If your house is anything like ours right now, it's halfway through summer holidays and cabin fever is building amongst the urchins. Local pets have all been petted to near baldness, swimming pools swum and splashed dry and libraries pillaged for Charlie and Lola annuals and books on Pompeii (don't ask).
Then everything changed yesterday thanks to a couple of deliveries that opened up a whole new world of joy for the Kesteven clan. First box was our eldest daughter, Honor's first proper mountain bike courtesy of superb junior bike specialists Islabikes (
www.islabikes.co.uk). Cue instant love and excitement over everything from the new purple flash colourway to the 'proper knobbly' twenty inch Continental Explorer tyres.
Obviously we couldn't have Freya (her little sister) feeling totally left out though, so she got the second box of new basket and grip streamers for her 12in wheeled Schwinn. Plus with Honor now getting a serious speed increase from a lightweight, geared bike Freya will be hopping out of the child seat and taking Honor's place on the Trailerbike for longer rides.
Anyway, the Islabike (it's a Beinn 20 Lge if you want to be exact) and streamer decorated Schwinn have been razzing up and down our back lane ever since, and we're planning our first proper off road away trip this weekend.
Which gets me to the whole point of putting this here. There's nothing more fantastic than watching your kids catch that same cycling bug that you've got. With traffic so busy even on local and residential roads there's nowhere better for those first rides than Forest cycle trails.
We're not just talking the family routes at places you'll probably have already been to like Coed Y Brenin, Brechfa and Llandegla either. There are also other totally mellow wood and forest trails that are perfect for junior bikers, such as Garwnant and Glasfynydd (
www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6rlfd3) near the Brecon Beacons and Usk reservoir.
So if your kids are feeling a little cooped up this weekend, do exactly what you would do in their shoes and hit the trails with your whole tribe!
NB: If you are out this weekend and see a small blonde with streamers on her bars heading towards you at terrifying speed, laughing her head off do yourself a favour and get out of the way. Freya isn't showing much interest in stopping yet......