Madhouse diaries : Alexandra Park aka Squirrel Park in Hastings

Every time we go to visit the family in Hastings, I ask the Madhouse kids what they'd like to do and it's always a foregone conclusion that they will unanimously come up with two ideas : the amusement arcades in the old town and the top end of Alexandra park by the reservoir to go squirrel hunting.

I love the wild, natural woodland walks in this part of the park, that contrast with the more structured flower beds in the first part.

We usually see dozens of squirrels straight away but this time, they'd made themselves a bit scarce, but the kids still had fun climbing trees and discovering twisted fallen tree trunks.

It wasn't too long before the first squirrel put in an appearance though and we'd come armed with peanuts to try to tempt them down from the trees.

We managed to get quite close but it was nothing like the tame squirrels eating out of our hands on our last visit. (If you haven't seen our little video, click through to have a look.)

The next stop was the swannery and the fishing lakes, including this one completely covered with lily pads. 

Cue lots more clambering around in the natural woodland playground.

We'd planned on feeding the ducks but they were all being chased off by a flock of seagulls, so we fed the huge fish instead. This proved to be quite entertaining because they leapt out of the water and put their big sucky mouths up to the surface to grab the food !

There was also a heron on the far side of the pond and a big cormorant drying out its wings in the sun.

We had a final attempt at finding some squirrels ...

... and this time, success ! They came down a bit closer to grab the peanuts that we threw out.

All that was needed to round off the perfect walk was a visit to the play area.