Our kids have always been very reluctant to join clubs but when they do finally agree they discover that they really enjoy it. For many parents it’s the other way round of course where there seems to be a club on every night I have found that heavy persuasion techniques work, sometimes I just tell them they are going! As they are getting bigger they are more likely to say yes but they do carefully consider all the implications of doing a new thing.
We have had a very full on winter here in Fort William ever since New Year there has been skiing on the hill which is pretty unusual and most weeks snow at valley level making getting to work and school very tricky. Putting chains on the car has become fairly routine until there was a dump of snow that even the car chains couldn’t cope with!
In a post last year called 'The River Wild', I explained how we had realised that before long we would have to expand into two canoes to be able to take Little Sister with us and allow James and Little Brother to become front paddlers in their own right. A stepping stone towards this was for me to get used to paddling at the stern.
I know the snow has only really hit the rest of the UK in the last few weeks but we have had pretty full on conditions right through January and February. The skiing opened on New Years Day and when the weather has allowed it’s been open every day since. Unusually though the snow has been down to valley level nearly constantly during that time and that has made trying to get to work and school very tricky. Some days of course it has been so bad the schools have been shut and that makes everyone’s life easy but on many days we have a very difficult mile and half to get to the main road.
Where do I start - well we have just returned from what I would describe as another world; Florida! Big, hot & busy!
Sometimes, you just have to accept that attempting to do anything outdoors with small children would just be sheer madness. No matter how committed you are, when the wind is 35 mph gusting 42 mph, you just know it’d be best to find something to do indoors instead. On one such day recently, we decided it was time to visit the climbing wall.
Over the years my two boys have delved into many an obsession - from Fireman Sam and tractors when they were younger, to Lego (specifically Ninjago) and the often unloved members of the animal world (crocodiles and sharks!). At the moment the 7yo is obsessed (in the way that only a 7yo boy can be) with raptors - birds of prey.
There is a spot near us on the North Wessex Downs where the wind whips across the top of the hills, sending trees swaying and children bent over as they battle against it to reach the top. It's also the site of Combe Gibbet, erected in 1676 to hang the murderous lovers George Broomham and Dorothy Newman. The one that stands today is a replica, but it's a grisly reminder of the past.
