Walking's the Thing.

They grow so fast @ this age!  Each time I visit our Little Man has a new skill, is achieving different milestones, has grown up just that little bit more. 

Despite not being either particularly energetic or sporting myself, what the Little Man & I do together is walk to the park.  The Little Man knows I'm good for the swing & the  peddle see~saw ~ & no, his little legs can't reach.  I hold him & run till I'm out of puff. And we do the slide.  I used to climb up & sit him in my lap to go down.  Then I lifted him up & we did the whole *sit & slide* thing but last time he was determined to haul himself up the ladder all by himself but of course he is tiny & it was exhausting. Now mummy is suffering from morning sickness we have extended the walk bit by going from park to park ~ only I exhausted the Little Man @ the first one so we just walked.

 The shire is weird in that there are still farms interspersed amongst the neat suburban lawns & where there are farms there is bush & where there is bush there is wildlife. Just before our regular park is a rather scraggly farm with a dirty bit of swampy creek & horses, chickens running amok, & either egrets or ibis perched on the rails & up the trees.  These are ibis, world renowned scavengers!

The other way is even stranger. Beside the scraggy farm is the best park with loads of different things for the kiddies to do, including a half court with a hoop, but the area is full of rentals & tradies ~ not upper crust.  The other way is definitely upper class. Every back yard has a pool. The front yards are immaculate grass oasis & the cars are posh ~ so posh I have no idea what they are but obviously new, undinted & gleaming bright.  Here the park is hidden between 2 cul de sacs ~ but what a sad dreary little park, all uncut grass with a lone swing & a sad little slide.  Even the seat sits forlorn in sweltering sunlight rather than under the dappled shade of a gum tree.

However...

If you walk to the end of the park by the right~of~way & through to the back streets it is a different world again.  Here lie the big houses & the old gardens.

 I know they are old established gardens because  even  the elkhorn in the tree has some size about it.  We have an absolutely enormous one but it has taken 30 years to grow it to the size it is. This isn't quite so big but it is a lovely garden.

At the end of the street someone else has gone all tropical, which must be lovely in the summer heat but there is always that one neighbour who doesn't seem to know which country & period they are in...

 Elizabethan England with pines & palms???

Oh, & the Golden Pendas are flowering just now.  Aren't they super?!