Looking in your eyes; I see a paradise...

When I was little, this was my kingdom.

That tree was planted as a twig when i was little more than 2 or 3, I remember it growing, and getting bigger. I remember the day I came home, and leap frogged it, dragging my leg through it's soft branches and leaves, and screaming as I realised my legs was alive with ants.

I remember playing "tennis" for hours against that space of wall between the bottom of the steps and the edge of the house. My mother must have been driven all but insane.

Daw-daw's steps up to their house seemed huge, and quite a clamber for my little legs. I think today, I would be more worried about falling over the wall - that seemed an impossibility when I was little - I could barely see over the wall.

We had hedge all round the garden in those days, which provided great cover for games on the grass. Daw-Daws grass was on the left where the car sits - and there was a little corner surrounded on four leaves by thick hedge which doubled as house walls.

K and I spoke yesterday about how once your could drop by a house you once lived and say "I used to live here, can I have a wee look round". Today, I felt guilty parked outside what used to be the "whole of my world" and grabbing a sneaky pic.

But just sitting there I could remember the days when there were only four or five cars parked on the side of the road the length of the street; I remember all the people, long gone who lived in the houses, and I remember the sheer joy of growing up somewhere safe, where everyone kept an eye on you.

I hope my kids look at our house in the same way.