New finds

When you're a toddler, parks are important. We spend a lot of time at various parks. I don't like being cooped up inside with Arlo for more than a few hours before we go stir crazy and need to head out - for some fresh air, and some space. Our nearest park is a lovely little walk away, through leafy walking paths that mean we can avoid the road most of the way, that open out to lots of green fields. As Arlo's got bigger, different parts of the park have come and gone as his favourite (we're still working on getting down that slide!) so I feel like we know every inch of it. The hill we like to climb up and run down, the place where we met that grumpy dog and his even grumpier owner, the trees we hid behind when it was sunny. So although we love it, it feels like it's been fully explored.

So imagine my joy when we discovered a brand new park we never knew existed - one that's really colourful, mostly wooden, with unusual and new things to discover. One that was completely deserted so we had the place to ourselves, and without a grumpy dog owner in sight either. It's unfortunately on the other side of the Solent, but it's right near the ferry port, a place we often find our selves waiting with time to kill before we can hop on the ferry home, so it's going to become a staple part of our trips to the mainland from now on. Arlo and his crocodile trousers loved it.