96. McLean Park, Richmond

After visiting the playground at the community centre, we headed over to McLean Park, where the ERT series begins. I had found “ERT01” back in the winter of 2011 when I was pregnant, so technically Charlotte had been along for the ride - but she wasn’t yet Blackford Girl!

 

We had a lot of fun at this playground; Theo was free to play and Charlotte played hide-and-seek with Owlie. He hid in various nooks and crannies around the playground and I called out “warmer, warmer!” as Charlotte got closer. I think she was figuring out the concept!

We were there for a long time, but as we started going back to the car afterwards, Charlotte did something very out-of-character. She took off across the huge, open grass field – and at first I let her go, allowing her to explore. But before long, she was further away from me than I liked and I shouted after her to stop. Continuing with her out-of-character break from reality, she ignored me – and kept going! If she kept going like that, she’d be able to get to Westminster Highway before I could get to her, so off after her I went. She had crossed the waterlogged field in her waterproof purple boots – I crossed it in useless little black shoes and my feet were soaked and freezing long before I even got to her. Yes, there was a little bit of trouble! At least Theo had gone with her. We walked back to the car along the path, which took us past the playground again. And there was Theo’s leash – so I would have left it behind if Charlotte hadn’t staged her little escapade. But I still didn’t thank her for putting an end to my plans for the rest of the day and for making me go home to get out of my wet shoes! The playground is located at N 49.10.329 W 122.58.391 and is point no. 96 on the map at the bottom of home page.