Fun in the park

... or, you don't need to go far from home to enjoy yourself!

We spent much of today in Lloyd Park, Walthamstow.  The Friends of the park - or some similar body, not sure who - had organised a nature day.  The pond in the park is in the form of a moat going round an artificial island in the middle, and most of the activities were on the island.  There was grass-beating, and you could see what insects and seeds you collected; tree shaking, ditto, and, above all, pond dipping.  The Boy caught several bloodworms and Boy Too caught a water-boatman in their various nets.  This was great fun, and would have been even more fun had the amount of pollen in the air not set my hay fever off big time!  And I had taken loretidine the previous evening, too, but I was streaming from every facial orifice and just longing to go home! 

However, this was not to happen for some time; there was a nature trail, which suggested various activities like listening to see what you could hear (mostly traffic on the North Circular, it has to be said, but there was also a blackbird); identifying trees; seeing if you could jump as far as a squirrel between two trees (this was a rope laid on the ground), etc.  The Boy and his Granda particularly enjoyed trying to identify the trees, but Granda said every tree he couldn't recognise was a beech tree,

which really didn't help.  To the point where I very nearly sent a picture message to my father to ask what the wretched trees were, which I would have done were he not on a cruise!  Great-Ba, you see, "knows everything about trees" (according to The Boy, anyway).  The best thing was that the Boy can now read the instructions for himself, and didn't need anybody to explain them to him. 

After this, we repaired to the park café for a not very nice lunch, although both boys did more than justice to their sandwiches.  Then we decided to set off home as the children had made ice-cream the previous day and were longing to try it.  However, there was a small funfair in the park, and it was just opening and the boys begged to be allowed to visit.  We said they could have one ride each, and they chose - well, the Boy chose, and his brother tagged along - the "Space Train".

They were the only children on it, and the very kind man who ran the attractions let them have a ride that was far longer than normal, so they definitely got their money's worth.  I was a little anxious about letting Boy Two on the ride - he won't be three until September and isn't very good at following instructions yet - but in the event, he behaved simply beautifully. 

And so we went home, with the Boy riding his bike and Boy Too on his scooter while we were in the park and in his pushchair - where he fell asleep and missed out on the ice cream - on the road.