Parks

It looks as if the winter is gone at last. The lawns are lovely and green, the trees have leaves and there are flowers again. Everywhere you look there are Dandelions, it looks so nice, but you don’t want it on your lawn. Apparently one can cook the leaves like Spinach.

We went to the Botanical Gardens, where no pets are allowed. For a reasonable entrance fee one can see a natural looking garden, It is very educationally orientated, while we were there, there was a nursery school being shown the stacks of wood for hibernating butterflies, the bats houses, vegetable gardens, composting heaps, etc. I thought of how super Meerensee’s paths would have been for such a garden.

We went to Bowring Park one lovely day. It was about 18 degrees. There’s no entrance fee. It is one of the oldest parks in St. John’s, but very well kept. It as well as the hike through the Battery on our Signal Hill hike is part of the Grand Concourse.

“The Grand Concourse Authority is planning, designing, and constructing an integrated system of walkways that will link all present walks, waterways, parks, and scenic attractions into a pedestrian network throughout St. John's, Newfoundland. It currently comprises 40 km (25 miles) of trails and walkways.”

It is a large park on the Waterford river. Many Irish immigrants came from Waterford. It has a Hothouse (conservatory), a pond with ducks and apparently swans, which we didn’t see, beautiful statues, Tulips, flowerbeds, walking trails for cycling and roller-blading too, trees, etc. Although there aren’t braais, it is a lovely place to picnic.

They even have dispensers for poop bags and you can buy duck food as well.
The midges here are bad, people call them Black Flies. It is the rainy season now and a bad time for them. Luckily we still have sunshine every second or third day. We have Robins running around on our lawn-pecking insects.

We have since visited Pippy Park too, where we walked around Long Pond, it is absolutely beautiful there. It is right across MUN, so students go there between classes.