the curious bench

This bench is in the park area just below my faculty building. I end up walking through the park sometimes on the way to tutorials and meetings. It has a wildlife area, with some ponds surrounded by wildflowers and notices telling you not to feed the ducks, a small playground, a straighforward parky bit big enough to play a couple of football matches on and this bench:



It's an odd thing. I'm not sure if the ladderish raised spiral was supposed to be raised beds or turfed, but they've ended up as grass with grooves worn by the feet of small children climbing it. My guess is that the adult sits on the bench at the end and then the child sneaks up and leaps on the adult's back, though I've not seen this in action.

It has a surprisingly satisfying curve, which looks good from pretty much any angle.