Roath Park

The One Where Everyone Went To Roath Park (Country Kids)

April 21, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 17 Comments

Roath Park Lake

When it's sunny, there are three places which the entirety of south Wales flocks to; St. Fagan's, Barry Island and Roath Park. Yesterday, we joined the eleventy billion people also heading to Roath Park, to meet up with my brother and his family. (They weren't going to meet up with him by the way.)

There's a really good reason why it's so popular in the sunshine, the above panorama is just one of them. The boating lake was laden with swans sailing along with open wings, students valiantly attempting the row boats, and mums and dads navigating the flailing oars in the more sensible pedalloes. It's a beautiful sight to behold.

We didn't venture on to the lake, but we did fight for our turns on the swings and slides, scoot around the crowds of urban folk getting their weekly allowance of fresh air dressed rather bravely in Summer dresses or shorts (The Boy only fell of his scooter seven times with one graze to the forehead, and yes he did have his helmet on), and climb some magnificent trees. Has anyone else ever had to queue to climb a tree?!

roath park

The Boy loves spending time with his cousins, and she was so good with him as she let him win at scooting, stood her ground against bigger children in the playground, and showed him where to put his feet when tree climbing!

Hurrah for the Spring!

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Days 104-110 of Project 365

April 20, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 32 Comments

104-110 of 365

104. Two Years On (I'm a little bit of an Instagram addict and follow the actual Instagram's feed with interest. Every weekend they have a challenge called the Weekend Hashtag Project and last weekend's emulated the photography style of the blog Dear Photograph. As we were heading to Porthcawl anyway for the Chris & Pui Show, I dug out a photo of The Boy on the beach there from Father's Day 2010. A very windy day made it tricky to get an exact line up but I'm really chuffed with this photograph.)

105. Bubble Monster (Monday was absolutely beautiful and we played out in the garden for nearly three hours, most of that without a coat on. The Boy filled the garden with bubbles from his bubble blower that we'd bought him in Butlin's.)

106. Plopping (After dropping my car off to the garage to work out where a slightly alarming oil leak was coming from, we walked up to town for our second breakfast, then through the park and down to the beach. A quick scoot along the pier and the beach front, then down the lifeboat ramp to plop some pebbles into the sea, before walking home through the tree-lined Victorian avenues where The Boy promptly fell asleep. I collapsed on the sofa for half an hour having just completed a six mile round walk, before having to walk two miles back to the garage to pick my car up.)

107. Snuggle Down, Sleepyhead (It's a Wednesday – work day – and therefore it's a bed photo!)

108. Masterchef 2013 (On Thursdays I get home earlier from work and so we have time to play. I gave The Boy various ingredients and he decided to 'bake' us a ginger cake with his 'cooker'.)

109. Through The Kitchen Window (When we bought this house and did all the work on it, we had the kitchen window made bigger. I dreamed about the day that I'd see my child/ren playing in the garden while I cooked their dinner, etc. Today that came true, and I just stood and watched him for ten minutes as he repeatedly rolled his hoops down the slide, retrieved them, climbed up the side of the slide and started again. I love him.)

110. Reflections (We met up with my brother and his family in Roath Park today on a very sunny afternoon. One of his favourite places is the hothouse and so we spent a pleasantly sticky forty-five minutes watching the koi carp and terrapins in the pool before sauntering around the lake and feeding the swans. Life doesn't get much better!)

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