An afternoon at Fletcher Moss Park

It’s been a while since I saw any of my lovely blogger friends so I was really looking forward to meeting up with Jane and Ben from Hodge Podge Days this week. The weather was lovely so we decided to visit Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury, Manchester.

The boys and I had never visited this park before so I didn’t have any idea how big it was or what there was to see and do. Perhaps I should have Googled it and found an informative blog post like this one…

Picnic Area

A lovely, well maintained area with picnic benches and plenty of space for children to run around. We took tuna and sweetcorn wraps, fruit, cucumber and pepper sticks and Seabrook’s new lattice crisps in sharing bags – perfect for picnics. National Picnic Week is coming up in June (16th – 25th) so make sure you get some in!

Baby E also had a fun time at the picnic area – the benches are wheelchair friendly and so prams fit right up to the picnic benches. Once the food was done with, he loved being able to watch the big boys run around while he relaxed in his gorgeous little chair!

Wildflowers

There’s a large area within Fletcher Moss Park dedicated to wildlife conservation. A large bug hotel and a bird’s paradise of feeding tables ensure little beaks are fed and critters have somewhere to sleep. Follow the pathways and discover an array of beautiful wild plants and flowers. I challenged the boys to each find their favourite wildflower in the park, and this is what they chose…

We used our Green Board Games Flights of Fancy kit, About Wild Flowers, to look at, identify and preserve our favourite flowers. The kit includes 24 identification cards showing 48 colourful flowers, a wooden flower press, tweezers for those delicate species, wild flower seeds to start your own meadow, notepad and pencil to record your finds and helpful information on how to identify the different flower types. We thought it best not to dig holes in a public park to sew our wild flower seeds though so we’ll do that today.

The wild flowers kit is really good actually. I was expecting something very basic, perhaps more of a toy than a useful piece of kit. This one though is fairly in-depth and very interesting for both adults and children. I love the mini field guide, and the note pad and pencil are great for recording where you found each flower and what time of year it was.

We took one sample of each of the boys’ chosen flowers home with us and preserved them in the flower press provided. Once they’re all dried out and ready, we’ll be taking a closer look at their components, similarities and differences.

Botanical Garden

Another attraction at Fletcher Moss Park is the beautiful botanical garden. With little waterfalls, pathways, benches and the most amazing assortment of plants, flowers, shrubs and trees, it’s definitely worth a look at least!

Cafe and Visitors Centre

It wouldn’t be a fantastic day out without ice-cream now, would it? The boys were treated to a raspberry ripple while the dogs enjoyed some much needed water as we sat for a while outside the cafe. The children were really impressed with ‘Rory’s Bench‘, created in honour of a local teenager who died back in 2006. What a completely unique place to sit!

Fletcher Moss Park is definitely somewhere you could spend a long afternoon in the sunshine. There were lots of things we didn’t see as well; the Rose Garden and the walk down the river… everyone was just too worn out!

Thanks to The Green Board Game Co. for sending us the wonderful wildflower kit. We had a really lovely day and enjoyed looking at not only the flowers but the nature all around them too.