Saturday 3 July 2010

A Meander down to town.

DSC00829Yesterday we took advantage of the lovely warm weather to enjoy a meander down to town. We had some shopping to do, but we decided to take our time and journey to Tesco’s in a leisurely fashion, taking in the whole of the park as we did so.  I happen to think that despite only being a very small town, we have one of the nicest parks in the whole of Calderdale.  At its front entrance it has the main  display area of gorgeous flower beds, all lovingly tended and cared  for by the local authorities gardeners, and where, thanks to plenty of benches surrounding the display, you can wile away many an hour or two as long as the weather is kind.

This more formal area is in stark contrast to the far side of the park which usually houses our Gala every year, and has a far wilder beauty about it.  It is separated from the Parks play areas and more formal garden area by a small stream or beck, as we in Yorkshire tend to call a stream, and this meanders its way through the park necessitating the use of  two or three small bridges so that you can walk across from one area to the other.  This wilder side is frequented by dog owners walking their dogs and is often used by the local football teams to play their Sunday matches.

The beck from the bridge

Its a strange contrast and yet one that I love. One side of the stream, the busy well used play area frequented by Mum’s and Dads  in the warm weather with their boisterous offspring playing excitedly on the slides, swings and climbing frames, teens goading  each other to do even more clever and daring tricks with their bikes and skateboards in the skateboard area, a small tiny cafe (converted from what originally was the old toilets) serving drinks of coffee and ice cream outside bistro fashion, and families enjoying a game of football on the well manicured and tended grass area.

Wild flowers along the path

Yet cross over the bridge and its a very different scene to enjoy, consisting of a path running along the bottom of a well wooded hillside, flanked by an array of wild flowers growing in abundance along its edge. Poppies and dog daisies are the mainstay of this unattended and uncrafted arrangement, and its all the more beautiful in my opinion than all the well tended and more formally arranged flower beds at the other side of the park. Nature herself has tended and fashioned this display for everyone’s enjoyment as they walk by.  If you are nimble footed enough, you can begin to climb through the trees, ascending the banking onto the old railway line which is a natural and enjoyable nature walk in itself.

And yet, not a few metres away from all of this natural splendour and beauty lies our local  Tesco's supermarket and our little town. Enjoy all of my photos I took of the park and the rest of our meanderings. You can see them in the sidebar to the right, where you can click through and enjoy them on flickr or alternatively they are also available on my SkyDrive where you can view and comment on them in a slideshow view. 

TG


 




2 comments:

  1. HI there TG,
    it looks a wonderful area to live, especially as you have a stream nearby, I love the sound of water and the life and movement it brings, never ceasing on it way so somewhere else. We're so lucky in England, so much is on our doorstep.
    Off to look at your photo's, thanks for the catch up TG. xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just had to call back and say lovely, lovely photo's, such a glorious array of plants around, colour overload sometimes.lol.xx

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