Wat-er Day in the Pool

I was sitting in a friend’s garden recently watching their children playing in a paddling pool during an unusually hot spell for this country. Well I say ‘paddling pool’, it looked more like a swimming pool to me. The friends are somewhat younger than me and can’t remember the days when gardens were tiny, lawns were not for playing on and grass was certainly not for wetting. To enjoy fun anywhere near water meant long bus or car trips to the seaside carrying beach balls, buckets and spades, the all-important picnic and of course something to drink. If you were lucky this would be nice hot tea from a Thermos flask or freshly made with the aid of a camping stove; if you weren’t so lucky you just got the water that had warmed up on the journey! If a day at the seaside was not forthcoming you could make do with the boating lake in the local park, either way the water-apparel would often be a knitted garment, quite ineffective at covering oneself up due to the fact that as soon as it got wet it would stretch and stretch!

Most people, when looking back to childhood summers, remember long days, lots of sunshine, great picnics and perhaps memorable days when it was hot enough to play outside in a paddling pool in somebody’s garden. This sort of activity took some planning and to start with would entail some poor adult having to blow the paddling pool up, whilst being surrounded by all the excited children in the neighbourhood. If you weren’t allowed to get the grass wet in the garden you were playing in, then the pool would be sited on the hard surface or patio outside the house. Next came the filling of the thing, from either the garden hose or a relay of buckets, no precious hot water allowed – well, maybe just a little to take the edge off the cold. Perhaps a squeeze of washing up liquid to make a few bubbles and to make sure the dirtiest kids went home a little cleaner.

These days, as well as the traditional style of pool as described above, you will find strong inflatable and rigid affairs that look more like garden swimming pools and are designed for the larger garden. Gone are the days, however, of inflating the pool with lung-power alone. The inflatable type can be blown up with a foot or electronic pump and you only have to inflate one ring which rises to its full height as the pool is filled with water. The ring then forms a rigid and safe top ring to the pool. They are easy to empty too, all you need to do is connect an ordinary garden hose to the special valve and let it drain away.

The kind of pool my friends have is one with rigid sides which are supported by a metal framework of interlocking rustproof poles, much like tent poles, so it’s easy to put up. I’m sure you’ve seen the type; they’re often seen collapsing and spilling their contents all over the garden in programmes like ‘You’ve Been Framed’! Again the pools are simple to empty (especially if you use the ‘You’ve Been Framed’ method!) and usually come with a ladder and protective weather cover included.

The size of these kinds of garden swimming pools means that they hold a great deal of water and the use of a water filtration system is advised, to help keep the water clean and free from harmful bugs. However, even if the water is filtered it is still advisable to change the pool water from time to time especially if it has been standing for some time. Needless to say children should be supervised at all times as the water in these big pools is quite deep.

So that’s my trip down memory lane with regard to my childhood and water games, think I’m more of an outdoor hot-tub man these days, but that’s another story!

Fun in a paddling pool is just one of the hundreds of interesting things to do at the weekend that can be purchased as a gift or for yourself from My Outdoor Store. Follow the link to discover our vast selection of days out ideas.