Gabby Logan's Blog by Gabby_Logan

We went to the country last weekend to visit friends who have been renovating a lovely house which has 10 acres of garden. The land around them is open fields so they have no neighbours and as far as you can see, they have fields and hills. And yet less than two miles away is a Sainsbury's, so it's pretty much ideal. We sat drinking tea and then eventually wine in the kitchen while the kids went off for adventures. They wore wellington boots all weekend and never asked to watch a film or television. They never looked clean, their hair was matted and they had the best time.

Of course they play at home and they go into our small London garden which at the moment has a climbing frame, two football goals, a tent, a skateboard and a punch bag in it all the time. But there was something different about the kind of play they had last weekend. It involved adventure, imagination and above all freedom. I am not harking back to a golden age because I was brought up in the city, so I never had a childhood filled with running through fields. But I can't help thinking those who do, have childhoods that must engender a very different outlook when they become adults. Also it must be very hard for a child brought up on a farm to carry excess weight, because there is so much to do outside. My husband was brought up on a farm but he was lucky because it was on the edge of a city so he had the best of both worlds.

Driving tractors at the age of 12, delivering baby calves and learning to live with nature, all make him the person he is. He spends hours on our garden, tending to the trees and making dead plants come back to life. I watch on in admiration, unsure what my city skills are, in terms of what I can bring to the party. Mind you, I do make a good Martini! He has promised both our children that one day we will live on a farm, Lois wants a cat and a horse and Reuben wants to learn how to drive a tractor. They talk about 'when' we live on a farm not 'if'. After last weekend I think I'd better start building up a collection of designer wellie boots, this could be happening sooner than I thought.