whats your..

[badgerwatcher]

I used to love collecting the gorgeous orange and black stripy cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort, and the joy of the releasing the moths when they immerged. I suppose they are in decline as ragwort is bad for farm animals, which I don't think they knew about back then. I have some in my garden so I eagerly await the spring!
Also, catching HUGE grasshoppers, needed both hands. Were they bigger then, or just smaller hands? LOL
And keeping spiders'nests in jars, taking them into school, and being puzzled when all the other little girls ran around screaming when they all hatched out one day. No-one else saw how wonderful, small and golden they were! They tried to kill them all! It was then I realised I was from a different planet.

[kaitkaitkait]

The discovery at my Grandpa's beautiful garden of a Red Admiral(?) butterfly laying eggs on a nettle. I think I would have been about five.

Oh, and looking for beetles under rocks; I loved lifting the rock and watching them scurrying about going "Wha???"

And racing snails on an old bit of board with my sister. We'd steal lettuce or cabbage from the fridge and try to coax them with it laid on the "finish line". I can't remember whose snails won...possibly the race never ended in time for tea!

[odonata]

What a gorgeous bunch of people you are! All these tales of Slow Worms and cinnabar moth caterpillars have got my whole family reminiscing about childhood days in meadows, woodlands and streams - it's become a regular discussion at mealtimes. I wonder how many young people today are having the same experiences as us- what with health and safety, stranger danger and a general anxiousness to let children out of our sight hampering the freedom we perhaps took for granted?
I was in the middle of Telford yesterday, in a wooded park, running a play session with 5 and 6 year olds making dens. They all got SO muddy and had such a great time that it makes me want to do this every day! The sad thing was that even though a lot of the kids came dressed in woolly hats and wellingtons ready to get covered in mud, the teachers were shouting at the kids NOT to go in puddles, to wash hands in antiseptic and were worried that parents might complain if their youngsters came home coloured in various shades of dirt. (phew! long sentence there). My point is that maybe a publication on WAB childhood memories isn't such a mad idea? It might highlight the fact that we are rapidly becoming a nation of scaredy cats and stand to lose so much by not letting our kids splash in puddles?
How bout it?
Rant over. Thanks for listening.

[Rainbowmum]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Playing war in my friends back garden with all the other kids while all the parents were indoors yakking....

LOL, playing war outdoors was my favourite game as a child...I was a bit of a tomboy!
I had a crappy home-life so was never happier than when outdoors. At about 8 I picked up an RSPB kids magaine from school, joined, went on MANY outings with the (then) local YOC group and my love for birds and all things in nature grew from there.
I am still happiest when outside even if the weather is lousy

[cannylad]

Catching tadpoles and bringing them home in a jar, only to find that next day they had gone.

It was years later my mother confessed to getting rid of them as she was terrified of frogs.

[jonny.go.go]

At around 5 years old annoying the hell out of my parents while on my first Spanish beach holiday by refusing to play on the clean sand or mess about in the sea, I kept disappearing into scrubland trying to catch lizards, they reminded me of dinosaurs.

Come to think about it I havent changed much

Jonny

[kaitkaitkait]

Originally Posted by jonny.go.go

At around 5 years old annoying the hell out of my parents while on my first Spanish beach holiday by refusing to play on the clean sand or mess about in the sea, I kept disappearing into scrubland trying to catch lizards, they reminded me of dinosaurs.

Come to think about it I havent changed much

Jonny

Ahhh, I remember visiting my grandparents' house when they moved to the south of France and discovering that the old stone walls around the garden were FULL of lizards! I was seven, and had lived in a dirty old town most of my life. Imagine my glee! I used to sit there for hours watching them, waiting for them to come out, leaving little bits of food for them (had no idea what I put out there, probably weetabix knowing me at seven).

Kait

[jonny.go.go]

Nice memory Kait, hope you didnt top the weetabix with sugar, they prefer chopped banana

I eventually caught my first lizard a few years later ( possibly an eyed lizard ) it had the cheek to turn and bite me on the finger, it was all of 12" long. My dad came running after he heard me scream , I was only around 7

regards

Jonny

[kaitkaitkait]

Originally Posted by jonny.go.go

Nice memory Kait, hope you didnt top the weetabix with sugar, they prefer chopped banana

Aha! Now I know why they never seemed interested...

[smartie]

Why are lizards so attractive, I wonder? We have a little colony of Common Lizards in our garden, and there is always huge excitement when we see them out and about sunning themselves on the slate tops on the walls. They shelter among the crocks in the bottom of the tomato pots in the summer and we build lizard hotels where the tomatoes were growing for them to keep warm in the winter. Not seen so many this year, so I hope they are still with us.

[deelcee]

i can remember in the 1950's most young boys collected birds eggs
i remember hunting for nests and just taking one egg (conservation 1950's style)
putting the egg into a matchbox filled with cotton wool,when you got home you would stick a pin into each end and slowly blow out the contents
then proudly display the egg in an old shoebox filled with cotton wool !!!
i am not ashamed to admit it cos that's the way it was
but luckily most of us grew up and appreciated the natural world around us

"most people don't appreciate what they've got until they've lost it"