Veronika Wild

I was outraged a few months ago when I saw what had happened to a favourite place in the neighbourhood, but I'm pleased to see that something - not sure exactly what, has now been planted there. It's a pity that it is going to take so long before it regains  a little bit of  the magic and mystery that it had before. How it looked before How it looked last ye ar Starting to heal up and hair over - Thank Goodness! And while I think of it, on the subject of the appalling state of our roads, if a fraction of the cost of constantly  enlarging and improving those elaborate interchanges around Launceston, were spent on our rural roads, the whole state would benefit, including Launceston. They remind me of Luxembourg, where an excess of wealth has spawned massive freeways which stop at the border and totally obscure its intrinsic charm. The same goes for Kingston with its circus of roundabouts which no one wants to visit. With the money saved by the council...

I was strangely pleased to see this  You don't see it much any more. A gaggle of children just playing outside together and amusing themselves with very little in the way of equipment or supervision. If you told them they had to climb up that hill forty times to enjoy the brief thrill of sliding and tumbling down, they would never do it. My daughter and her little friends just loved it when they were little and I confess to having enjoyed it too.  There just aren't too many opportunities these days, especially in an urban environment. Just before Christmas, when my friend and I were looking at toys, I was saying how I didn't like things that were 'too finished' and preferred more open - ended things, which stimulated children to think of things themselves. I told him that one of the best and cheapest presents my sons had, was a piece of rope with which they could swing down from their cubbies, tie pirates to the mast, tow things etc.etc. "Yes," said my...