I haven’t blogged much lately. I’m sorry. There’s no good reason, just the normal busyness, with a small smattering of bodily fluids. Nothing hugely bloggable though. Except maybe a long trip on the Central Line and a singalonga…but I’ll do that another day. So, this afternoon when I found myself in a delightful natural play area in Lloyd Park, I decided to share it with you.
Grow Wild is tucked away behind the Lloyd Park playground and every Friday it opens up to the under 5s of E17. And some others who have snuck over the postcode boundary. There’s natural water play, swings, slides…everything a small girl needs. And mud. They thoughtfully provide wellies for all those who, like me, didn’t really consider that. But I also should have packed a spare coat, hoodie and trousers for Eva too as all those got wet as well…I managed the trousers but she was a bit underdressed on the way home. Lucky it was a warm day. For February, anyway.
Here’s Eva and her BFF Bunny making soup with muddy water and sea creatures. They had a great time. They also enjoyed running up and down the giant walkways that ran overhead and led to a huge tube slide, made from a real tube. I wasn’t quite brave enough to try that but I did cross the wobbly bridge a few times, which by rights I should have been way too scared to do. However, I didn’t notice it was wobbly until I was standing on it – I just thought it was another walkway – so it was a little late. The wobbly bridge led Eva and TerrifiedMummy to the “treehouse” on the other side, which she and Bunny ran around once before heading back over the wobbly bridge. My legs were also wobbly by that point. Now all I needed was to meet a snake or some other kind of phobia-inducing creature.
Oh look, there’s a snake. Excuse me while I hyperventilate.
Height- and serpent-phobias aside, it was a lovely afternoon. Eva had so much fun climbing, playing and exploring that she was sad to leave but we had a hasty powerwalk home in order to get Roo from school. The walk took us under then over the North Circular and allowed us a rare glimpse of a bit of Britpop memorabilia while we wandered along the river in the sun. A perfect little spring afternoon out. Except for the tantrums. I’ve forgotten about those already. Grow Wild is on from 1:30 every Friday afternoon so we’ll be back again soon.
