Paris

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


museum. 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.

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.

I'm back!

Well at last the term and school year have finished, my lack of posting/blogging has been because I was making a sampler for my Head of English who is leaving us and going to have a year off. Why? just because having been a teacher since the early '80's she never had the chance of a "gap year", so she plans to take some holidays. I filled her sampler with her achievements and hobbies as well as the English Department. Jane loved it and is really looking forward to her break.
Back soon.
Jane

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

Performance

Last Wednesday Em did her star turn at Guides in the talent show, and performed her own composition "Rocking the Souls" on her electric Guitar. It sounded great, the other girls also took their star turn and performed skipping rhythms, Dance, Poetry reading, Singing, Jokes and finally the senior guides sang "on top of Spaghetti" to the Tune of "On Top of Old Smokey" It was a brilliant evening which we all enjoyed.

On Monday this week the English department went to see the Poetry Show which was a performance for GCSE students travelling around the local theatres. It was a presentation of the poems from the AQA Anthology and Heaney & Clarke or Duffy & Armitage. The show appealed to the students and had quite a bit of humour in it, certainly it was worth every penny of the ticket price.

My present knitting project is a Ranger Doll for Em as we are hoping to start the new Unit after Easter. The pattern is Jean Greenhowe's Mascot Doll booklet - Guide which I adapt with colours to fit the doll I'm making. Jane x