The timber paling fence down one side of Sarah’s back garden has the rails on her side rather than the neighbour’s which makes for perfect climbing conditions for Jaylen. At one end he can climb over into any of three other back gardens and Sarah can’t easily follow him. At the other he can climb onto the back verandah roof and then the main roof of the house next door. Since she is in a group of four terrace houses, he can go quite a distance without coming down.
Which he did a few days ago. A man three houses down came home to find Sarah knocking on his door and then looked up to see a small child, foot dangling over the edge of his verandah roof searching for a foothold. WOOOAAAH, is more-or-less what he said.
Sarah and I have been fixing bamboo screening along the inside of this fence to prevent climbing. We ran out of screening before we got quite to the end so there is still a section Jaylen can climb up. Then he’s happy to bend over the top of the bamboo slats so he can walk along the top fence rail and climb over wherever he wants. I’ve left it with Sarah to buy more screening. I don’t want to be everyone’s handy-man.
Jaylen just thinks it’s all fabulously hilarious.
Crikey!
My Feral Beast used to climb our paling fence and even pushed one section over (it was ancient) to run amok in the neighbour’s yard.Thankfully they were out that day!
We started visiting the climbing frames at the local park a LOT more often after that lol.
Crikey is right, Jayne. And climbing frames are another story. He invariably finds something dangerous to do in a children’s playground constructed to the strictest of safety standards, such as standing on the bar over the top of the top of a slide, i.e. the highest possible point with nothing to grab if you lose your balance. It’s hilarious, you see, because no one ever seems to get sick of the game of climbing up and getting you down.
Um….i suppose you can look at it that he’s making sure everyone gets an aerobic workout…?
Yes, we never forget to thank him for his contribution to our wellbeing. (Actually, that was said tongue-in-cheek, but in fact we never do. Forget. He brings us joy. Every day.)