New geese in Josaphat Park

This couple of Canadian geese live in the Josaphat Park in Schaerbeek, a Brussels commune. There are only three couples of this same breed in the park.

Today, I met their eight new chicks. They were just out. They are the first of all chicks this year in the park. My picture captures their first steps.

And I was so happy to see that the parents managed well. It is not easy to have so many chicks in a park where the foxes roam during the night and the dogs run during the day. I can only hope they will be able to survive all the challenges they face in a park like Josaphat, where the laws of nature rule.

Josaphat Park in Brussels

I just have to walk one hundred meters from my Brussels house and I am in Parc Josaphat.

The park's size is equivalent to twenty football fields plus three large ponds. It has a good team of gardeners and keepers, it is a pleasant and safe place for a walk or a family outing. Children love its playground. The park has attracted a lot of younger families to this district of town. That has had a positive impact on the housing market and the purchasing power around the area.

My daily routine, when I am in Brussels, is to walk for about 70 minutes in the park. And after so many walks, I know all those who walk the same schedule I do, including a small number of very nice  retired manual workers that came to Belgium from Morocco some fifty years ago. They love to spend their mornings wandering the pathways. Actually, the park is a melting pot of languages and ethnicity.

The following pictures were taken today, Two of them show the kind of activities the communal authorities organise in the park to keep the children busy and their younger parents happy.