Jungle Exploration

Posted on 2020/04/30 22:54:03 (April 2020).

[Thursday 30th April 2020]
The previous night Erika had some difficulty getting to sleep and I theorised it might be in part down to a lack of activity. Although her school's PE teacher makes workout videos for the kids, and we try to supplement this with our own bits of PE where we can (we've been having occasional games of football in our tiny back garden), the daily home schooling routine is still a lot less active than a normal day at school would be for her. Now and again exercise seems to fall by the wayside a bit and yesterday had definitely been one of those days.

I could see Chie was in need of a break as well, so I took some time out of work this morning to take Erika off to Hampstead Heath for some fresh air and exercise. She sometimes goes to the heath with school, so this seemed to me like an entirely legitimate part of the school day. We went to Erika's usual favourite spots, the "mudslide of doom" (which wasn't particularly muddy today, despite the recent rain), and the den building area. From there, while looking for a place to build a new den, Erika was intrigued by a little path leading off into the thicket, and in following this we embarked on some impromptu jungle exploration. We did eeny meeny miny moe to choose our route at each fork of the path, and in the middle of those dense trees and bushes we could have been hundreds of miles away from London, which feels a bit like an urban prison at the moment.

Of course, our adventure in the rainforests of North London only lasted a few minutes before we ran out of thicket, and emerged back onto the wide open plains of Parliament Hill, but it was lovely, and I think what we both needed. We wandered slowly back down the hill, picking buttercups and dandelions. We bumped into a friend of Erika's (but of course maintained our distance in line with the current ridiculousness) out with his little brother and his Mum. Oddly he and his brother had socks pinned to their hoods. I think this was more a fashion statement than anything practical.

We got back home a bit before lunchtime and I resumed working. Took delivery of some more wine in the afternoon, including another couple of bottles of the fascinatingly weird Monnow Valley Brut 2004 which I had last had at the Welsh sparkling wine tasting I organised last summer.

Quite mixed weather today, and it's good that we got out for our walk in the morning, as it was raining for much of the afternoon - quite hard at times. Clear skies later on though, and I had another go at taking pictures of the moon in the evening, which were unsuccessful as always. I think mobile phone cameras just aren't really capable of this sort of thing - you need a proper zoom.

Nabe for dinner.

The shrub is Ceanothus and is Vera's favourite garden shrub. This is a very fine specimen.

Posted by Dad aka Devon Man at 2020/05/02 18:26:06.

The fungus is known as 'Jews ear'.

Posted by Dad aka Devon Man at 2020/05/02 18:28:04.

The fungus is known as 'Jews ear'.

Posted by Dad aka Devon Man at 2020/05/02 18:30:11.

The blue flower which looks a bit like forget me not (myosotis) is actually anchusa and from the same family.

Posted by Dad aka Devon Man at 2020/05/02 18:31:33.

Blossom

All various varieties of Hawthorn including some garden escapes ... I have pink hawthorn tree in garden.

Posted by Dad aka Devon Man at 2020/05/02 18:49:13.

Blossom

All various varieties of Hawthorn including some garden escapes ... I have pink hawthorn tree in garden.

Posted by Dad aka Devon Man at 2020/05/02 18:49:51.

Thanks Dad! Good to be able to put a few more names to flowers / trees / shrubs.

Posted by John at 2020/05/03 14:49:47.

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