Moon river, wider than a mile

This morning Ady and Davies watched Doctor Who on iplayer on Ady’s phone while Scarlett and I got involved in some communal baking. I decanted some honey from huge bucket to a smaller jar, not on the scale of Pen Y Bonc honey processing but it reminded me of that. Scarlett rolled out some pastry made by Carina for apple tart, blackcurrant tart and some biscuits and then cut out all the biscuits with their rather ecclectic assortment of cookie cutters. I peeled, chopped and arranged apple slices on the blind baked tart base.

Peter had been out at a sleepover last night but came back with his friend Ben for some canoeing. We loaded the canoe onto the car roof and Ed drove down the hill to park at the beach, we donned life jackets and then everyone was rowed across to a tiny island in the harbour. The four kids went off with a rucksack of food and drink and explored the island together, Ed and Carina went off in the canoe for an hour or so and then came back later with some sandwiches for lunch and Ady and I scrambled about on the rocks for a bit and then sat in the sunshine trying to come up with some negative ideas about moving to Scotland, hatching and planning and trying to decide if this really is where we want to be. We rather suspect it might be :).

We all had lunch and then rowed across the harbour to the other side which is mainland but juts right out into the loch. We had an explore of that including a bit of a hike up to a viewing point which was well worth the climb for the stunning views. The children decided to walk back via the village and the gym playpark, Ed had gone to a church meeting in the village so Carina, Ady and I rowed back across again. The canoe is fun, if slightly scary as it wobbles about so much and is so very receptive to every little shift in balance. Enjoyed it though and would like to have another go. If we move somewhere coastal we will definitely get some sort of rowing boat.

We went back to the house for cups of tea and Ed joined us. We made dinner and got it on hoping that between us we’d catch some fish to make it more interesting but ensured we had sufficient food incase we didn’t. Then Ady and I headed off with rods to the pier and Ed and Carina went out in the canoe with mackerel strips (length of line with tinsel hooks attached). Ady and I were quite excited when someone came and started fishing next to us and pulled a mackerel out on his first cast but sadly we didn’t replicated his success. Ed and Carina came rowing over to show us the six fish they had caught though having gone out to deeper water and found a schoal of mackerel. It started to rain so we called it a day and headed for home. We helped finish off dinner preparation and then feasted on fish – both kids really enjoyed it so fingers crossed we manage to catch some ourselves this coming week. After dinner the kids all watched a film while we sat and chatted before bed. It’s been a lovely weekend :).