Mazes, trampolines and play

click photo to enlarge
A few years ago I was using Google Maps to look at a city that I know quite well when I became aware that many of the back gardens in suburban neighbourhoods featured large blue circles of varying sizes. It took me a moment to realise that they were outdoor trampolines. The number of these pieces of play equipment staggered me, and I looked at a few other towns and cities to see whether this was a local or a national phenomenon. Sure enough, wherever I looked, there they were. It seemed to me a testament to the pester-power of children that so many parents had bought one of these trampolines, particularly since they are known to be a prime cause of broken bones, but more especially because they are also recognised to be something that children quickly tire of. Perhaps they are bought by parents who envisage the exercise they induce being an antidote to the increasing childhood obesity!

However, the sight of so many of these trampolines caused me to reflect further on the deeper reasons why parents fill their gardens with swings, play houses, wooden towers, slides, etc. Clearly it's most obviously a physical expression of affection. It's also, unfortunately, partly due to the guilty feelings they have for not giving enough time to their children due to the long hours they work. There's clearly, too, an element of "keeping up with the Joneses", or at least the Jones's children. Then there's the fear of letting children play unsupervised in the street, the immediate neighbourhood or the local park. I've long been concerned about the retreat from public spaces, and the valuing of private property over that owned by the community.

Two thoughts follow from my reflection on garden play equipment. Firstly, children get much more play value and satisfaction from a pile of wooden beams and flat panels than they do from any ready-made equipment supplied by a manufacturer. A home-made kit of this sort, with a few pieces of rope and large nuts and bolts can be made into whatever the child can imagine. And secondly, using the public park rather than the small, inferior one that parents provide offers more than simply exercise: it gives the child social interaction and responsibilty. It also gives them the chance to experience a maze of the sort shown in today's photograph. Of itself this hasn't a great deal of play value. But, there are other pieces of equipment nearby to sample too. And there are other parks elsewhere to try. Much more fun, I think, than being cooped up in the back garden with a circular blue trampoline.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen


Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.2
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Playing in the great outdoors

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According to a recent survey by the National Trust 38% of Britain's children spend less than one hour outside each day, and about a quarter spend more than 14 hours a week in front of a television or a computer screen. In the same survey the favourite memory for the vast majority of parents involved playing outside.

My favourite memory of childhood would also be of playing outside, in my case on the limestone uplands of the Yorkshire Dales: exploring caves, streams and rivers and woods, catching fish, watching wildlife, taking home leaves and flowers to identify. When I was young most children were allowed to roam the area in and around the market town where I lived. It wasn't unusual for a group of us to come across another band of children playing in the fields or on the hills, perhaps making dens out of the scree at the bottom of a cliff. During my walks in that same area today I never see children, either accompanied or unaccompanied. In fact, I don't often see people below the age of forty taking their leisure in the countryside, so perhaps this particular rot set it many years ago!

One of the pleasures of growing up is discovering the beauty that is all around us; the plant and animal life, and the history, that is freely available to us all, almost regardless of where we live. We are so much the poorer if our main experience of the world is mediated through television or computers. Direct experience, looking closely at our surroundings, finding out things for ourselves, experiencing the freedom to wander, is crucial to the rounded development of children, and provides them with enjoyment and healthy activity at very little cost. The safety concerns of parents and society, that lead to children being restricted, are greatly overstated and need to be toned down otherwise today's children, when they are adults, will be citing their favourite memory of childhood as reaching Level X of Computer Game Y!

As I was photographing this track that cuts through a wheatfield on the gently rolling hills near the village of Folkingham, Lincolnshire, I wondered where it went to, and what was at the end of it. As a child I'd have followed it to find out. I'd like to think there are still some village children who are doing that sort of thing today. What appealed to me about this shot was the mutiple lines of the track, the way its arc was almost followed by the line of the clouds, and how the area of blue above nicely echoed the area of dark grass below.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/640 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On