Park Life

After breakfast out, this morning, Tiger expressed an interest in going down to the park - and so, while Wolfie and Mummy went back for Wolfie's nap - we headed down to the park.

The play area was suitably packed, for a sunny Holiday Monday afternoon. Tiger and I played on the swings - had a couple of goes on the (all too sun-baked, and screamingly hot) slides - a quick play on the musical bridge - a dash across the cable bridge - and then over to the sand-pit, as a detour to leaving.

Tiger insisted that we "build a sandcastle". I was dubious as to my sandcastle building abilities - but I gave it a go, and I was quickly caught up in Tiger's passion for the idea. Our idea quickly turned into something a little between a castle and a walled city - which I quite liked.



Tiger soon got excited by the idea that everyone "lived on the outside in the walls". She helped me put windows all around the outside and was quite taken by the addition of a "door" in one wall... and the turrets in the corners.



While I was distracted - concentrating on improvements to the central courtyard of our original building - I hadn't noticed that Tiger had started work on:

* a school
* a shop



* a road conecting them all to the original castle

but most important of all, it turned out - the great mine. "Imagine" she told me, "if there was a big hill, a mountain, where people went to get chocolate"... "for the shop," she added.



"Maybe they have to dig into the mountain to get the chocolate" she said.

I said it was a "chocolate mine". Tiger needed some convincing that I knew what she meant - and that this was, indeed, a good description of her concept. But she came around in the end.



Tiger packed some leaves into the hole she had made to represent the mine - and was quite taken by in the idea that someone might find it later and think "what's all this chocolate doing here in this hill."

Continuing on the theme of "mines" - Tiger asked me, on the way home, "what do you think is in there, daddy?":



"Gold? Daddy. Do you think you might go down there and find gold?"

"Like a gold mine?" I asked.

"Yes" she said - satisfied that I knew what she was talking about this time.



"But why are you taking a picture of it, daddy? Daddy - what are you doing?"

"Because I might want to put it on your blog, later."

"Oh" *puzzled look*... Why would he want me to put THAT on my blog! Daddies do the strangest things sometimes.