I have just been to our bedroom, which overlooks our neighbours section.Out there are the neighbours two children and one of their friends. They are currently digging a cave into the side of the hill, using the excavated materials to form an outside wall. The whole process is methodical and engineered, albeit in a kids manner.
Probably about 40 years ago I moved house, to a new council estate in Blantyre. The council kindly built a few play resources nearby, a couple of climbing frames, one like a witches hat, one like an igloo, one we called a rainbow (it was an arch), the last we called the spider, even though it wasn't.. At the far side of this playground was a grass embankment and at the top the cemetery wall. We dug our own little den like the neighbours kids; it was out football stand, it got so deep we could stand up in it. We kept digging, until eventually we hit that cemetery wall - rather than go through it underground we started digging through at ground level, until we had a hole in that wall; that hole got bigger and became a new entry gate - all structurally unsound. Eventually the council spotted our work and blocked the hole and filled in our den. The last time I was there you could see the different mortar on the wall and an uneven patch on the grass where our excavations took place, reminders of our engineering.
It is pleasing to note kids will be kids, that a shovel or a spade can be great toys and that adventure and imagination still exists in children!
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