The Great Indoors and the return of outdoor section scouting

Today is August Bank Holiday Monday when as in another blog we look toward the return to school on what for many is a extended weekend best spent with family and naturally boys and girls.

As you know one of three things about this blog is it is about and supports Scouting for Children and Young people today rather than just being a nostalgic look at the past so as everybody in our Country had to adapt to Covid and H M Government advice so did Scouting whither or not it's BP-SA, the Scout Association or Girlguiding UK and that meant sadly face to face scouting as in meetings pack/troop activities where everyone was present had to be postponed.

That said Scouting is run by people who don't runaway from challenges did a lot to keep scouting running as not providing what children and young people need would be unthinkable.

Image credits: Scouting Association. 

The Great Indoors initiative was launched with activities that could be done socially distanced could be verified and so count within the program of beavers, cubs, scouts and so on for awards and so badges could be issued.

Support was provided for volunteers to use things like Zoom to run pack and similar meetings online so Cub/Scout night remained as a routine badly needed by children, children in scouting worked sending under #CareForCareHomes, with Scouts decorating ‘kindness rocks,’ writing cards and letters for residents in homes, to combat loneliness and improve mental wellbeing, which is what they also did to support young people with #Threefor3 as part of giving support to the community.

Scouting looked outward for those not in traditional membership with the Great Indoors Staged Activity Badge open to them of which over 9,000 have already been awarded and the Hike To The Moon project that raised 360,000 for Children in Need

The Great Indoors Weekender saw 120,000 children from 44 countries camp out at home as one making it the biggest online camp ever.

Now like school, Scouting in all its forms is starting to move toward a return to our traditions with careful thought and planning with the guidance as of August 25 2020 being indoor activities will be allowed and that children and young people will be in batches of 15 with up to 5 adults and that the children stay within that batch but the adults may move between batches at the same time and to a different section meeting at a different time on the same day.

The adults will not have to wear masks when they are delivering an activity, Scouts and Explorers will have to wear face masks indoors (mirroring high school practice) and all young people need to maintain 2 metres social distance from each adult.

That guidance is for "Amber" stage - the provisional readiness to restore a basic program of traditional scouting and nature further guidance will be issued over time.

That is terrific news for children and young people, back to being able to be together, having fun and learning useful skills  to take you forward.

Being this blog I couldn't resist having a traditional cub picture on the entry cos on this blog we deal with the past, my own scouting in spirit and scouting for today's boys (and girls) cos it's all the stuff that helped and is helping all of us move on.

The Majesty of Gardens

A different kind of exploration here compared with others is to take in the sights, smells and sounds of a garden in springtime and this, Bodnant Gardens in North Wales, U.K. is a good example of it with the blooms all out as you stroll around.

Identifying species of plant, insect and features fits around the broad heading of scouting even if it isn't stereotypical hiking armed with map and compass apart from being good for your mental well-being.

Nature even in a cultivated form is a marvel to enjoy and experience.

Photo from 2005 taken on film and carefully restored

A life ashore

One thing that comes into the canalside scene oddly enough are houses and these were built very much as place ashore for the better off canal boat users thus having moorings who worked taking goods to Runcorn enroute for the Port of Liverpool from the Potteries bringing chemicals on the return while others would either make their way across the Shropshire Union canal near Audlem or towards Wolverhampton and the Black Country, the larger very industrialized conurbation in the south of our county.

Canals were like motorways in the nineteen sixties and seventies and the internet is today, the conduit of the economy

While peaceful, some modern development has started to encroach this area while the properties themselves have gained things such as solar panels and grown skylights for loftspace converted into bedrooms.

This having spoken to long established residents would be no bad thing as they recall sharing in these that were only designed with two bedrooms which got more awkward as children grew up. 

Exploring the countryside

Given the time line of this blog obviously some explorations and hiking is missed out so today I thought I'd share one from Spring 2018 around the time I joined ASB and Tumblr that were to play big part in my recovery.

One thing we are not short of across this district is access to open fields and the countryside even from the more built up area of the city region and even from the smaller urban villages you may not have far to walk before you leave the brick faced uniformity for open countryside such as this.

Here the lambs get on with grazing in a field with a traditional late eighteenth century farm house present although it has been subject to alterations over the years before more control about such work was instituted.

In the background you can the ridges of Congleton Edge that form the boundary between Cheshire and Staffordshire although as anyone around here will tell you Biddulph, Leek and Congleton have far more in common with each other than the natural centres of their respective regions such as Birmingham and Manchester.

