Was a walk in the park!

[LovelyLadyLux]

Not sure if I've ever mentioned but this small city that I live in is very dependent on tourism for income. To that end the City has made its claim to fame via having more parks than any other city in all Canada.

Granted our parks are not necessarily groomed, coiffed and planted with sculptures and many (like the park behind me now) are classed as ECO with stern warnings to leave them in their totally natural state ..... well except we (the City) really really REALLY want you to cut down all the blackberry brambles cause there is no possibly way we can combat them and keep up and BTW you're not allowed to use any herbicides (systemic or otherwise) on this totally noxious weed........BUT I digress!

This morning me and the crew went out for a morning of fun and activity. Truth be told it was primarily to burn off energy as "I" am not self destructive when I have the crew visiting for the day. Hence we went to one of the numerous neighbourhood parks built by locals for the kids.



This particular park isn't overly big



but has play equipment for the wee ones up to the bigger kids and an ashphalt track that goes all the way around. Just long enough and just wide enough to get up a good bit of steam.



The climbing apparatus really attracts everybody and if brothers are going UP then little Miss Sister is also right behind.






The boys have now discovered Super Heros and this is their "save the world against the forces of evil look"



What is most interesting about this small park is that when it was built it was pretty plain. Many of the locals and some of the kids who use it and some City artists painted pictures that have been hung on the fence that surrounds the area. I quite like many of these pictures and some reflect considerable effort







The forecast said sun in the morning with afternoon rain(s) so we were all out bright and early however, for once the forecast lied and it didn't rain at all all day (also figures because I planted 6 heathers and didn't water them figuring they'd get watered down sufficiently naturally.........course if I had watered them am sure there would have been a deluge! )

All in all was a good morning - AND FUN WAS HAD BY ALL!

[Horus]

Looks like you and the Grand kids had a great day out and that park is really nice, a great idea about the paintings being hung on the fences, much better that graffiti you often see being passed off as art.
The place certainly looks adventurous enough for a couple of Super Heroes to rampage around even if they were handicapped by a little sister. What I am surprised at is that you were not prohibited from taking pictures in the park, here we are so wrapped up with child protection issues and a paedophile lurking behind every camera that it is no longer possible to photograph children at play in a park, a school panto, or any other public gathering, even if they are your own!

[Mad Dilys]

Very true Horus.

Many people over here will not post recognisable pictures of their children these days as they can be used by Photo-shopping to conceal the true identities of children in cyber-porn. Unfortunately there are some very sick people in this world.

[Kiya]

Looks like a good day had by all, em grand kids are growing way to quick

Nice to see the art form in the park adding interest & colour to the place

[Horus]

they can be used by Photo-shopping to conceal the true identities of children in cyber-porn

I must confess that never occurred to me, but it is a valid point, although like everything else we seem to have a knee jerk reaction to anything nowadays and instantly institute some sort of ban. Surely the potential paedophile will obtain his/her images in some other way and the whole exercise becomes futile as it does not stop them but it does impinge further on all our freedoms and engenders even more paranoia.

[Mad Dilys]

they can be used by Photo-shopping to conceal the true identities of children in cyber-porn

I must confess that never occurred to me, but it is a valid point, although like everything else we seem to have a knee jerk reaction to anything nowadays and instantly institute some sort of ban. Surely the potential paedophile will obtain his/her images in some other way and the whole exercise becomes futile as it does not stop them but it does impinge further on all our freedoms and engenders even more paranoia.

I wasn't suggesting a ban, I hate knee jerk re-actions and think a little healthy danger is no bad thing.

But actually just caution has a lot to recommend it in my opinion.

It actually happened to a family that were friends of mine. When a large cache of child pornography was found their daughter was identified as one of the victims - but it wasn't her in fact.

The investigations caused a great deal of distress to the whole family as you can imagine.

[Mad Dilys]

On a lighter note, I think the park that the children are playing in looks super! I wish I had the chance at my age to play in one like that.

