I promised more positive blogging, so here goes. We have an overgrown little creek in the backyard. And in the six years I’ve lived in the house, today is the first day that local 7- to 9-year-olds are crawling around the banks, shouting, exploring, playing pirates, and getting delightfully muddy.
Moreover, I also discovered a place on the bank that would be the perfect reading spot. This is the land I own. I work from home. Yet it never occurred to me to explore.
I’m deeply happy for those kids even though I now have to explain to Klara what “hell” means (as in “what the hell.”)
Clarissa's Blog 
That’s great! There was a creek on a wooded lot near my childhood home. ALL the neighborhood kids used to play “jungle explorer” type games down there. Better than a playground. They’ve built on it now. Right on top of the creek (and not in a waterfall-house kind of way, either, they just filled it in!– every year, a new landscaping feature goes in to hide where the yard has slumped). I expect the whole house will slump one of these days. What were they thinking?
We live on about 2 acres of swamp, currently– when the neighbor kids come over to play it is hours of running, yelling, climbing, fort-building, and imaginary artillery. What surprised me the most, given a rowdy group of little boys, was hearing them find the occasional swamp critter… “Don’t hurt it! It might have babies somewhere!” Never would have guessed they were so tender-hearted.
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