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)

Alfred the frog looks almost as scary as the pumpkin he is perched on at London Zoo 26 October 2011. Keepers at the zoo have joined in the Halloween tradition by supplying pumpkin lunches to some of their animals, including the giant waxy monkey frog. However Alfred is not quite the giant figure his species name suggests – he actually measures up at around 4 inches (10 centimeters). (Photo by EPA/Zoological Society of London)

A British space-exploration company has revealed its aim to fly the public to the moon from 2015 – providing they have £100m for a ticket.

Photo: Jenn Sander from Red Robin PR, wearing a spacesuit once worn by US Astronaut Peggy Whitson, sits inside a re-entry capsule owned by Excalibur Almaz outside the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on June 19, 2012 in London, England. The company today announced their plan to fly people to the moon on what is the 40th anniversary year of the Apollo 17 moon landing. (Photo by Rosie Hallam)

A duck salesman parades his stock to commuters at a busy station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 23, 2018. (Photo by Nazmul Hasan Khan/Caters News Agency)

A child covered in mud on Lake Chokrak near the village of Kurortnoye, Leninsky District of Crimea in Russia on July 4, 2019. (Photo by Sergei Malgavko/TASS)

The colourful process of salt harvesting is captured at the Hon Khoi Salt Fields in Nha Trang, Vietnam in December 2022. (Photo by Hilton Chen/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Two men cross the street in front of a burned-out bus standing beneath a residential building, in the district Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, January 3, 2023. People across Germany on Saturday resumed their tradition of setting off large numbers of fireworks in public places to see in the new year. The bus was set on fire during the New Year's celebrations. (Photo by Markus Schreiber/AP Photo)

Women offer prayers on Valentines Day at the Trimurti Shrine, which is believed to bring love, in Bangkok on February 14, 2023. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)