The Royal Wedding, Camping and Work

May Day bank holiday weekend was not only the Royal Wedding, for which I was glued to the television for most of the day; it was a beautiful ceremony filled with very special moments of happiness between the Royal couple which was a joy to see.

It was also our annual joint Scout and Guide Camp at Petworth Park. The theme was the Royal Wedding. We had lots of activities, wonderful weather and great company. This is a view of the park around the lake complete with deer in the distance and geese in the foreground. A photo of our mess tent decorated with bunting. I knitted a crown teacosy for the weekend to keep my tea pot warm. I found the pattern on the website of the designer Debi Birkin. It took me approximately a week to knit up in the evenings and I added a lining by knitting another layer of purple to go inside. The cosy was very popular and raised many admiring comments over the weekend, and kept my teapot lovely and warm.

Work for the first part of this year has been an unhappy and stressful environment to be in, as we are facing cutbacks and possible redundancies. Hopefully the situation will be resolved in the next fortnight or so, but in the words of the WW2 poster we will keep calm and carry on. I hope you have a good week Jane x

Half Term

This week is half term for us, so we've been to Dorset and visited my family. We walked around the village stopping so Em could do bark rubbings and photograph natural forms for her art homework. We visited Charmouth in the quest for some fossils, but Uncle Tom Cobley and all were there and the fossils were hiding although we found some possibilities.

We've been up to London to visit the Docklands museum for the 100 Years of Guiding exhibition which was brilliant, but if you want to go you'll have to be quick because tomorrow is the last day! If you do go don't forget to ask for your free badge if you are a member of Girlguiding.

We went to the Sea Life Centre in Brighton yesterday; as its a few years since our last visit we noticed lots of changes to the displays. It was very good and we loved the trip on the glass bottomed boat, the turtles were amazing. Em was delighted to be able to collect a piece of Broccoli to throw to the turtles. Today we are hoping to visit the Pumpkin Farm at Slindon so I will post some pictures later. Jane

Time flies again

Again time has flown and my blog has been neglected. My excuse? well the end of the summer holidays passed in a blur of illness so my break in Dorset with the family was spent mostly in bed ill - yuck!

Though we did manage a day out in Swanage which was perfect. We caught the steam train from Norden just north of the village of Corfe, and chuffed sedately down the line to Swanage. Then at a leisurely pace we explored the town stopping to visit the wool shop. We had lunch at a lovely cafe on the seafront and then a wander along the promenade, stopping to watch Punch and Judy. At the end of the day we retraced our steps to the station for another steam ride back to Norden. (big silly smile,) I love steam trains, Tony prefers diesels that fill up the canopy with clouds of thick black smoke and their engine sounds so unique.

Friday 3rd was back to school, the shock of a 6am alarm, dark mornings, Em in year 10. Oh my goodness! We have heaps of admin work, lunch breaks have become a distant dream, hopefully things will settle down soon.

Home life is a lovely contrast though, I have completed another cross stitch picure, this beautiful poppy from last years Crossstitcher magazine.

Rangers started again on Wednesday with a visit to our local museum to see the 100 years of Girlguiding exhibition with a slide show after of photos of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell. Which most of the girls seemed to enjoy.

Saturday was our Autumn Fair, sadly the weather wasn't kind and it poured on and off all day. The Rangers ran the cake stall and did quite well, there were lots of delicious cakes for sale as well as a tombola, bouncy castle, raffle, coconut shy etc. typical then that Sunday was glorious weather!

I'm just off to make a cup of tea now and do a bit of stitching, my new project is Quaker Christmas.

Its stitched in a very dark (almost black) green, gold and red.

I hope you have a lovely week, Jane x

150th Post Celebrating Our Centenary Camp

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.

Pasties and Holidays

Another month has flown by! Em made Ham and Cheese pasties, delicious! But the dairy free homemade pastry was a disaster so she had to make them with bought pastry that she couldn't eat. Em also made a salad which had to be high in protein and vitamins; she used lettuce, anchovies, sundried tomatoes, smoked salmon, cashew nuts, raisins and olives with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We had it with new potaoes for our evening meal and it was delicious (just a bit on the salty side). With the Rangers/Girl Guides we went to visit our local RSPB reserve and spent the evening pond dipping and looking at moths. With the pond dipping each team of four had to see how many species they could find. In our tray there are 16 species! This week was half term which we spent in the Cotwolds. We stayed in a National Trust property on the edge of the Lodge Park & Sherborne Estate. It was a very peaceful place to stay, we had a comfortable two bedroom lodge cottage with beautiful views across open countryside in front of the property. Blue Tits were nesting in the cottage wall, chaffinches, greenfinches and blackbirds nesting in the hedges and deer walking in the fields down to the woods. We visited The Cotswold Wildlife Park which was brilliant, Cheltenham, Upton House and Gardens (N.T.), Burford, Bourton on the Water, Stow in the Wold, Cirencester and Bibury. Bibury is very picturesque, like Stow and Bourton, with a stream full of trout and a row of beautiful stone cottages and busy with tourists during the day but peaceful and lovely in the evening which was when we visited. The lanes back to the cottage were festooned with blossom and the occasional baby rabbit dashed away into the long grass. We also saw a pair of Partridge (Mr & Mrs) crossing the lane. Back to school on Monday! I hope you have a good week. Jane x

Time flies when you are having fun!

Goodness where has the time gone! Easter was yesterday.... wasn't it? I have been busy cross stitching for a swap with a fellow guider, it is to commemorate the centenary/100 years of Girlguiding and she is making a quilt of squares which 100 of us have decorated. Em has been busy in food tech creating salads this one was made using cheezley, continental lettuce, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, apricots and cashew nuts dressed with a mix of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was delicious and disappeared very quickly.
Last weekend - 1st May was a holiday on the Monday, so the Guides, Rangers, Scouts and Explorers were taking part in a joint camp at the local National Trust House - Petworth Park.
The Saturday was lovely bright, dry and occasionally sunny with lots of activities to do. Zorbing, Kayaking, rafting, zipwire and craft activities. on the Sunday it poured with rain but there was stillplenty to do; rock climbing, abseiling, zip wire, rafting, Kayaking, drumming, glass engraving, sweet making, candle making, decorating pencil cases with fabric pens, pyrography and Radio shack. The girls had a wonderful time and went home tired and happy on the Monday.
At the moment I am recovering from a nasty throat infection which left me without a voice yesterday. :-)
Hope you have a good week Jane x

Easter Holidays and Happy Easter wishes

Hoorah! the holidays have begun, so we are busy with the family but looking forward to the lazy mornings. I have been busy with Guides/Rangers and working towards a camp holiday in May. Em has been busy trying out recipes and made a Thai Curry rice with tofu. Without the tofu it was a lovely tasty dish :-) As we will be busy for the next few days I'll wish you Happy Easter and hopefully get back to blogging during the holidays. Jane