Really they all fall geographically within the North/North-west Midlands.

Kibblestone Camp

Going on a little from Wednesday's post and in some respects a hold over from July 3rds The Great Outdoors together post talking a little with my father brought out the fact he'd been to Kibbestone (International) Scout Camp which is near Stone here in North Staffordshire which was less than ten miles from where he lived with his parents and we're only just on the edge of the City Region so Cubs and Scouts in the Potteries North Scout District such as our villages go there.

When he went facilities were primitive which was accepted then not least for children living under wartime conditions just a matter of years before but it wasn't long before funds were raised to improve them. 

That was the front of the grand opening program showing the Cub Lair set in the woods which has been added to over the years.

In his day there were Wolf Cubs and these are wolf cubs just before they were replaced in early 1967 of the 114th Trentham Scout Group which is just on the south of the city near the famous Gardens and not very far from camp.

He loved Cubs and Scouts and even roughing it as he'd put in those days just for the pleasures of being out of thick smoke of where he lived in the days before the Clean Air Act that belched from the pottery works and peoples fires all from locally produced coal, having fun with other boys while learning stuff for life.

The Wolf Cub

Another one I ordered came from 1957, this would of been around the time my Father would of been in the Boy Scouts as he was a Wolf Cub a few years before.

One thing that is quite telling is the level of expectation when it came to your abilities being of the age to of been a Wolf Cub are quite high from the accounts of what people did, suggested activities, stories about being a scout and also the language used.

It has rigour written right through it.

Here are a few sample pages of which perhaps the most important is the illustrated story of Peter working on getting his badges, taking on fresh challenges and moving forward which is part of growing as a boy is all about. 

There is a good entry which I'll type out in full.

GOOD HUNTING TO ALL WOLF CUBS

THERE are two kinds of people in the world.
One is the kind that goes through life never getting any better or any worse.  Never trying anything new or trying to conquer hard things or learning something they didn't know before.
The other kind of people are those who spend every minute in learning something new; trying to do something they have never done before.
Most Cubs belong to this kind of people,.
They are always trying to get on.   When a Cub has gained his First Star he sets to work to learn the tests for his Second Star.  Then he tries for badges, so that he learns something about gardening and first aid and swimming, and badges which make him useful about the house.
Of course it is hard work, but a Cub likes that.  He lives up to the Cub motto-DO YOUR BEST.  A Cub is always doing his best in any job he takes up.
So Good Hunting to you-and jolly good Cubbing on the Jungle Trail 

Getting through this with my disabilities was a challenge, a very good example of a hard thing I rose to the challenge of wet, uneven and very muddy but I did it.
I have what it makes to be a good Cub and a true Scout.

The road ahead inspired from the past

After Friday's 500th edition, we'll get what this is about, and why currently we are on a three posts a week cycle which is issues around availability of good vintage scouting images not least Tumblr removing many blogs that collected them make doing what i used to do difficult.

As well I decided to try to up the user generated content on here so this blog really would stand out for being more than just a collection of  old scouting pictures but be about Scouting and my own explorations and activities.

Exploring can take you to odd things that survive like this Seveneenth Century cottage, actually three farmers cottages knocked into one nearby with it's thatched roof and tastefully restored some years back with a lovely big garden.

Not being able to at the time to the larger planned gardens due to the coronavirus restrictions was a drag but having that on my doorstep to spend time around enjoying the view and seeing the birds and insects was just lovely.

I also got during lockdown a few original Wolf Cub annuals of which this is one that cover the sorts of activities Wolf Cubs did as well as having fascinating information and inspirational stories.

I'm not of what you might call a collectors mentality, keeping them under lock and key but I have them for what any boy then was grateful to have them for, as things that inspire me to "Do Your Best" and grow as that person.

500th Post

Today we are marking the 500th post on Scouting and Me which was established in December 2018 on here and for a time also on Tumblr during a period with difficulties on that site and some issues to work through off it.

Way back on the first entry, the die was set as to what this blog is about, a boy who wasn't far removed from the one one the left of this picture who would of loved to been a cub scout who had brothers who were in it but whose parents failed to see it would of been of great benefit and for the disabilities I had and still have, actually the Scouting Association would of been prepared to had me and made any necessary adjustments while I remained just one of the boys in the pack.

Being involved in the sidelines helping my brothers out in their activities, having classmates who were in membership, takes us to one thing this blog is about which is it is a homage to that scouting past.

