Mastering your conditions

Well, I was and am more excited about being outdoors and everything I may discover because I'm curious about things, what they are, how they came to be and so on which cannot be undertaken in mere seconds but may mean looking for signs and slowing down.

Learning to stay alert, discerning the smallest of signs as you stay focused is a skill I have struggled with not least with being autistic and having adhd but I am finding my abilities are improving since all this started.

When you do, you can prepare for the most rapid of movements such as capturing these pigeons in a split second.

Summat to Crow about!

 Weather as one might expect is starting to change but while I was out I was tasting the smaller compact camera out in the park not being used to having a extremely wide focal range with image stabilizing when I came by this Crow.

I'm not to be honest much for Crows I have to say, not that I wish them ill you understand but they just don't do much for me but here was one I was able to get.

The only negative of the camera is as with most of its ilk the viewing screen is very hard to see in sunny or otherwise contrast external conditions.

Eating outdoors

In what has been a warm week to the point of going without a coat we'll conclude with looking at an essential side of outdoor life.

Not everything goes to a two or three hour period ready for returning to home for a bite to eat nor can you count upon there being a place nearby for a meal and a drink.

Thus unless you were feeling like a spot of outdoor cooking  we would be doing the same as this boy, having our packed lunch out of doors.

It's very important to ensure we don't leave anything behind (apart from good memories) so anything like wrappers, crisp packets need to picked up and not left to be blown about which apart from being unsightly, they takes ages to decay and may harm animals and birds.

If he was anything like me, there's a good chance Mum put up his packed lunch to which I'd suggest a cereal bar or bit of fruit cake always helps keeping up energy levels be included.

Seeing it is Mother's Day here in the UK on Sunday, it's time to thank them for everything that helps scouting from supporting their children to helping the local leadership.

The Scouting Family

 While the warm season continues and I'm about exploring here's a few thoughts around a topic.

If you were to describe or draw how you saw the Scouts Family how would you go about it?

While this was taken in Nineteen Fifty and somethings have changed, I feel the core of what is in this picture sums it up.

There is a hierarchy by age, it doesn't matter how they are grouped and the rebranding but you all relate to each other as part of your unit, the youngest looking up to the oldest each having appropriate responsibilities when together.

You look out for and after each other whatever section you are in and the program your are working towards with your awards and that.

You having been inducted into Scouts move up in a structured way to the next level as you progress and mature.

Over all are the adults, Men and Women who do lots of things to make Scouts happen and your individual Beavers, Cubs, Scouts sessions go well and the support in your own progress gaining your badges and awards.

It is very much a family effort and everybody puts something into it.

Bursting out

Weekend has been quite warm and sunny as we enter Spring proper which is an ideal time for exploring and learning.

I remarked a short while back about the Daffodils and at least those in the colder bit of this area have come out having been planted several years back by the community to try to diversify some of the short grass patches we have dotted about and provide more interest.

Over near the nursery other things are springing up supporting a good deal of insect life which I had noticed this last few days.

I saw the first honey bees out on Friday in their fawny shade apart from a few bumble bees, one butterfly and a wasp.

Progressing onward

This life for me means absolutely everything from its past to the present and of course the future.

In many ways I am the same person with the same timeless values and sense of boyhood wonder even as I begin to move along being more competent and independent though it all.

Life is an Adventure and we evolve more than become radically different in ourselves over time, well rooted but able to stand growing pains as we develop, maturing in our outlook but not loosing what it means to be that boy.

The pathway is ahead and all I have to do is continue along it.

700th post

Today marks the 700th post on Scouting and Me which originally started life on the social media site Tumblr before moving exclusively to a dedicated old school style blog just under two years ago.

It really started between some account issues at Tumblr where I found myself posting more around around Scouting and Youth movements to the point a more focussed approach I felt made but it wasn't before long that posts were having to be appealed so I decided to make this, initially as a back up.

The earliest posts on Tumblr were more around Scouting as I remembered it, the activities, camaraderie and uniforms.

The focus started to change as I focused more on what my needs were and how what was in scouting actually could help now.

