Yesterday, I sort of forgot to take my camera battery. So you'll have to use your imagination:
Start with a park, of the traditional sort with large expanses of lawn broken up by trees and straight paths. The lawns are a patchwork of brilliant green and dark circles of shade with an large oak tree in the centre.
There's a large duck pond along one edge, with a low stone wall where acouple of people are sitting. There are other small groups of people gathered at all the seats in the shade. The seats around the giant chessboard are empty, but that might bebecause they're in the sun. At the far end of the park, a family group has taken over the table and seats near the playground, and they're throwing a ball about. Another set of tables and chairs, closer to the play equipment is empty, but it's in the sun.
The northern side of the park is flat, but the other side slopes up, until it's quite steep at the top. Good for rolling down in autumn, when the slope is covered in dead leaves. Halfway up this slope there is a large cannon that looks like it might have been left over from the Crimean War. A young boy of about eight is sitting astride the cannon, clutching a stuffed triceratops. From time to time he twists around to look behind himself, but mostly he seems to be ignoring the adults sitting under a nearby oak tree, even when they shout at him.
There are four adults sitting and laying in the shade of the oak tree: two women in their late thirties, one who might be blonde but it's hard to tell with the hat she has on; an older women who might be their mother and a man, the youngest of the group. Sometimes, a young blonde girl of about eleven is sitting with them, at other times she runs off. They are eating sandwich wraps from lunch boxes and passing around purple glasses that they fill from bottles. After the wraps have disappeared and the lunch boxes put to one aside, large crackers start to appear. The two children are back now, but when offered a cracker, the girl runs off and hides behind the cannon. After the crackers have been pulled and the contents picked out of the grass, there is much laughing at very old jokes and pointless trivia questions.
Eventually the lunch boxes and drink bottles and crackers disappear, until all that remains is a set of bags and what looks like a small, white metal frame. The man and older woman take the metal frame down to the play area, where they set this upright on the grass. A short distance away, in line with the frame, three sticks are shoved into the ground. In company with the two children, they play a game of cricket.
The other two woman, carrying the assortment of bags, disappear from the park. A few minutes later they return, and, after putting on sun hats, take a seat on a stone wall near the cricket game hats now. Despite cries of "Come and field," they remaining sitting on the walll, obviously deep in conversation. The young boy soon loses interest in the game though, and he runs off to play on the nearby diesel train engine. He is soon joined by the girl, which leaves just two adults playing cricket. After another unsuccessful attempt to coerce the watching women to join in, the game is abandoned.
Now calls of "Monkeys?" and "Who wants to see the monkeys?" are heard, and the whole group, adults and children, starts walking across the park. They start to deviate from their straight course though, and the girl can be seen pointing at the giant chessboard and shouting. She runs across and takes a position on one side of the board, and one of the women goes to the other side, from where she directs the boy on how to move the chess pieces. The remainder of the group stand around the edge and watch, where they are soon joined by other interested bystanders, including a young boy who comes onto the game board and starts giving loud suggestions.
As the game drags on, those of the original group who are only watching, start talking about monkeys again, although they seem unable to distract the chessplayers from their game. They soon walk away in the direction of the monkey exhibit.
They return sometime later to find the game still in progress, although the previous audience has dispersed, except for the interloper boy who is actively participating in the game now, although on the other side. The other boy, who was moving the pieces, has been pushed aside. All three children have taken up draping themselves over the chess pieces, thereby rendering it difficult for the adults, for the man has joined the game as well, to tell what pieces actually remain on the board. Only the major pieces though, for the children are very interested in moving and removing the "prawns", and therefore avoid hiding them.
Eventually, the game pieces are reduced to a king on one side, and a king and a queen on the other. There is an attempt by the older woman to bring the game to a quick end with "Guess a number between 1 and 10". "Five." "Two thousand and fifty six." There is another attempt by the players to bring the game to quick end by speeding ups the move. But after a few minutes, it seems that none of them are that concerned about forcing a result as they gather up their hats and wickets and bags, and leave the park.
