Ashgrove Library Park

The Ashgrove library park certainly isn't the greatest park in the world. It's bare bones, a bit old, and sandwiched between two roads! But it is adjacent to Ashgrove Library, which means you can extend your park fun with a library visit or - like we did last week - a stop at Storytime. And then - if you are wanting to make your day super duper - walk up the road two minutes to Jeremiah's Cafe. Map to the library is here.

I guess the tandem experience with the library is perhaps the only way to do this park - unless you lived a street or two away its really not a park worth too far of a travel. This said, it has a climbing frame, swings, a fort type structure with walkways, climbing areas and a slide. And there is a covered table for plonking yourself down on and watching the kids play. It's not bad at all really, but I we really had a super time last week and I think for us the greatest fun was the library itself.

Having a park adjacent to a library means that the park is going to be full of kids around times when kids activities are on at the library. At Ashgrove library this is Monday and Friday. The BCC timetable is here. Of course all BCC library's run a storytime so you should check your local library for times. I think we will be swapping between Ashgrove and The Grange (which has a cool park we will review very soon!).

I was always worried about taking Cody to Storytime. She's a wiggler and an over-sharer. The wiggling clearly was not a problem and I should have never been worried about it. I look back at what a noob parent I was to be worried about that as EVERY kid there was wiggling and running off and grizzling in. In fact Cody (being the oldest there almost) was the only one who sat still the entire time! Did I care about the wiggling/running/grizzling of others? Nope - and nobody did so I don't know why I was worried about Cody before! As for oversharing - well my girl does like to talk and if she's heard of a sloth then she's going to tell you where and when she heard of it (I applaud the librarian for not knowing about Diego!!) - once again, nobody cared and the librarian manged the kids really well. Four books were read (the theme this week was bedtime) and then they did some colouring and stickering (which I think was the point when Cody became super hooked - bring out the stickers and most kids are completely engrossed in their art). We went to the older session (2-5 years old) and took Mika (who also sat on the floor and looked at the book) but there is a younger session beforehand (for the under 2s).

The lady who took the session was young and fun and loved her job. You can't ask for more than that. We got some books - I found a new edition of Juxtapoz (probably not even in the newsagents yet it was so new) so everyone left happy. Cody is itching to go back this week - which we will.

I'm not going to do the typical rating as there's not much to rate. I'd happily do this every week if I could - and so would Cody - which means it would rate pretty high!

I should add that Ashgrove Library has just gotten a new annex built and expanded considerably. Aparently there is a coffee shop going in there (so you can sit and have a coffee whilst watching the kids play in the park). That's all well and good but do go to Jeremiahs Cafe as he's a top dude and very kid friendly.

Paten Park, The Gap (AKA Nursery Park)

After reading my post about Wittonga Park on Hilder Road in The Gap, Adam reminded me about the Nursery Park over the Payne Road side of The Gap. I'd completely forgotten about this park so it was off for a quick revisit. Map is here.

The park is called Nursery Park as it sits in front of the nursery (duh) but also because the nursery theme has transgressed to the park itself in the form of the "shopfronts" which have been created. There is flowers to spin, a walk in greenhouse, a delivery truck, a water tank and a florist shop. All pretty cool. The bits Cody loves are the pretend sink in the greenhouse (my girl loves pretending to wash her hands for some reason) and the bit Mika loves is the spinning flowers. Side note: I was thinking the other day about how I have an extended duty of review now that Mika is old enough to be interactive. So you'll get the parks suitability for a four-ish year old and an under one.









Also worthy of mention is the spiderweb which sits off to the side. I've no idea what these climbing frames are really called but we call them spider webs and this one is a great net like structure which you can lie on and roll around in. The climbing frame is also impressive - it has a bell at the top which I find really spurs the kids on to get to the top.




Behind the park sits a dog off-leash area and between the two there are a couple of picnic tables (none covered or with a BBQ).


I remember when came here when we first moved to The Gap and met an extraordinary lady and her son. It really made us feel that this was a great move for us. Unfortunately The Gap wasn't a great move for me, but we did meet some awesome families along the way.

The nursery theme makes this a lovely little park. Cody and I agree its around a 6.

RATED:

Age Groups: The playground has tried to cater to all ages with the toddler friendly aspects but also adding some elements which require the skill set of a slightly older kid.

Kid Friendliness: The kids have always been cool here.

