When our eldest son was three he attended the local play group in Southery, Norfolk for a few weeks. He didn't enjoy it and often sought sanctuary in a quiet part of the garden, away from all the noise of unruly children and their mothers. One highlight, though, was a trip to Banham Zoo near Thetford - also in Norfolk. My wife took him and his younger brother who was just one year old. They had a lovely day out together and Nathan loved the quiet dignity of the animals.
Nathan is now nineteen and spent yesterday playing bass at a gig in Somerset while Sam is seventeen and has spent the weekend at a music festival in Wiltshire. Both are a long way from Norfolk. However, Hayley, who is fifteen, asked if we could have a trip out somewhere yesterday and so we wound up, after all these years, at Banham Zoo.
It is a lovely place - well laid-out with lots of room for all the animals - with polite and helpful staff. The highlight though, once again, was the uncomplicated peace. As our children grow up they become ever more confident and adventurous but, like Hayley yesterday, they can still be enchanted by the natural world.
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