Just going for a walk
When my children were small we generally had a daily walk. In sunny Grahamstown and then Joburg we usually had lovely weather to walk in. And lots of time to visit remembered cats, plants, interesting cracks in the pavement, termites in the trees, butterflies to watch, fallen bird’s nests to pick up, stones and bits of quartz to make mom or dad carry for you, dead birds to look at carefully, making the seeds from the ‘flying seed tree’ fly, walking through the ‘slishy sloshy’ (ivy covered pavements), putting our hands in a hand someone made in the concrete years ago...the list goes on.
Even more fun was when it rained a lot and there were lovely puddles (we live at the bottom of a hill and next to a golf course and on one side of the road where there are no houses once can find really big muddy puddles). Wellies, raincoats on and out we went. And no puddle was left to itself...then at the front door everything comes off and the kids would tumble into a warm bath.
Mothering infants and toddlers is hard work on your own and sometimes especially when we moved cities I was alone with my kids a lot. Walks changed that. We met people in playgrounds, our bodies got moving and our spirits lifted. A picnic becomes a magical happening, even getting an ice lolly can feel special and exciting to a small person.
So I think that no ‘human settlement’ can be without pleasant streets to walk in and nearby parks to visit.
That is why in Spring we hope to create a park in Slovoville with the Slovoville upliftment Project and Emerald Risk Transfer.
The children at present have to play in dusty streets (not without it’s fun factor) but it would be so much better for them to be able to play in a safe space out of the way of cars. Also some of the mud is sewage laden and one worries what they can pick up from it...
So if you are cutting back plants or pulling out plants please let us have them! Especially water wise and indigenous ones...