The Golden Ratio

The Grandparents were sitting in front of the Leicester game this morning avidly watching Leicester City just squeeze a draw with West Ham. Huffle and I made a picnic for later in the day and everyone got themselves ready for a morning of Archery for the Cubs and Scouts. We knew they were in a tournament but knew little else. As I was ready first (now that really is unusual), I drove the boys to the Scout Camp where we arrived before anyone else. This gave us the opportunity of being in the sunshine next to the river so we decided to go down to the bridge and investigate. Here we found Salmon trying to jump the waterfall and swim upstream in order to get to their spawning ground. Apparently they only live for five years and most of that time is spent trying to jump waterfalls and swim upstream to lay their eggs and die. Poor things. It was fascinating watching them jump, they certainly had some stamina. We were joined by another Scout and their parents and eventually Huffle with Grandma and Grandad.

Inside the building there was a table with two people behind it (Scouting types) who took names, registered the kids and took our money. One beaver leader was there (as a parent with her Cub) and one Cub Leader (as a parent and leader with his Cub). No-one gave the Cubs any instructions despite the fact that Smallest has never ever done any archery before, apart from which eye to close when lining up the bow (apparently I am a Left Eye Archer). There was quite a lot of talk about 'ratios' of child to adult or leader. The room was locked and a red light put on before she announced "the room is hot". It was straight into the tournament for the three Cubs today. MrsLeader was with her child, MrLeader was with his child which left Huffle to help Smallest. Huffle hasn't done archery before either so it was quite frustrating for them both. I dared to walk forward past the safety line and asked the LadyScouter who was in charge if Small could help instead as he was more experienced and she said "you can talk to me but I can't look at you" very health and safety conscious and took her archery watching very seriously. She did allow Small to coach and help Smallest due to the fact that he was also a Scout form the same group. Smallest did very well and hit the target several times. After ten fired arrows, they were allowed to leave their 'line', retrieve their arrows if they weren't stuck in the target and put them back in their holder. Then we could all leave the room.

It was the Scouts next and there were three of them (one who had his own bow but wasn't allowed to use it and who Small thought was his biggest competition. Actually both of the other boys have their own bows and practice regularly). Small got most of his on the target plus a bulls eye. He scored 36 out of 100 which was the third best out of all the competitors including the adults.

We stood for what seemed like hours in the basement watching the three scouting people enter things on a computer, look at pieces of paper, pick out lots of medals, talk, talk some more and eventually after some help from MrsLeader (MrLeader had left as soon as his son had finished!!) we got to go outside for the ceremony. There was a lot of picking up badges and sorting badges and laying of badges on the table, looking at pieces of paper again and talking and more talking between themselves and finally they called out "is 4th Whitby here?" NO? "Is 2nd pickering here?" NO! "Is 1st Ajax here". NO! This went on a few more times and MrsLeader suddenly shouted out. "We are Claremont and they are Toronto so can we assume the rest aren't here?". It was perfect and just what I wanted to say but daren't. It was a bit abrupt but did the job. We got on with the medal giving. Small got a 1st and his two scout mates got a 2nd and 3rd for winning team. Then the Tornoto people all got their awards. They were very good fun and good sports and everyone clapped and cheered and even though Small took the Golden Arrow award from them by beating them in the last minute, they seemed really pleased for him. Small was very happy to receive the Golden Arrow for the best overall scorer. He was actually the third best overall but the Scouty People made an executive decision and gave the award to a child rather than one of the two adults who scored more. Good for them.

The dudes waiting

We went back and watched the Salmon jumping but unfortunately there were some silly idiots in the river scaring the fish away. We did see some once they left but it wasn't quite as good.

We made our way to Frenchmans Bay with our chairs, balls and picnic and sat on the beach for the rest of the afternoon, stopping off for a quick ice cream break on the way. It was a lovely afternoon, relaxing, playing frisbee, jackers and catch, skimming stones, collecting stones and eating our picnic. The afternoon was only marred by some foul mouthed youths who decided to swim in the lake. I had to go and have a word with them and I told them to change their language as it was disgusting and my nine year old was listening. I told them if they didn't I would take their skate board away. What a Wally, I can't believe I said it but they did stop and eventually go away. We also had a mini Easter egg hunt where we couldn't hide them because they weren't in wrappers. They were hidden in people's mouths and hands and two of Grandmas fell in the sand!

Another Gold award (egg) for Small

Grandad being a teapot (supposedly skimming stones!)

The frisbee went in the lake and the boys all helped get it out!

We all had too much sun and forgot our suncream - very naughty but it didn't feel THAT warm, possibly because of the lake breeze, WHOOPS! We came home for Beans on Toast and a cup of tea before Tv and bed. Super day.

Huffle and I had a late YES RUN and found some lovely things emerging. Scilla, Daffodil, Hepatica, Pulmonaria

 

 

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