It's also about modern day scouting because even from my position on the fringes, it was  and is obvious scouting has huge benefits to boys (and today girls too) and the program run to equip them to be young adults and to play a responsible role in society and so supports it, referring to current activities, issues and programs.

It's also about making up for that lost opportunity by being a Wolf Cub in Spirit, undertaking similar exercises and activities, being prepared to take adventures and challenge myself using the practical skills to grow as a person maturing to at least the developmental limits I am capable of.

In the 500 posts I have grown a lot in stature, learned to be a lot more resilient being able to undertaking walks on terrains that would of terrified me, met some of my fears head on, grown as a 'boy' to the point I feel I can look any in the eye as an equal all as this adult but child-like person.

Picking up the baton of Scouting and embracing it has helped move me on.

This blog may have less posts than others I have but they are the most important posts in my life.

Framing up a landmark

As I make my way towards a landmark in this blogs history one important feature has always been images, sometimes sadly not always of quality I'd of liked given the vintage sources available.

It is also is entirely fitting this this blog notes that one thing I would of been awarded as a cub back then would of been my photography badge and that there is sufficient proof that the competence would be met by my own photographs on here. 

Photography as people who know another blog played apart in my life, something I learned as a boy in the era of film photography, getting serious with my Minolta X500 and XD7 camera bodies, marque lenses and accessories.

I also learned a bit from from my older brother who was a scout using his equipment as a young boy.

These days I use a combination of a Nikon D3500 digital single lens reflex with a few lenses and a Canon compact for the carried in coat pocket point and shoot pictures.

This life not least the scouting part of it has given me a lot especially since the Covid-19 Lockdown in March helping me as scouting has helped many boys (and girls) during period stay focused,make the most of the situation we are facing learn new things and do what we can waking a difference for the good.

Tranquility at the water's edge

This Monday we return to our canal side exploration.

Moored up while their owners are either resting or making their way on foot to the local stores to stock up on provisions before continuing on this is a lovely grouping of barges aka "Narrow Boats" along this stretch of the canal.

Old and new transportation intermingle here from delivery vans parked on a Public House car park to the barges of yesteryear both along the site of much industry until the mid 1930's today most peaceful.

The canal towpath can be seen on the far left.

Cubs and Scouts in the early 80's

Original source vintage youth groups

This week I was thinking back to a few years and that's where we are today on this blog.

The way things were in 1984 where I was going through a lot from leaving school, pretty much directionless and there was a lot of instability in the country.

There is a connection of sorts here in that the 1st Cippenham Scouts including the Cubs section here come from the mainly 1930's London overspill town of Slough, expanded much in the post war era and one of my form teachers originated from there.

As you may tell from this picture, Slough is a racially diverse place, a Unitary Authority within modern Berkshire on the Hounslow and Hillingdon border within the Greater London Urban Area something that in these times shows how Scouting accepts all regardless of  race and religion even that far back.

Also at that time as it was when I was younger, all Scouts was very much for Boys, the Girls having GirlGuiding and the uniform within Cubs was fairly traditional with a strong emphasis on being presentable and that reflects on the unit.

Of meadows and flowers

Today we're moving more at fauna and flora in exploring that area and we'll start here with this restful meadow with clovers which I loved.

Things that grow along the edges and hedges of paths can be easily missed by an eye that's trained just on looking ahead but this was really colourful, attracting butterflies and bees.

Wild flowers in the wild are more my thing than cultivated and planted in groups but these seemed to have found each other on a grass verge overlooking the canal towpath.

This was impressive and not to creased from being blown about. I used the telezoon end of the lens to help throw the background out a little while remembering to lock the focus on the flower.
I prefer manual focusing for tasks like this.

There was much to see and more importantly the walk itself was calming for seeing open countryside, meadowland and flowers that I forgot about time altogether while out.

Moving alongside the canal

It's a new month so we kick off with some "postcards" from my explorations picking up from where we had left off
That should be Photography Badge worthy with no after the event image processing as those ducks I mentioned on Wednesday put in another appearance, looking rather well fed.

I used the Telezoom end of the lens to separate the scene I wanted from many other potential pictures, framing it.

He had been spotted a few time in a small holding but was taken into paddocks when I spotted him on Thursday looking toward me, next to the piglets, on smallholding by the canal.

Talking of which you cannot have a canal without a barge (or if you insist a Narrow Boat) when I spotted these two by the bridge, the one to left more traditional, moored up, no doubt to use local facilities such as the local store before moving on.