A juvenile blackcap is recorded in the soft light of morning at Minorca, UK, a former open-cast mine near Moira in the National Forest on June 18, 2025. Dr Heather Gilbert, research and evidence manager, checks mist nets among wildflowers and young trees as part of long-term monitoring that shows bird numbers have increased by 48 per cent over 30 years. (Photo by Rod Kirkpatrick/RKP Photography)

A woman reacts with Samoyed puppies as she performs yoga on International Yoga Day, in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 21, 2025. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

The British alternative rock duo Nova Twins perform on day three of the 2024 Shaky Knees music festival in Atlanta, US on May 5, 2024. (Photo by John D. Shearer/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A milkman crosses through floodwater at Chak Ali Sher village in Wazirabad district on August 28, 2025, after government issued a flood alert for riverside areas of Punjab province. Water has gushed into the eastern province, Pakistan's breadbasket and home to about half of its 255 million people, with three transboundary rivers swelling beyond their banks. The latest monsoon downpour has killed at least 13 people, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP Photo)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Newlyweds take wedding photos hanging from bridge, Yueyang, Hunan province, China on August 9, 2016. They held such a special wedding ceremony on China's Qixi Festival. (Photo by Top Photo Corporation/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Models promote a condom brand at the first Shenzhen s*x Culture Festival on September 21, 2007 in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, China. The festival aims to increase awareness about reproductive health and popularise s*x education. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Rickshaw drivers wade through a flooded road after heavy rains swept through Guwahati, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, on June 26, 2014. Seven people have been killed there in flash floods, landslides and heavy rainfall, local media reported Friday. (Photo by Utpal Baruah/Reuters)