Living Arrows 2021 – Week 23 – Mummascribbles

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”

I have missed a couple of weeks of this. With a mixture of illness in the house and entertaining our loved ones for the first time in ages, I just haven’t got round to sitting and writing. But here I am, making time!

This weekend we did something we have wanted to do since we moved here – canoeing! We live a ten minute walk from the River Ouse and we always see people canoeing, kayaking, and paddle-boarding up and down, and then when the weather started perking up a bit earlier in the year, we discovered that there is a hire company that parks up by the meadow and you can hire the boats out from them. It has been our mission to get on that river!

We were initially going to go on Bank Holiday Monday but we changed plans so that my family could come over. Then Oscar was poorly with croup again so we couldn’t go during half term week, but thankfully they are there on weekends at this time of year. Saturday was out of the question because the other half was heading down to London for a garden wedding reception, and so we thought we would probably try for Sunday. The other half took the dog for an early walk, and while he was there, he booked us a slot at 12pm. The kids were so excited when I told them.

We arrived, got our life jackets, and were briefed on how to row the boat! We had a 2 hour booking so we headed up the river, following it round for a while, looking for fish in the water, seeing cows along the edge, going under bridges, and seeing lots of lovely wildlife. The boys were nervous at times but for the most part, they thoroughly enjoyed it. We managed to plonk ourselves at the edge under a tree so we could eat some sandwiches, and then we headed back the other way to the start. We arrived just as the bells were chiming 2pm, so we had managed to do exactly 2 hours!

By the end of it, my arms were aching a bit and my bum and back were in bits when I got out of the boat! But it was honestly the best time. I mean there was a tiny bit of moaning from the kids and a couple of arguments, but overall they loved it and declared it the best day ever. The best thing is that it is right on our doorstep. And as we are planning on living here for a very, very long time, it will be accessible to us whenever we want (in nice weather anyway!).

I’ve popped a few photos from our trip because they are most definitely the highlight for the boys! It was a close call though – they did get a new paddling pool too!