Barnwood Park and Arboretum

One of the things that I love about where we live is the little areas of green spaces that we have in the surrounding area. We usually stick to the parks with play areas because that is generally where the girls want to go. However, whilst Freyja was enjoying her preschool leaver’s party at her nursery, Emily and I went to explore Barnwood Park and Arboretum.

Whilst there were no swings, slide or climbing frames, there was plenty to entertain Emily. She insisted on wearing the Twirlywood hairband that I got her from BritMums Live and looked quite the sight happily running around through the park.

There were swathes of wildflowers, with bees buzzing around on them collecting pollen, and butterflies fluttering between patches.

Emily felt she had to do a quality control check of each bench in the park, insisting on sitting on each one.

A stream runs through the park and we were able see lots of ducks and a few moorhens, but the freshwater was obviously the perfect environment for other wildlife as we saw a couple of dragonflies darting around between the stream and the path. There was plenty of open space (away from the stream) for Emily to run around in. We found lots of sycamore keys on the ground and spent some time throwing them up into the air and watching them spiral down to the ground. I think one of the highlights for her were some huge sticks we found. Emily immediately picked one up from the ground and started swooshing it around whilst making “lightsaber noises” – I have a 2 year old Star Wars fan!

One of the things that I enjoyed most about today was that whenever we discover a new place, it is usually with both Emily and Freyja, but today this was Emily and I exploring somewhere new by ourselves. It’s a rare occurrence for a second born which I think made it a bit more special, and something that I will look forward to doing more when Freyja starts school.