Headington Quarry Blog

Why do our parks close?

Does anyone know? I don't think all parks close everywhere at night do they?

In case you can't read it that well it says that it opens at 8am (far too late for most people I know to have a walk before they need to trudge off to work) and closes at 7pm (even now that daylight lasts till at least 8pm and a bit later - but why can we only enjoy our parks in daylight anyway they hold just as many intersting senory attractions at night - peace, quiet, a haven away from the roads and garish street lights and smelly city air).

Is that what you would want if you had a say in how they were run? Let's face it, most of them are not exactly secure in the sense that if someone was up to no good they could quite easily get into them whenever they wanted. So does it matter whether they are locked so as to prevent the law-abiding using them at whatever time they like?

I remember walking a friend's dogs in the dead of night through the big park next to Pershore Abbey without having to climb any gates.
But just to show how beautiful they can be anyway, here's something I caught sight of just before Easter in Headington Hill Park:

And now there are loads of them. Apparently they are Oxfordshire's "county flower" - the snakeshead fritillary. Fantastic.

And Easter always brings a welcome burst from these fellows:

posted by Jock Coats @ 00:40