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There’s a playground near where I live which is always completely deserted at ten o’clock on a Sunday morning. Since I have a sleep-phobic toddler, I’ve often been up for four hours by then, so we’re able to take full advantage of this private space.

This weekend, we arrived at the sandpit in perfect conditions - it had rained overnight, and the sand was damp and firm. We started off with a few bog-standard sandcastles, then we began to decorate them with feathers, leaves, seeds and old can tops we found lying about. Soon we were tracing letters in the sand, and then we made a few faces.

It was only later that it really struck me: we’d had an enormous canvas. Whether you fancy trying your hand at sculpture or just line-drawing with a stick, sand is a great medium. It’s free, you can erase your mistakes, and your child can join in the fun too (just expect a certain amount of destruction as well as construction).

And if you don’t have a child at hand, my advice is, as always, that you don’t need one. This works just as well at the beach. And, as I’ve noted above, there are hours in the day when even playgrounds are deserted.

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