Playgrounds for pensioners sounds good to me. I'd love to go on a swing right now

[Horus]

I'll join you MD we can rig up one of those tyres on a rope swings and twizzle around as we swing to and fro.

[Jayway]

I thought you had playgrounds for everyone in UK ? I would like to see the iron seven seater rocking horse again, if you were lucky you actually rode on the front seat with the iron mane ! My usual walk and trot around the village has started again, it was 24* on my outside thermo and Glory enjoyed her cold shower. I had enough cold water washing her numnah in the outside tank . . .

[Grandad]

Memories Memories Jay. I remember those long multi seat playground rockers, and how about the roundabouts that used to rise and fall as they went around.......too many moving parts for todays H & S spoilsports.

Can't find a long rocker Jay but here are two you won't find in todays playgrounds.

[Kiya]

I remember these.............loved the see-saws , the higher the better.

[Mad Dilys]

Seesaws going up great - then my sister would get off the other end.

I'd like a ride on the one on the right.

[Ruby Slippers]

About two years ago, my grandaughter asked if we could have a picnic in the park, so off we went. The park was teeming with kids and the unthinkable happened - we lost sight of her! It took us about 10 minutes to find her and I swear in that time I died a thousand deaths! I don't recall worrying about her father so much when he was her age, so was it because a) child crime was less publicised; b) it didn't happen so much; or c) was I incredibly naive? I rather think it was the latter!

[Horus]

A combination of all RS, but it has certainly changed for the worse.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I have had thoughts about publishing the grandkids actual photos but I also figured that if the bad guys are actually good them can probably log right into any of the store accounts that I send the photos to to have them made into pictures. I don't put any of the grandkids photos onto FB however my daughter their mom does so? I figure FB for being a much more likely place for the paedophiles to look than on E4U! But I do get and understand the concern(s) and I don't think anybody can be too careful these days.

This particular park was pretty small and I was concentrating only on MY kids so to speak. It was pretty early morning cause rain was predicted so there were only 2 other dads and their kids in the park. I dunno what their reaction would have been IF I had started taking photos of their kids - probably well more likely than not not good as we have the same concerns here re: taking photos of kids could land you facing concerns to charges that you were up to no good. That being said we're also pretty laid back here, pretty isolated from crime and there is still a bit of a small town mentality happening.

We have lots of small parks like this dotted about however this park happens to be relatively isolated and is completely IN a residential neighbourhood. You kinda have to know where to look to find it.

The paintings look pretty neat to me. Efforts to help keep the graffiti down.

The grandkids definitely love it and if they fall they're landing on dense rubber and/or bark mulch a foot deep. When I was a kid we had board swings with either rope or chain, plank teeter tooters there were none too comfortable to sit on and you always ran the risk of the other end being suddenly vacated. I don't remember ever seeing the long iron horse but we did somewhere have a roundabout. You had to run and do a good couple of laps to get it going and then be able to jump on. It never went up or down though.

As for being monitored as a kid I was more than able to leave the house whenever I wanted and basically go wherever I wanted. I always left the house too whenever I could because if I hung around I'd be put to work so I operated on "out of sight out of mind." This just doesn't happen today. I can say that the grandkids have experienced absolutely no freedom at all. They are ALWAYS within sight.

[Horus]

I agree, it is really sad that all those freedoms we had as kids are nowadays severely curtailed for our Grand kids

[Jayway]

Grandad, I never liked the see saw but that roundabout, when the bigger ones would rock it, I loved it. They couldnt watch us all the time so sometimes I stood on the top rail ! ! - - then got dragged off and smacked. LLL. the roundabout swung and rocked on the top ball and socket joint ... if you see what I mean ? the small roundabout was a platform with separating bars to hang on to or suspend yourself from to pick up stones as you whizzed round - - - oh happy days and permanently grazed knees and arms - -