a picture but the quality is poor but I was always fascinated by nature and the sheer abundance of it swans frogs and frog spawn yuk !lol,hedgehogs different birds foxes occasionally badgers ( when we were camping)the shoals of fish in the local rivers, newts dragon flies snakes and the insects ( to many to mention) especially earwigs which we were told sought our ears out ( urban legen) all told I'm assuming todays children dont get to see in all its variety which I find sad but hard is a picture of said visitor who has no idea of the joy it brought.
As always breath easy
Dave
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soulboy118
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I remember all the beautiful butterflies in the garden when I was growing up. It was a great pleasure to see them. I’ve seen dragon flies and look out for ladybirds which are few and far between these days.
My parents used yo have pubs so sometimes we didnt have a garden. But i do remember 1976 it was a very very hot summer mass of ladybirds but no aphids left and everywhere was covered in lady birds all you could see was a sea of lady birds and they didnt half nip you if they got on to bare skin they were trying to eat us as no aphids were left they were that hungry. We just moved to scarborough in the march come june/ july there were those vicious nasty lady birds.
It's very true children today would much rather play on computer games. I love the photo it's beautiful thank you for sharing. Have a lovely day and take care 😊 Bernadette and Jack 🐕 xxxxxx 🌻🌻
Never a true word spoken so well. Children today all they understand is computer's games consoles. No camps to build in hedgerows or trees no sounds of nature . I'm in Greece with so much nature around me , butterflies in beautiful colours moths crickets dragon flies chica bugs that make it sound like you are in the jungle. Red tail kytes flying of the mountain across from me . If you transported all this to the UK kids wouldn't know where to start they would shut themselves away playing Minecraft or whatever game is fashionable or FB each other . Long gone are the days of childhood and nature. 👍🏼
Your best bet is to book appointment to see the benefit advisor at Cab they will sort everyhing out for you.Pips is seperate to any other benefit different department se the benefit advisor at cab she can tell you what you can get they will even fill in yhe forms for you as well.
Dont know about universal credit as i was already getting esa before universal credit came out. At first i was put on contribution based and i went to see benefit advisor at cab and got me more money so i ended up on income related esa.
My dla was low care high mobility now on pips
I get standard care and enhanced mobility which ended up being more than dla not only dwp sent me a form for severe disability premium i wasnt going to claim it but the cab benefit advisor told me to claim it you wont loss anything so i did claim it and got awardded it on top of my esa.
Softy as i am i was out just for a small walk when i noticed a bumble bee on the path not wanting to be stamped on got a piece of tissue out folded in half got the bumble bee to crawl on it saying not goint to hurt you i just want to get you some where save and i put the tissue in the wall and it walk off along the wall until it can fly again.Not only talk to bumble bees i talk to birds as well only when no ones about whenn yhe birds are singing their lovely song and i do tell them its a lovely song the even sing even louder bless them.
I have blackbirds and robins that are pretty tame , the blackbirds come in the morning and make a racket until I go out with their breakfast !! Either the male or female will come ( never both) and then when the dish is on the table the other one joins them 😃. At the moment I also have a juvenile robin who , wherever Im in the garden ,stands within a couple of feet of me until I give him a few mealworms, yesterday I was relaxing in my deck chair in my retreat , he must have got impatient because he hopped inside , came right up to the chair and stood looking at me - obviously not impressed that I was chilling when I should’ve been getting his treat !! 🤦🏻♀️😂.
We have a little hedgehog 🦔 hotel in our garden and I have been spying at night time! It’s been very cute and I think he’s down to £2 a night for his stay! He has full board service including drinks and meals and usually makes the most of the facilities! 🦔
Love the picture! I must say that I was born at the beginning of the 80s so somewhat later than you suggest in your post. I can reassure you that my summers were spent building forts with hay bails and having epic mud clog fights. When we had tired of throwing mud clogs we would play cow pat frisbee. Or cow pat splat.....I will leave that to you imagination. And I shall never forget the look of forced overjoyment on my mother's face when we used to come home with buckets of frogspawn. My mother had hoped for a girly girl. Poor Mum, I was such a Tomboy!
