Both the grandsons were initially keen to be taken out in the boat, but the Pocket Rocket went off the idea as soon as it came to the point of being helped into it. “I’m not scared!” he said. “HE’S scared!”, indicating his older brother – who made no bones about the fact that, yes, he was scared, but who was determined to overcome his fear. It took most of the morning, and gentle counselling and suggestions from four of his grown-ups, to get him over the fear barrier, but he made it in the end.
H was the first to realise that, never having worn one before, B didn’t trust the life jacket, so he suggested adding water wings to his safety equipment. This almost did the trick, but not quite. Then B himself added the shark fin float, but that didn’t seem to help either. Finally, with H and L waiting in the boat, me down on the launch platform, R up on the terrace and B half-way between us, hanging onto the ladder and still saying that he was too scared to go, I decided that it was time to call a halt. “OK,” I said. “You’ve made your decision, and it’s totally fine. You’ll be able to do it another time. Let’s go back up now.” But as I put a foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, the Boy said, “NO! I’m going!”, slipped down and past me, and stepped off the platform into his mother’s arms. Kneeling down between her legs and looking around him – “Oh!” he said. “I’m in the boat!” I don’t think I was the only adult present who had something in their eye at that moment.
By the time H had paddled a couple of times round the Mere B was completely relaxed, and as the canoe came back into the bank he had a huge grin on his face. By this time his Daddy had arrived back at the house with the Rocket, who’s currently in training for an attempt on the land speed record on his older brother’s scooter, and as the Boy now wanted another trip round the lake, H took over Rocket-wrangling duties while G took L and B for second ride. One of my photos of this outing shows B facing forwards, leaning back against his mother with a dreamy look on his face and trailing one hand in the water, which put me somewhat in mind of the Lady of Shallot, drifting down to Camelot.
Earlier in the day I’d been out with L for my first ever trip in a canoe, and loved it. After watching the way the Offspring had to fold their long legs in order to sit down, I’d initially said that I was going to have to pass because my damaged knees weren’t up to the job, but L – still in “It’ll be fine!” mode – pretty much insisted that I should at least try. When my highly inelegant effort actually worked, I didn’t go quite as far as saying “Oh! I’m in the boat!”, but it’s essentially what I was thinking. We paddled twice round the Mere, pausing to laugh at a group of teenage girls on paddle boards being mugged for food by a family of Mallards, and drifting in to a couple of the reed beds to admire the dragons and damsels that flew around us, and I was sad when it was time to go back. R took today’s second photo on his phone as we were paddling back in towards the house – the expression on my face speaking less of the fun time I’d had, I think, than concern about how I was now going to extricate myself from the canoe.
After lunch it was time for L to take the boat back to the Activity Hub, and – how things change! – when the Boy saw me putting on a life jacket, he scowled and said, “Why are you going with Mummy?” I lifted a mock-stern eyebrow and said, Because it’s my turn again, that’s why.” He grinned and said, “Oh. OK then,” and scampered off around the estate with the rest of the O-B ’26 crew, to help us land the canoe on a grassy slope on the other side of the Mere, and get it onto its wheels for transportation. As you can see from my third photo, the Rocket was quite keen to see the back of it.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve almost reached the end of our week (though we’ll definitely believe it tomorrow, as our 9am checkout deadline looms). We’ve had a great time, and made some special memories, and R and I feel very lucky.
R: L2, C10, D77.
