A fleeting playground and Canal Day visit

Sometimes kids just can’t make up their minds. But I did manage to get him to come to Banbury Canal Day, with the promise of going to the park.

I love going to the big events in town – there’s a good chance we’ll bump into people we know, it’s great to get out and about, and support events and charities, plus there’s always something interesting to see or learn…or photograph!

N told me he didn’t want to go to the Canal Day in Banbury this year.  Last year he loved the ride on the narrow boat, and seeing everything there, so I thought he might have fancied trying a canoe this year.  But no, he didn’t want to go.

Spiceball Park playground

He wanted to go to the park.  Well, the playground is alongside the canal day, but he wasn’t to be put off.  We decided to go early, park at the free end, and walk and scoot to the playground.

The walk through the park was as quiet as normal on an early Sunday morning, only seeing a few people walking dogs or cycling through.

N was getting quite fast on his scooter (I know how fast I go on mine sometimes, so really should make him wear his bike helmet when scooting).  Although he does need a new scooter because he’s still using his ‘first scooter’ and it’s not the best once you start going decent speeds.  Guess that’ll be on the Christmas list then.

He does do a lot of stopping and starting, having a break at benches (not sitting down, just a stop and then carry on!), and we have various discussions as we go along.

Of course, as soon as we reached the field with the playground in, N realised he might have been wrong in saying he didn’t want to go to canal day.  He spotted the karting, the bouncy fun pirate ships and the bungee jump activities being set up.

By that stage he was bored of scooting so we shared the carrying of his scooter over to the playground.

I grabbed some lovely photos I’m really pleased with, before he then agreed to have a nosy along the canal.  I did have to bribe him with going for a drink in the coffee shop, but we did manage to walk along both sides of the canal and enjoy being an early bird to the party.

Banbury Canal Day

Yet again, canal day had a beautiful day for it. Blue skies and warm sun.  Although I don’t think it was as busy as it has been in the last couple of years.

The boats and canal side were all decked out in rainbow bunting, flowers and balloons.

We were a bit early for the live folk music, who were taking their time to set up, but we just had a leisurely walk and scoot along the canal side.

Then back off via the park again, where surprisingly N didn’t want to go on all the rides and slides he’d spotted earlier  Much safer for my purse.  We ended up carrying the scooter most of the way back to the car.  By the time we left, the cars were crammed into the car park with people heading to canal day, so although our visit was fleeting we got to see it before the crowds arrived.

We’re definitely loving the early mornings at the moment for both walks and photography. It’s a great chance to get out and about, see other keen walkers, and beat the crowds…as well as having the rest of the day free for everything else.

Are you early birds going out, or do you tend to head out to places later in the day?

Try these other activities and events in Banbury:

• Banbury Michaelmas fair
• Days out with kids in Oxfordshire
• Banbury Museum