Sadly I haven't been blessed with children but I do have younger cousins and a few Godchildren. I have most definitely ensured that there is no screen time and have actively encouraged nature adventures. There is still some hope 🤞.
Our four year old grandson loves playing in mud!He also goes to a Forest Nursery School which give them loads of outdoor play and activities. Plenty of engagement with nature.
I spent so much time outdoors as a child. It was just nicer than being in the house. 🙂 I think you are very fortunate. In Japan the Tombo (dragonfly) is believed to be the spirit of the rice plant. Thank you for your refreshing post. xx 🌾
My mum was happy for me to be out all day, just returning home for meals. We lived in a new house on the edge of a town. There was a farm and fields behind our garden. We helped the farmer stack up bales - this would now be a health and safety issue! With my own children, I didn’t even dare to let them go to the park on their own!
My mum couldn't wait to get us lads out of the house , we always had plans to explore invade and conquer any hill path or stream we would come across ( fence or not ) lol
So true -out in the morning back late morning with squelchy plimsolls having explored the local mud flats ,muddy sunburnt ,hungry ready for a sandwich ,more adventures in the afternoon and a scolding at the state of our clothes(explorers who try to dig to Australia are bound to get filthy)....
And the summer holidays always had great weather didn't they?
Mum wouldn't let us in the house at times we were so dirty and smelly until we stripped off at the back door and straight in the bath , sometimes we had to wash the dog first as he got filthy as well .
I agree I was brought up at the coast with a quarry near by. We would go out it the morning and return when hungry. Talking to my adult children about the difference between mine and there childhood bears no comparison to m y grandchildren's my youngest son said looking back they were almost feral which sounds bad but they loved there child hood free to roam. How the world has changed. Take care. Mags
And the seasons. Going to a country school it was always a race to see who could find the first flowers for the nature table. We learned the flowers, trees, birds and animals by seeing them, not by googling them.
Typical boy with the frogs. Saying that I would catch them when I was a little girl. I remember once I caught a newt. Oh and I used to line up snails to race. Great fun. Give me a snail now yeuk. 🤣
Wonderful days Dave. I was the youngest of four born in 1952 so remember our exploring days out very well. Like everybody says out after breakfast and home when hunger drove you back which was always teatime. The kids now hardly every leave their bedroom which is very sad. The trouble is its so unsafe now I dont think I would be happy if i had a youngster to let them wander like we did x
exactly out in large group of all ages and off to local wilderness to play . we also had a quarry , highly dangerous used to slide down the banks of sand . Had fires and cooked dough wrapped around sticks . How did our mums let us take out raw dough to play with / I also played at doctors and nurses in a tent in the garden and I was the pharmacist cooking up concoctions on the gas cooker . wonder I didnt poison somebody. It was my childhood aim to be a pharmacist but ended up in the microbiology lab instead ! (well part way there ). lots of trees and nature were always there from morning to night and we were lucky weren't we ?. no cars just bikes and buses. and do you remember it raining ever . I don't .
Strange now you say it, but I dont ever remember it raining ha! or maybe we were having so much fun we didnt see it. I can honestly say I loved my days wandering. I was the youngest of four and we all had friends so it was a big gang and think there was safety in numbers x
Always outside as a kid with my brother & friends in the garden, woods or park. Climbing trees, rolling down hills, paddling in streams & a few things that my mother didn't need to know 😅! Always in touch with the local wildlife literally. I can't remember the last time I saw a ladybird either! The best times 🙂
My summer days were spent in the fields and woods- avoiding cow pats but making dens. We also went on bike rides along the lanes Thanks for the photo x
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Rota power cuts circa 1979
update: tomorrow I’m at the hospital for suspected head & neck cancer
After years of being careful... 
Fit to Fly certificate /test 
