Living Arrows 23/52 (2021)

I know I’m a bit late in the week again with this post. One of these days I’ll get my self organised to write my Living Arrows post on a Sunday night ready for Monday morning like I always used to! The boys have been back at school for a couple of days now after a lovely half term holiday. Barry took the boys to see his parents at the start of the week, we spent a few days at home and then on Thursday we headed up to the Lakes for three nights of camping!

Although I did loads of camping growing up, and even worked on campsites in France for six years, last summer was the first time we had ever taken Toby and Gabe camping. Neither of them slept very well until they were three or four and I could never face trying to get them to sleep in a tent! But they are both brilliant sleepers now, and given the restrictions over the last year or so, camping is the perfect break.

We were staying on a site just north of Penrith – it was quite small but had everything we needed. If you’re looking for a family friendly campsite then I would definitely recommend Mains Farm in the Eden Valley. There was plenty of space for the boys to run around and play, and it was small enough that we were comfortable with them going on the playground, or to the toilet block by themselves. They even managed to make friends with some other children on the site – something I never did when I went on holiday with my parents!

We had a fairly chilled out time while we were away. On Friday we had a wander by the lake in Keswick before coming back to the site for lunch, then we had a wander into the local village in the afternoon. On Saturday we went to Lowther Castle, somewhere I’ve been wanting to take Toby and Gabe for ages, mostly because of the epic ‘lost castle’. The lost castle is a massive wooden play structure in the woods. It was pretty busy when we were there despite supposedly limited numbers being allowed into the castle but we still had a great time.

I took both of this week’s pictures while were at Lowther Castle (although you wouldn’t know it as they’re both close ups!)

Gabe posing with his arms open, wearing a cap and mirrored sunglasses

As you can probably tell from the sunglasses and hats we had lovely weather while we were away. It makes such a difference when you’re camping when it doesn’t rain! It was pretty cold at night but we managed OK with that too.

Close up of Toby smiling and wearing a cap

Even though we had a fab holiday, sleep in a tent isn’t always the best and I think we all came home more tired than when we went. We were definitely grateful for the in service day that the boys had on Monday!

I hope you all had a lovely half term whatever you got up to, and that the sun shone for you too.

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.

Living Arrows

4 thoughts on “Living Arrows 23/52 (2021)

  1. I still haven’t taken ours camping. Everyone else seems to have an amazing time camping but I know I’d be pants at it! I loved it as a kid though x

  2. Ahhh I would love to take the boys camping but the husband isn’t a camper and the most we have ever managed is one night! Sounds like a great campsite and thanks for the tip on the castle as we are planning a few nights in Penrith over the Summer x

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