HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY

Three years ago it had been snowing in London.  I know that because I mentioned it in my very first, rather short, post on Out2playinthegarden.  Well it has been a great three years.  Happy birthday Out2playinthegarden.

I have had so much pleasure in blogging about playing outside and gardening with my son and family.  The feedback and comments I have received have really helped me to follow the mantra ‘Growing gardens helps to grow your kids’.

Looking back over the 3 years the two most popular posts in terms of visitor numbers are Kids Garden Activities: Painting Pots, Bunches of Herbs and the Odd Decorated Pebble and How Green is my Garden?

Painting pots and pebbles are timeless and ageless activities.  The post covered how to make those lovely creations found in the photo collage above. You can never have too many of them and you and the children, whatever their ages, will always have fun designing and creating them.  Recently I have come across chalk-based paint which I have used to repaint some bedroom furniture.  I think it may also have great potential outdoors so I am looking forward with experimenting with some outdoor painting this spring.

 

 

 

 

The green leaf game featured in How Green is my Garden is so simple and easy.  I now have a collection of numerous colour charts covering the whole rainbow and we often take one out on a walk so we can do a quick colour and shade treasure hunt.



 

 

 

Last year an outing to a local bluebell wood proved to be a popular post.  It was a day my son spent with his cousins.  The weather was just beginning to warm up – so much so the children had their coats off for part of the walk.  It was a day for outdoor activity and very happy family memories in which the bluebell wood provided the most perfect natural setting.

 

 

A night time visit to an enchanted woodland at Syon Park in Isleworth was the 2012 post that received the most visitors.  Darkness, light, reflection, shadow and shape all do give a garden very different perspective and this garden really did provide some very different experiences.  It made me realise that perhaps there is potential for some small night time changes in my own garden.  We also tuck ourselves away on early winter evenings when perhaps a walk or stroll to a local park or river (if safe) would help us to keep in touch with our local environment.

So I raise my glass to the next 3 years.  Here’s to keep playing with my friends and family in the garden and the great outdoors.

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.--

George Bernard Shaw