A Sunday afternoon in the park

Sharon was away once more, doing a show, so after dropping Finn off at a birthday party at Time Twisters.I took the remainder to the park in Corstorphone village. It was a proto-spring day, the sort that has you imagining the buds will soon be on the trees and there will be a bit of warmth in the sun. We took a variety of balls: a heavy football, a light football and a small basketball. Balls seem to have been accumulating in the house over the winter. Perhaps the boys will take to playing with them rather than focusing on the DSi, the Wii, the laptop or computer and anything else which can provide them with some form of electronic game entertainment, such as mobile phones, Sharon's iPhone or even the iPod.

Having got them outside they had a great time kicking the balls down a slope at me and having me kick them back at them, effectively playing football dodge the ball. Angus inadvertantly wandered into the line of fire on one occasion. It takes more than a ball in the mush to stop our sturdy boy however. Rowan was next to be felled by a blow from the heavy ball that skipped up and hit him full in the face. Despite his initial wailings he too recovered quickly, mainly because he decided, mid-howl, that he needed a wee. I had a great time kicking the ball about with them (fortunately Sean wasn't hit, else we would likely have had to retire home) and it really took me back 35 years to Sunday afternoons playing football "up the park" at the top of Raasay Drive, the ground soft but not muddy, diving about in games filled with boyish emotions and occasional flashes of skill and wandering back down for tea as it started to get dark, dirty and full of fresh air.

Our lads do live in a technological age but Sharon and I do our best to get them out in the air. They enjoy it once they are out, but getting them over the threshold can be a devil of a job. To witness Angus running about the playpark and climbing a nine-foot high slide on his own, in short sleeves, in February, and having Rowan remonstrating with me because he was so involved in one of his imaginary games (usually based on Lego Batman or Battles or some other DS game) and didn't want to leave to pick up Finn, shows that they can have great fun that isn't dependent on staring intently at a games screen.