Tag: game

#365daysofbiking – Chalk mark before a rainstorm

April 26th – With the sudden burst of lockdown shaming, finger wagging and the boom of the morally prurient social media shamers, it’s really easy to miss small little things at this time that are actually encouraging acts of community between, mainly it has to be said, children.

Painted rainbows and teddies in windows, garden displays and other curiosities created during long, isolated lockdown days are treats and ways of communicating the shared confinement without breaking the rules, and they put a huge smile on the faces of kids out for their daily exercise, parents and me, too.

There’s been a really fun trend to revive chalked games on pavements and paths for other kids to find and participate in. More than just the old fashioned hopscotch (although most incorporate it, almost as a tribute), these courses are linear with a start and end, incorporating line following, instructions to hop or jump or do some movement, reciting games, spins, pebble target throws and races.

They are a shared happiness, but shared from a distance – the separation being time. They are an utterly joyous thing and this one, on the Spot Path over Clayhanger Common, was a brilliant one.

Sadly I think it’ll probably be erased by the oncoming rains, but I hope that won’t deter the creation of a replacement.

Well done to the creators of these, and my best wishes. Life will be normal soon and we’ll all look back on these days, and smile when we think of how we all loved the chalked games…

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2xa44bx
via IFTTT

November 27th – A snatched, quick photo taken just after dawn in Jockey Meadows, between Shelfield and Walsall Wood. A pair of grey partridges, fluffed up in the cold, and sheltering from the wind in a tracker tire-rut.

It’s been years since I noticed partridges up here. Good to see them on a Monday morning.

January 7th – Out and about today on various errands, I spotted a rather muddy rugby match going on at the club in Chasetown, just on the edge of Chasewater. I’ve never been much of a sport spectator, and know little about rugby, but looking at the assembled crowd, the mud, the barked instructions and the seriousness, I could tell this was important.

I have no idea who was playing, or who was winning: but to be out there in that mud, chasing a ball and getting pulled around bodily by strangers, I developed an instant admiration for these guys.

There seemed to be a spirit here one doesn’t see much in football; a willingness to get stuck in at whatever cost. It’s quite impressive.

I watched for five minutes, but had to be home. I must return though, as like village cricket on a sunny summer afternoon, there was a magic to it I’d love to explore further.