Archery Practice

   Last Saturday I was practising with my 30 pound recurved bow. I'd been doing it for a while, occasionally hitting what I aimed at, when one time I did something different. I drew back the bow, and everything felt perfect, just right, so smooth and...just right. Then I released the arrow...and the perfect moment was spoiled, as the bowstring came back and slapped me, hard, in the arm....Funnily enough, I yelped and dropped the bow.

And no, I am not clever enough to take photos of myself, Clare took these ones.

    I don't usually wear the arm guard I made because the bowstring never hit me in the arm before, I must have been holding it wrong. But no matter how it happened, it happened and it hurt. 
   I did it a few more times, just to finish of the round of arrows that I had been shooting, and to see it my arm guard worked, it didn't, so I got slapped it the arm again, and it didn't hurt less the second time...or the third time...

   I didn't pay much attention to where the arrows went and Clare and Alice were both too busy watching my face when the string slapped me, so it wasn't a surprise that I lost two arrows. Apparently my face was rather funny. I found one later that day, but I haven't found the other one yet.
   I had a really big bruise on my arm. It was a very nice colour, all black and blue, with a nice red/pink outline. On Sunday the red outline had faded a bit, but it still looked so nice and...painful. For the next two days it turned more purple, and today it is a nice, or not-so-nice, greeny-yellow. 

   Yesterday I did some more archery, making sure I held the bow wrong of course. I was aiming for the same tree, and I actually managed to hit it a reasonable amount. I hit it with 8 arrows out of the 19 that I was shooting. The only problem was that they stuck in the tree...But luckily none of them hit really high up so they were all within reaching distance from a ladder, some were quite hard to pull out, but I got them all. 

   I also got another injury from my archery practice yesterday: sore fingers. Mainly from the arrows when they scrape past my fingers when I release them. So I've got a big bit of skin missing off my finger. Well, it isn't actually that big, but for something that is supposed to be there but isn't there, it is quite big. 
   If you didn't understand that last sentence, rest assured, I don't either...maybe I should stop now...

~ Jane, Misty Maiden