A Walk In The Park: Birds, Rain & Romans

Whether you are you a stickler for consuming your 5-A-Day or follow a vegan or a pescetarian diet… The very definition of being healthy incorporates not only eating a ‘healthy diet’ but by also by implementing some sort of realistic fitness plan/routine.

Exercise doesn’t have to consist of a gruelling regime in the gym. When given the chance, we think that most people would prefer to be outdoors. We’re designed to move and we should make the most of what nature has to offer…rain or shine!

We know it’s less motivating when the trees are still bare, the wind has an icy bite and a blast of rain is imminent… but that’s what big, fuzzy apparel and robust winter boots are for!

 

This week we decided to stretch our legs with a trip into a Hertfordshire park. As you can see from the map, it’s a great size with lots of things to do (including plenty of hills to climb!).

This park is named after the Roman city ‘Verulamium’ on which it stands….

 

 

 

 We enjoyed an hour’s walk through sunshine, rain, a freak sleet storm…

 

 

…and groups of ravenous ducks!

 

 

This is a lovely park located within the centre of a historic town….so it’s obviously close to local amenities, like this pub….

If you venture off into the other direction, it will lead you to ‘The Waffle House’! Haha! Despite it having excellent reviews… it is unfortunately not vegan friendly! 😦

 

Just joking! We did not go into any pub, even at the end of our walk when we were cold and drenched!

 

 

With cheap bird seed on sale in the park’s cafe, the birds appreciate and expect to be fed…some even started to quack at the sound of our little, brown paper bag rustling…

So many ducks and beautiful swans…

 

 

Some of the swans we all too keen to show me their ‘bullying technique’ when it came to ‘feeding time’…

 

 

…biting at my hands…they really didn’t like eating off the pavement…but I guess who can really blame them?!

 

 

So we gave up and just enjoyed the peace and quiet (once we tuned out the sound of all of the honking Canadian geese!) and the sites, like these Roman ruins…

The remains of  the Roman city walls…

 

 

This one is for all you history buffs or lovers of everything ‘English’…

 

We would have loved to have shown you more of these sites….but if you didn’t notice, the sign is stained in rain drops! The sky soon opened up and pelted us with heavy rain, followed by sleet. So we had to get a move on!

 

 

Our walk quickly turned into sprint…but we realised we still had one more bag of bird seed; we decided to brave the birds one last time. They were hungry and perhaps a bit aggravated about the freak storm…

Please excuse my ‘bear-paw’ blocking the corner of the camera lens!

 

 

A huge swan emerged from the pond and became aggressive; it snatched the bag of seeds from Al….and that was enough of that!

 

 

We’d just like to point out that it’s great to support your local wildlife, but please respect the advice laid out by the parks… do not feed birds white bread! This poor goose was a little worse for wear and feeding it half of loaf of bread from your local baker’s isn’t going to help matters…

Birds can be nutritionally depleted too! 😦

 

 

When the weather is more desirable (and the equipment is a little less slippery!), this outdoor ‘gym’…

Adidas allows everyone to bust a move in the park!

 

 

mini climbing wall…

To the left of this climbing wall is a large tennis court, and to the right is a custom-made volley ball court.

 

 

or basketball court…

To the left of this court is a huge, kids play area and numerous football pitches…perfect for when you’re tired of your kids turning you into a human gym-set! 🙂

 

 

…are among many of the resources that this park has to offer…which all allow people to support a healthy lifestyle with innovative ways of spicing up their fitness routines!

 

 

As we left the park we noticed that spring is just on the horizon with this budding tree…

Little pink buds are always a great sign!

 

 

…along with these little flowers that are lining the church cemetery.

We’re not sure what these flowers are; there are also many beautiful daffodils flowering around Hertfordshire at the moment too!

 

 

It’s always great to end a walk on a positive note; we would thoroughly recommend this park, rain or shine!

 

 

So we’d like to encourage everyone to get out into their local parks (or green spaces) this weekend and take their dog for a stroll, or allow their little ones the enjoyment of kicking a football across the pitch or just being able to run around (and be kids!)… and of course to allow yourself to de-stress from the week’s events.

 

So remember everyone- let’s all Eat2Health and get out and about more often!