A-Z of Services

Painting and Planting Day - 01/11/2003

The inaugural day of the Parklife tent!

	Despite warnings of wind and rain the day dawned fine and clear. The autumn sun gleamed across the park, the wet leaves on the trees glistening like burnished copper and gold.

	The intrepid hole story team (senior ranger Tamsin Butler, storytellers Fiona Collins and Amy Douglas and special guest artist John Lambart arrived by the cloud sculpture to hoist the 4m by 10m Parklife tent.

	At 9.30am it all just seemed too much! But by 10.00am the tent was standing proud - but very white and plain. Not for long!

	Soon in two's and three's people of all ages began to gather to transform the white tent into a riot of colour.



	Trees began to spread their branches towards the roof, vines and creepers entwined themselves around the windows. Butterflies, spiders, snails and birds danced amongst green swathes.

	Children were mostly protected by free t-shirts, but there was paint everywhere - even the dogs got painted!

	One end of the tent became a permanent window showing the view of the park in winter - the grass leading to the autumnal trees with Hope mountain reaching into the sky beyond. The other end of the tent leads you on a storytelling journey through the park - follow the wide-mouthed frog and see where he takes you!





	During the course of the day, young and old were also hard at work digging - 195 daffodil bulbs were planted, in clumps, circles, spirals and letters ready to give splashes of colour in the spring.

The day flew by, but at 4.00pm the light began to fail and our day in the park was almost over.

All gazed with satisfaction at the transformation.

Thank you to all of you who came and helped during the day. If you missed out this time don't worry. You will be able to see the amazing Parklife tent at various events throughout the winter, and don't forget to visit the daffodils in the spring.

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