I started exploring and from that founding more about what I had seen and experienced overcoming physical and learning disabilities taking inspiration from the time honoured program.

Few of us knew just what was around the corner never mind just how long things were going to so severely changed so residential periods away became a thing of the past and I like countless others was returned to a world changed and full of uncertainties .

I was being challenged and actual biological age children in the scouts were too as things were adapted to the point I was being inspired  by them to find new ways of doing things and critically to learn to not just survive this but develop the resilience to take it in my stride as hard as things were.

I had to start all over again from first principals and why the Scout Law and Promise are what they are, be prepared to go out of my comfort zone and commit to being prepared to give things a try.

That started to influence the content here as posted more about things I had done and just what i'd learned from them.

I survived that period because of SCOUTING and its principals and in return I gave freely to keep scouting on the road for children and young adults who need it badly.

I am different today for the road I travelled on, going back to the tested and true paths to be the best me I can.

The journey that started with the blogs predecessor being established became something  a good deal more important, it transformed and helped me grow.

I would like to thing anyone who comes by here can see that and perhaps considers that lesson.

Looking back

This blog is moving toward an anniversary issue so the one post before will take a bit of an look back at the start of all of this. 

It wasn't that all of a sudden I decided "Hey let's go hiking and make a blog", much of that goes back into childhood and what I loved as a boy observing where we lived or when we went away to places no matter how hard it was at times.

That's a shadow Chris picture some seven months before the blog was established looking pretty much a cub scout taking a picture cos there was so much of that in me that it seemed to make sense to go with it and pick up on the Adventure of Life from where it had been parked.

I found it just felt right being and setting challenges to grow.

Trees always fascinated me and as the years moved on as did photographic technology when I'd use my trusty Minolta XD7 and X500 film cameras and marque lenses to using digital models, I learned to get the most out of them even if like this it was shot on a compact camera.

The Woods

 Woodland management does at times attract controversy but as with this it was necessary as the trees were both deceased and taking away light within the wood itself.

If you look to the right the dot on the tree stump is actually a ladybird of which there were a good number out when they day was it was taken and indeed I did spot a Red Admiral butterfly out too resting on a thin branch which is and indication of the strange weather we have had.

The daffodils are out!

 Yesterday was somewhat breezy out which is typical of the rather up and down weather we appear to going through presently.

Strangely different parts of this area seem to have the signs of Spring occurring to very differing degrees where our estate appears to be a bit milder leading to daffodils coming out the area along the main road and canal have only just started.

This on a "green" alongside that road emerged a couple of days ago and is of a different species to that of those found elsewhere being dark yellow all over on the head.

I also saw yesterday my first Bumble Bee of the year going around a garden which is most odd for this time of year.

Birthday edition

 

Today is a different day on this blog, one of just a handful that come around every year no matter what and to which what this blog is about makes a big difference.

Your birthday is important however it may be marked but the bigger thing is more the character and values of the one to whom it is as we uphold the Scout law and try our very hardest to live up to our Promise.

We can stand on the sidelines or we can make a difference no matter where we may find ourselves either by standing up for what is right or by our direct actions helping out, making things happen for the good.

As a "forever cub in spirit" this applies as I reflect on my birthday and what that means.

Taking it in

 

We're having a rather damp day here so given the fields would be rather muddy and slippy underfoot I'm indoors reading vintage scouting publications from the days where rather than visiting websites with password protected sections for keeping in touch and confidential information regarding activities you had real publications and sealed notes put through the letterbox.

The origins of Scouting in this geo-politically troubled time were are passing through tend to show in this illustration showing reconnaissance noting the ships movements while being well hid which is a skill that is useful coupled of course with observation, requiring alertness.

St David's Day.

 Yesterday was Saint David's Day, or the Feast of Saint David, is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March, the date of Saint David's death in 589 AD

Being in a boarding school with a high proportion of Welsh staff, we always marked St David's rather like schools actually in Wales did studying the origins and through things like singing and crafts.

Here these Infant and Juniors mark it with the girls in traditional Welsh dress, the boys are naturally wearing WRU Rugby tops as Rugby was always bigger than soccer in Wales, almost a religion!

It is marked by Scouts in Wales.