Parent Friendliness: Ditto - the parents have always been cool here.

Shadiness: there is a sail cover in place playground is shaded by a canopy of trees

Tricked Out: the nursery theme is cute (not sure it qualifies as tricked out though)

Picnic/BBQ: not a picnic or BBQ park

Shabbiness: gets a bit of rubbish but overall pretty clean

Toilets: no toilets

Hovering Required: It's small enough that you don't need to hover

Bring Yr Bike: I was going to say no, but when we were there a mum was teaching her son to ride without training wheels across the slope of the grass.

Crowded: not at all

Wow: a cute theme - will really impress the younger set

Sedgeley Park, Alderley/Newmarket (AKA New Park)

There is a small park to the very side of Sedgeley Park - it's run down, broken in parts and I thought was on the verge of becoming dangerous. Not so long ago caution tape was put around many of its features and the playground was officially off limits. Within weeks, the foundations of a brand new park - over the other side of the area - began to take shape. A brand new park! Exciting. We drove past ever day wondering what it would feature, what would be the main structure, how would the formation take place. Finally last week it was done. We hit it hard the next day. Map is here. You'll know it as the park behind the dog off leash park and right next to Newmarket Pool.

This new park has the best and the worst of modern park features. My family think that it perhaps has one of the best attractions ever at a park - high praise! The spinning climbing cone combines everything that we love - climbing, spinning and the thrill of possible danger (although there really is none unless you make it go at super duper speeds - which of course we did). Cody climbed inside and held on for dear life. Adam did a few rotations spinning it around and then jumped inside, shifting the center of the weight and making it spin at alarmingly fast speeds. I was surprised the day didn't end in vomiting actually. It was super fun and I think they spent 90% of the time at this park doing that. Would it have been as fun if Cody didn't have her dad with her making it go outrageously fast? Perhaps not as she had some trouble making the weight of the cone shift to move it around. But it was fun to climb around and inside of too.

The worst feature would be the rocking boat. I really hope this does not become the standard of "wow" for new parks. It's pointless for small parks like this. You can't shift it without a parent and only doing it with one kid is really not all that enjoyable for anyone. There is one at New Farm Park but given the volume of kids there its slightly more enjoyable (I think this is an attraction which requires sharing of joy - doing it by yourself is not really great but having a gaggle of kids to share the experience with makes it infinitely more enjoyable). I'm just not a fan of this feature.

The main tower feature is built for bigger kids - 4 and over I'd say. You have to climb to get up to the slide - and its quite a tall slide too. There is a chain wall, a shaped pole and a climbing wall to help you get up and even our spectacular climber Cody had some troubles the first go.




On the high side of the playground is the more traditional aspects, although the flash new design is anything but traditional. I was really impressed with the see-saw design and think it's a really good looking piece for the park. And of course the mega climbing frame - which seems to come standard with most new parks to attract the older kids - and the swings (the swing seat was a different design to what we are used to also - its more of a firmer material which holds you in better).

We stopped at the local store on the way and bought sandwich fixings to make up a picnic lunch and had a nice time completely undisturbed. I stated at the time that no matter how many times we visit this park I don't think we are ever going to see another person playing there - it just feels really isolated in a way!

If this is the new park design then I think we are in for some great parks in the future. A rating of 8.

RATED:

Age Groups: Suits the older crowd. Cody (at 4) is very happy here but I don't think there will be much for Mika when she starts walking.

Kid Friendliness: no one else around

Parent Friendliness: as above

Shadiness: i was worried about this - we went at noon and it was pretty hot - but within half an hour the shade of the nearby pine trees started to cover the park

Tricked Out: nah, not at all really (the spinning cone was amazing though)

Picnic/BBQ: there is one BBQ and one undercover table

Shabbiness: the park was one day old so it was clean

Toilets: there is a toilet block nearby. I was expecting the worst but it was surprisingly okay.

Hovering Required: No, the park is small

Bring Yr Bike: No

Crowded: no

Wow: no wow just a solid park

Wynnum Esplanade and Wading Pool

Oh my goodness. What a day! It was the stuff of little kids dreams but also the stuff of childhood memories all wrapped into one. I love that we've created a memory for Cody out of something which was a fond memory for us as children. Perhaps she will pass this on to her kids. I'm talking about a playground, a beach, $3 serve of chips, sand and new friends. In Brisbane, this can only mean one thing - Wynnum Esplanade. Map is here. I took a gazillion photos - be warned.

