Oh my. Oh my oh my. Liverpool has some great green spaces, parks that would be the envy of any discerning city in the world, let alone the UK, let alone the North West, and Sefton Park sure as heck is one of them. The thing stretches for miiiiiles in all corners, attracts all walks of life and harbours some little gems you might not have known about.
My brother used to play football here with my father when he was a kid, so I took a nostalgic trip here even though I was a mere plan on the horizon when my family were taking visits to this neck of the woods. When we toddled over here from Lark Lane, we weren't quite expecting to get as caught up in the park as we thought we would. The first thing that greeted us were a group of students sprawled out on the grass, and bless them, times must have been hard because they had to share a cigarette. Fnar fnar. Anyway moving swiftly on, we found the families, kids and dogs that call this place their playground, the joggers and walkers that were out burning a few calories and generally anyone and everyone who was up for a bit of fresh air on a Wednesday afternoon.
Seriously. You stand in this park and you'd have no idea you were in the middle of a city. Lark Lane dwellers are lucky gits, I'll say that much. Wandering on you'll come to a little babbling brook, and here is where I lost my heart, and it's remained there ever since. Have you ever seen ducks in springtime? HAVE you? Have you seen the little fluffy bright yellow babies that swim around kicking their tiny orange webbed feet around and chirping with pride? It is literally one of the most romantic sights you could ever wish to see. We were witness to a fabulous show too. There was drama. Mother Duck seemed distracted, she kept flying over a small group of rocks that separated the brook and acted as something of a waterfall. She was making a lot of noise and at first we thought she was trying to beckon her babies over. We thought one had followed her over. What had actually happened is that one had slipped over the little waterfall and was now on its own, bleating with fear and swimming in circles, so Mother Duck was frantic.
She sent a few adult ducks over there and they kept the baby company, however, her constant toing and froing to try and get the baby to follow her back over resulted in another baby thinking it was supposed to be over there too. It plopped over, saw the original baby and soon realised it had made a mistake. From then on, the two trapped babies stuck together like glue. They swam around practically holding wings, chirping worriedly. An audience had been attracted and onlookers were worried - one guy was getting ready to wade into the water and cup the ducks up to offload them back to the other side. However, these babies were now a team. They were determined to get over that mini waterfall and they padded onto the rocks with their tiny duckling feet and tried to hop over, resulting in the pair of them falling back to the wrong side. By now the crowd was making noises, encouraging them along. They tried it one more time, and this time they both made it over safely. We all applauded and cheered. Mother Duck came scurrying over quacking like a maniac, presumably chastising them, and brought them back to the rest of the group. Now she was keeping a watchful eye on them at all times, not letting the entire brood out of her sight.
Now, that's a very long story and if you read it all then hopefully you were rewarded with the image of something extremely cute. If not, just know that Sefton Park is pure win for animal lovers, and the little ducks and the swans are great friends to go and treat with your stale bread leftovers. It's fabulous fun.
A gem of Sefton Park is its famous Palm House, an incredible glass structure that's toasty warm and home to some amazing plant and flower life. This too attracts a wide variety of people, from grandparents taking the little ones out to learn about plants to couples on romantic strolls. There are plenty of benches in there where you can rest your tired feet and drink in the gorgeous surroundings.
I've waxed on far too much about Sefton Park now. Just know that it's a fantastic place and if you're in Liverpool, particularly the already brilliant Lark Lane vicinity, you should head there as soon as you can. read more