Spring was certainly in our paws as we headed to the park yesterday for a really big walk alongside the River Eden in Carlisle.
We had heard of some new musical instruments that had appeared in Bitts Park and were eager to try them out, but first we had to get there.
Recent rain, and there has been a lot of it, has made many cross country paths soggy and not really good to walk on. So we had to keep to the dryish paths avoiding any puddles alongside the river.
This was not an easy challenge at times, especially around the back of the Sheepmount athletics and football pitches.
Arriving in Bitts Park we noticed that the green shoots of the daffodils were a good leg length high.
Charlie had good fun running over the leaves as they tickled his tummy. Mum wondered if they were not a few weeks early and may get nipped by any overnight frosts.
The weather is such a contrast to that we reported on in January 2011 when we visited Linstock near Carlisle and the ice was just melting after many weeks of cold weather.
A red bracelet
The musical instruments we were in search of have been installed near to the children’s play area behind Carlisle Castle.
To get to them we had to quickly pass the monster infested swamp and cross the troll bridge. Well that was the story mum told us as we approached the Chinese garden and the nature pond.
Floating on the pond was a large round red ring. Mum said it was a wrist bracelet left behind by one of the trolls that lived under the nearby bridge.
Sadly it was just out of reach for us to check her story, so we quickly moved away from the area just in case one of the wart infested, wrinkly blue trolls appeared.
Musical instruments
Running over the bridge and into the gardens we soon found our first musical instruments.
Built with metal frames and bolted to some very big rocks we had a lot of fun woofing at the sounds they made.
Charlie soon worked out that if mum tapped a tube or wooden block with the provided hammer, he heard a noise. He even tried to tap one of the metal tubes with his paw to see if he could make a sound.
Sadly we were running out of time and the clouds were once more gathering around us as we made our way, this time on the pavement back home.
Until next time
Buster and Charlie