Nesting time

Spring has definitely sprung in the park. The birds are going mad, the frogs are still spawning as if there were no tomorrow. We saw a little coal tit building his or her nest, lovely and round and soft by the looks of it. Then we built our own, and I have rarely seen such hardworking birds as those who were racing around gathering branches, bindweed, leaf litter and grass to make it just perfect. It was big enough for all the children to sit in for their story. But there was further work to be done. Where we planted bulbs two years ago, and daffodils and crocuses are now blooming beautifully, we planted some more. The children are really a gang of hard workers!

Events in the York Literature Festival at West Bank Park

This year West Bank Park has made its (to our knowledge) debut in the York Literature Festival with two events, a Spring Story Walk for adults and children, and 'Stories and Rhymes for Mad March Hares' for under-5s and carers. Both were on days of brilliant weather and were equally brilliantly attended - around 50 people each time trooping around the park listening to stories, poems (some real, some totally make-believe) from Anneliese Emmans Dean, Nettlefoot Kate (that's me!), Rosemary and Margaret from the 'big' Friends. See right for a few lovely photos.

FROGS!!!

The park is really waking up for spring: the bulbs have poked through and are starting to bloom, the birds are going crazy, and now, most excitingly of all, the frogs are spawning in the wildlife pond. We went, of course, to witness this spectacle. I personally had never seen so many frogs in one place - 20? 25? at least, climbing all over each other, blubbing up and down and all over the mass of frogspawn - neither the children nor the adults could believe their eyes. We lifted out some eggs in a jar and the children poked (some gingerly, some enthusiastically) at them.

Inspired by this, we went off to see what other wildlife we could find in the earth of the woods. We dug with spades and poked with sticks. We found earwigs, slugs, millipedes, tiny translucent snails, thousands of woodlice. An enormously long worm that didn't like being poked. The more craftily inclined among us made some creepy-crawlies of our own, using the time-honoured cutting-up-egg-boxes method.

On a sadder note, we have just discovered that our beloved cafe is to close in April. It will be sorely missed, especially on cold days. Anyone with any ideas to mark its passing and thank the staff for all they have done for us - let me know.