In Praise of Parks

"A park is" says that font of all knowledge (apocryphal or otherwise) Wikipedia, "an area of open space provided for recreational use."

Roundhay Park is one of the biggest city parks in Europe with over 700 acres of open space, lakes, woodlands and gardens. It's recreational uses are many and varied, from concert venue to fairground to sports arena to pursuits it's best not to mention*

The Man grew up near the park so if we find ourselves on the north east edge of his home town of Leeds with time to spare we invariably find ourselves there. Today due to a confusion of dates, times, dentists and appointments combined with the highly dubious practice of clinging on to the family dentist regardless of location *rolls eyes* was just such a day

A major attraction for children in a park is of course a playground. This one (above) sits at the top of the hill from a car park and we were still unbuckling our seatbelts while the children were belting up the hill to get there ..

The Tween reached the playground and instantly, utterly and totally regressed. Her shrieks were of joy and not of the door-slamming, foot-stomping variety that we have become so unwillingly used to in recent months.

She even forgot her current incarnation of lip-curling, huffing-puffing pre-teen-with-a-grudge-against-the-world long enough for her to remember that she can climb a tree

Spot The Tween. 

But children can't be enjoying themselves ALL the time, not when they were supposed to be at the dentist. After twenty minutes of shrieking, happy or not, it was time to get on so we walked back to the car the long way. The long, long way.

 And we saw ...

 .. some ducks. A swan...

And a squirrel. Cue more shrieking and one probably deaf squirrel..

Yeah, I'm sorry about that *cough* but you know SQUIRREL!

We also found what looked like a bandstand

..with an odd seating arrangement. For the band who doesn't like being watched obviously.

Then we crossed over the road to the formal gardens, the long, long, LONG way back to the car.

And we saw some more ducks** building a nest. Which was nice, even if we were slightly puzzled by what they were building it in. Er...

And then it was time to go home

Though not everyone was happy about it

And now we're going to get our dental appointments wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME.

*Happy (if slightly stained) smile*

*Cricket

** Unidentified aquatic birds.