I don't want to be too prescriptive on this site and tell you how to experience parks - only you and your kids can do that. However I'd like to share our experiences if they extend beyond a playground and we get it right and maybe inspire you to use the playground visit as a base to really have fun with your kids. Certainly I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know here though. If you go to the beach its quite the standard to have chips wrapped up in paper and maybe an ice cream. Though I fear that Cody may want to nickname this "chips and ice cream park"...

The whole day was a blast - and I say "day" because we managed to spend HOURS upon hours there. We got an amazing park in the car park - which really makes a difference if you are juggling two kids let's face it - and the second Cody saw the park she could barely contain herself. It's an impressive sight! We went in winter when all the water features were closed down so I can only imagine how rad it would look in the warmer months with water jutting out of the whales and the wading pool in full operation.

Walking into the park, the first thing which strikes is the tree completely full of corellas. This is an amazing sight (and we were fortunate enough to see them leave the tree and circle the beach) and surprisingly unobtrusive (they were neither noisy nor pooey). The second observation was that we were going to be getting into the car with sand coming out of all sorts of places. The whole park is built upon sand and so walking through it to chase your child is somewhat comical.








There were literally too many features in this park to list - rocking ship like structures, a baby slide, spinning tops, climbing frames - this list could go on and on and on so I'll let the pictures show you the full scope. Our highlights were - surprise surprise - the climbing frame. Now I know that Cody has a well documented penchant for the climbing frame, however this one was undeniably spectacular. It was hilarious to watch - she was trying to leave it to go somewhere else but she got two meters away and was pulled back by an invisible string which had her like a yo-yo.

The playground was amazing - I'll leave it at that. It was a 40 minute drive for us when you take into account having to go through the city but it was well worth it for the playground alone.

Best part of my day was when Mika discovered the sand. In the seconds in between me trying to wrestle her hand (filled with sand) away from her mouth that is. She had a look of absolute joy on her face. This girl is going to rock the playgrounds in a few months time for sure!





We managed to get away from the playground to eat our $3 serve of chips, which we scoffed on a picnic bench whilst Cody's eye wandered beachward. Chips inside, there was no stopping her. The beach here is just beautiful. Clean sand, clear water, ripples which run across the sand and tickle their feet as they run splashing across the shore. It is picturesque. It took some convincing to get her to walk down the 80-odd year old pier - she just didn't want to leave the sand. The walk was wonderful and I couldn't help thinking this would be a fabulous thing to do at night (sans kids!).







After the pier and the beach we headed to the other park - only ten meters away from the main park but obviously the original park which was put in place many years before the redevelopment. This was a fun old school park and a great contrast to the new park. It was steel and slides and monkey bars to the colour and wood of the other park. There was of course not a soul playing there!




A trip back across the road to the shop for ice cream (and Cody had never had a commercial type ice cream like a Billabong before so she was much taken with their sickly sweet dripping sugar) to polish off the storybook day. All up we got two serves of chips, two drinks and three ice creams for under $15 and spent about four hours of absolute fun there. It was a fabulous day but also really inexpensive so I can see us doing it time and time again.

I think the playground was awesome and the day was next to perfect. Easily a 9.5 rating.

RATED:

Age Groups: Everyone. I was super impressed with the little kids area too - the slide was about a meter long and super cute. In summer the older kids will love the water features.

Kid Friendliness: There were too many kids and too much to do to even stop for a second and talk to someone else.

Parent Friendliness: See above.

Shadiness: trees cover the park

Tricked Out: yeah, so many surprises. I will report back in summer, however I can see that it would be super spectacular when summer rolls around.

Picnic/BBQ: major BBQ area in the middle of the park - which was a nice touch to have it centralised with the park surrounding it. I doubt you'd EVER get this spot on a weekend though. Off to the side there were tons of tables and chairs.

Shabbiness: really clean

Toilets: lots of toilets in a block off to the side. Clean too!

Hovering Required: Yeah, I'd say kids would be pretty easy to lose sight of in this park

Bring Yr Bike: The esplanade is set up for bikes, however I'd suggest maybe more experienced riders as there is lots of stray walkers wandering across the paths

Crowded: we went on a school day during the day and it was quite packed (but handled it okay). I can't imagine the chaos that would be a weekend or a school holiday day.

Wow: buckets and spades of it (geddit).