New friends

Yesterday Jack and I opted for a quiet day. No galleries or bus tours or pushing prams up hills. We headed to the botanic gardens which are only a couple of blocks from where we are staying for some dog free free ranging. There are some lovely gardens in town but they are fenced and only for the residents that live around them. I know this because I asked a parking inspector if I could get in to the ones on Queen Street and he said, "No Hen, you canna go in."
The fact that he called me hen wasn't disturbing. I thought it was sweet. It's like when people here call Jack a sweet, wee laddie. If I said it I'd sound like a right eejit, but not the lovely Scots. So Jack and I walked to the gardens and they were indeed very fine. As we were walking along, for Jack to his delight had been liberated from his pram, Jack was going up to people and saying hello. We ended up meeting a lovely family: Adam who is two and a half, his Dad Chris and his great Auntie Maureen, who I think goes by the nickname of Momo. Adam had a new ball and was determined that Jack was not getting his hands on it. Chris and Momo would say, "Give Jack the ball," and he would answer in a very definite way, "No!"
It became a bit of a game with him running away from Jack and Jack chasing him and the ball. In the midst of all this chasing they managed to clamber over a fossilised tree that had big signs on it saying do not climb on this tree. Whoops.Maureen produced food from her magical bag to feed not only herself and Chris and Adam but also Jack who was shameless and very taken with the straw in his juice. Lunch being done with, two rackets and a ball were produced from the bag and with Adam distracted, Jack was able to get his hands on the ball and he didn't want to let it go.We had a lovely time, afterwards strolling through some more of the gardens till we had to leave to take Jack back to the apartment for his nap (and he was tired). It was so nice to meet such a warm, generous family and join in their picnic fun.