Just dropping by dear friends to say hello,
we have been at Girlguiding Centenary Camp all of last week in Cudham, Kent. Our two centenary ducks came with us - Barry (yellow) belongs to the Guides and Gertie (blue) belongs to the Rangers. They feature in many of the photos wearing our unit necker, they are substituting for the girls. On the Sunday evening we had the opening ceremony and then the Take That Experience which was brilliant. We had a wonderful time during the week filled with lots of activities; On Monday we went to Downe House, former home of Charles Darwin. In the afternoon we walked to Downe Activity centre where the girls got the chance to do lots of physical activities: aerial walk way, climbing, zip wire, shooting, grass sledding and Go-Karts.
On Tuesday we had bungee trampolining and rock wall climbing with faith and guiding history in the afternoon. In the evening we had a talent show for our sub-camp.
On Wednesday we had a day trip to Brownsea Island which was just fantastic despite getting thoroughly soaked in a downpour. Our centenary ducks enjoyed planning their route around the island and got really excited when we got off the coach as they spotted a statue of Lord Baden-Powell and wanted to have a photo taken (so did the girls).
We then got on two yellow ferries which took us across to the Island. We had challenges to complete so we spent the day finding various places on the island, e.g. The public hide, the church - were we sheltered from the rain,
The memorial stone - where two of our girls made their promise as Rangers and then as a group we re-made our promise.
We visited the trading post and found some lovely things to buy! We walked on down to the crabbing, and sand art on the beach. Then it was time to catch the yellow ferries, and eat fish and chips on the coach coming back. On Thursday we learnt about making knots and lashings, camping gadgets, wood fires and cooking on fires,
In the afternoon after our picnic lunch we did crafting - making bracelets, mosaic tile, iris folding, an Ocarina and a photoframe.
Each girl had the chance to do three crafts all predetermined by ticket. On Friday we watched a display by the Metropolitan Police Dog Team then the finals of the tent pitching and rounders. After lunch we had a fete to raise money for the Kent Air Ambulance, we had a pick a card table, every go wins a prize and did very well. Our final evening had arrived and it was time to say good bye. We had the final of Cudhams Got Talent and then the closing ceremony and finally an Abba tribute band. Saturday morning we packed everything up and went home, exhausted but happy as we had a wonderful week . We made lots of friends and swapped badges, we also left a couple of badges to go onto the giant necker for the campsite.
Last week we visited Paris, T's cousin had a liver transplant and is slowly recovering as things didn't quite go according to plan. We also managed a little sightseeing during the days, we went up the Tour Montparnasse and marvelled at the views of Paris. We walked around the shops close to the Notre Damme and St Michaels fountain
, along the way we found the church of St Severin and marvelled at the beautiful old stained glass windows although there are some new ones as well. we tried to visit the Chateau Versailles but the queues were so long we would have been waiting for nearly 4-5 hours so we went to find St Germain-En-Laye and walked around the village. This week has been spent going out with friends to the pictures and a local
I have managed to find some time for my cross stitch and I have finished my Mary Wigham which was a pattern available from Needleprint. I started last summer and worked away at a great speed loving every stitch, but then I had to stop for samplers to be made for friends leaving/christmas stitching/knitting etc I have picked it up and done little bits during the year, but I managed to finish Mary Wigham this morning. I am delighted with the finished piece, I just need to decide how I want to display it, framed, or backed and on a dowel.
Here is the before in October and the finished piece 
today.
