Monday 18 February 2013

Out and about

We've had two weekends with some out-and-about, indicating the start of occasional spring-like weather. and a desire to start Marisca walking so we can do some mini-hiking again.  We're thinking about how to get Marisca interested in walking so that I don't have to carry her around in the backpack for the rest of her life. And we're starting off looking for parks with a good reason to walk a fair distance (perhaps a mile or two), and next we'll be looking for teeny tiny summits to get to.

We started a couple of weeks ago at St Ives Estate, up the hill a bit out of Bingley.  It has a playground and a lake to walk around.  We had lots of fun in the playground, including the musical trail.  Bedford types may recognise the bells in the action shots below.




My (and Marisca's) favourite bit of the park was the swings.  They had really, really long chains on them, the longest I've seen (perhaps 3 metres?  maybe?).  And so the swinging was big and a bit crazy.


Unfortauntely, Marisca had such a lovely time in the playground that she was too tired out to consider walking around the lake, so we didn't.

However, this weekend just gone we went over to Lotherton Hall, primarily because we expected some half term activities which didn't transpire to be taking place, but we had a good time nonetheless.  There's more than one playground, a house to look around, a bird zoo of some kind, and a cafe and ice cream truck.  And Marisca walked around almost all of it herself, playing running and chasing and jumping.  Probably a couple of miles: we were very proud of her.


At the end of the day we always have a little run through of the day's events, as well as what's happening tomorrow.  Marisca loves this bit of the bedtime routine.  On Saturday she told us about the picnic, the flamingos (from pink to blue), the playground, and the ice cream.  It was nice to be able to have a picnic, one of the first springy days this year.  Marisca impressed me by polishing off the meat (biltong).  


And here she is with the flamingos.  She liked those, and most of the parrot type things and small exotic birds, but not the bigger cranes and rheas.  Too noisy, and bigger than Marisca.


Oh, yes, Tom was there too.  Mostly enslung, but he woke up for cake...


...and to cast a covetous eye over Marisca's ice cream...


...but of course Marisca managed it all by herself.  What a champ.



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