Some more about things kids play with.

 In my great reminiscence yesterday about playground games, I omitted “cat’s cradle”, a game for two or more people, played with a loop of string. My older sister was an expert player. Here is a link to instructions on how to play. 

According to Wikipedia the game has been around for centuries:

“the first known reference is in The light of nature pursued by Abraham Tucker in 1768.

"An ingenious play they call cat's cradle; one ties the two ends of a packthread together, and then winds it about his fingers, another with both hands takes it off perhaps in the shape of a gridiron, the first takes it from him again in another form, and so on alternately changing the packthread into a multitude of figures whose names I forget, it being so many years since I played at it myself.”

The name may have come from a corruption of cratch-cradle, or manger cradles (although this derivation is disputed by the OED). The connection between the two words, cratchesand cradle, may come from the Christian story of the birth of Jesus, in which a manger is used as a cradle.

In an 1858 Punch cartoon it is referred to as "scratch cradle", a name supported by Brewer’s 1898 Dictionary. As "Cat's cradle" often is used to refer to string figures and games in general, Jayne uses "Real Cat's-Cradle" to refer to the specific game.

Different cultures have different names for the game, and often different names for the individual figures. The French word for manger is crèche, and cattle feed racks are still known as cratches. In Japan it is called “ayatori.” In Russia the whole game is called simply, the game of string, and the diamonds pattern is called carpet, with other pattern names such as field, fish, and sawhorse for the other figures—a cat isn't mentioned.? The game may have originated in China. In China he game is called 翻繩 fan sheng (English: turning rope). In Israel the game is called "Knitting Grandmother" (in Hebrew "סבתא סורגת", Savta Soreget). In some regions of the U.S. this game also is known as Jack in the Pulpit.”

Goodness! Who knew a piece of string could lead to so much information?

In our children’s childhood, there was a similar thing with a rope of elastic band round ankles, probably banned now on health and safety grounds - like conkers! 

Here’s a link to that game, this time played with a length of actual elastic, which looks rather more dangerous than using elastic bands, which snap quite easily, after all.

And in more recent years there have been “loom bands”, originally intended as a craft activity for making bracelets and the like but sometimes used to make record-breaking loom bands to surround buildings! Crazy stuff!

That’s enough of that!

Today we have walked to Uppermill under heavy skies but the rain has kept off so far. Wet and windy weather is forecast for the rest of the weekend. We shall see.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!