Nanny State?

As a freaky freak who enjoys swimming outdoors without a wetsuit I'm well used to the bemused reaction of passers by and bank/shore side experts. This is one of the main messages that sis Nic and I have been promoting this year through Blue Sky Swimming - understanding and judging risk, taking personal responsibility, enjoying the strength and confidence gained from pushing yourself a little out of the sanitised safety strangled world we live in day to day....but this weekend, I experienced a new set of disapproving reactions!

When sisters Belinda, Nic and me were young fen girls we used to skate (without adult supervision) in hard winters on the Carr Dyke at the top of our field. There is a noble tradition of fen skating - just look at the passages in Waterlog recounting tales of races in the Cambridge fens. Belinda will even tell you how she was skating on ice BEFORE birth!

So imagine our delight when we went out in the sparkling sun yesterday to test out the canal at Redmile behind our house. This is a walk we often take with our young boys enjoying the wildlife and change of seasons. Because of this familiarity and knowledge of our local environment, we knew that the canal is clear, slow moving and only about 3-4 feet deep. By testing out a core drill (cutting off the top of an immersed plastic bottle and extracting!) we could see that the ice was a minimum of 18" thick across the canal. So, safety checks complete, we set off to skate up the canal enjoying this once in a decade or two phenomenon. I see this as an important lesson for my clever little boys in understanding the difference between thin ice danger and how moving water causes the ice to thin at the edges. Felix and Leo will never be unprepared or expose themselves to stupid risks because they have grown up exposed to real life and the potential dangers of outdoor life.

How sad that the other children in the village were not enjoying this special treat and how sad that the reaction we got from most was disapproval of our obviously highly irresponsible parenting!!

OK, rant over!

Here's the pics