Start with a park, of the traditional sort with large expanses of lawn broken up by trees and straight paths. The lawns are a patchwork of brilliant green and dark circles of shade with an large oak tree in the centre.
There's a large duck pond along one edge, with a low stone wall where acouple of people are sitting. There are other small groups of people gathered at all the seats in the shade. The seats around the giant chessboard are empty, but that might bebecause they're in the sun. At the far end of the park, a family group has taken over the table and seats near the playground, and they're throwing a ball about. Another set of tables and chairs, closer to the play equipment is empty, but it's in the sun.
The northern side of the park is flat, but the other side slopes up, until it's quite steep at the top. Good for rolling down in autumn, when the slope is covered in dead leaves. Halfway up this slope there is a large cannon that looks like it might have been left over from the Crimean War. A young boy of about eight is sitting astride the cannon, clutching a stuffed triceratops. From time to time he twists around to look behind himself, but mostly he seems to be ignoring the adults sitting under a nearby oak tree, even when they shout at him.
There are four adults sitting and laying in the shade of the oak tree: two women in their late thirties, one who might be blonde but it's hard to tell with the hat she has on; an older women who might be their mother and a man, the youngest of the group. Sometimes, a young blonde girl of about eleven is sitting with them, at other times she runs off. They are eating sandwich wraps from lunch boxes and passing around purple glasses that they fill from bottles. After the wraps have disappeared and the lunch boxes put to one aside, large crackers start to appear. The two children are back now, but when offered a cracker, the girl runs off and hides behind the cannon. After the crackers have been pulled and the contents picked out of the grass, there is much laughing at very old jokes and pointless trivia questions.
Eventually the lunch boxes and drink bottles and crackers disappear, until all that remains is a set of bags and what looks like a small, white metal frame. The man and older woman take the metal frame down to the play area, where they set this upright on the grass. A short distance away, in line with the frame, three sticks are shoved into the ground. In company with the two children, they play a game of cricket.
The other two woman, carrying the assortment of bags, disappear from the park. A few minutes later they return, and, after putting on sun hats, take a seat on a stone wall near the cricket game hats now. Despite cries of "Come and field," they remaining sitting on the walll, obviously deep in conversation. The young boy soon loses interest in the game though, and he runs off to play on the nearby diesel train engine. He is soon joined by the girl, which leaves just two adults playing cricket. After another unsuccessful attempt to coerce the watching women to join in, the game is abandoned.
Now calls of "Monkeys?" and "Who wants to see the monkeys?" are heard, and the whole group, adults and children, starts walking across the park. They start to deviate from their straight course though, and the girl can be seen pointing at the giant chessboard and shouting. She runs across and takes a position on one side of the board, and one of the women goes to the other side, from where she directs the boy on how to move the chess pieces. The remainder of the group stand around the edge and watch, where they are soon joined by other interested bystanders, including a young boy who comes onto the game board and starts giving loud suggestions.
As the game drags on, those of the original group who are only watching, start talking about monkeys again, although they seem unable to distract the chessplayers from their game. They soon walk away in the direction of the monkey exhibit.
They return sometime later to find the game still in progress, although the previous audience has dispersed, except for the interloper boy who is actively participating in the game now, although on the other side. The other boy, who was moving the pieces, has been pushed aside. All three children have taken up draping themselves over the chess pieces, thereby rendering it difficult for the adults, for the man has joined the game as well, to tell what pieces actually remain on the board. Only the major pieces though, for the children are very interested in moving and removing the "prawns", and therefore avoid hiding them.
Eventually, the game pieces are reduced to a king on one side, and a king and a queen on the other. There is an attempt by the older woman to bring the game to a quick end with "Guess a number between 1 and 10". "Five." "Two thousand and fifty six." There is another attempt by the players to bring the game to quick end by speeding ups the move. But after a few minutes, it seems that none of them are that concerned about forcing a result as they gather up their hats and wickets and bags, and leave the park.
