Moving ahead through Beavers

The Beavers don't get a lot of mention on here but we might as well as after all they do generally speaking move on to become Cubs.

From the early days when like the rest of Scouting Beavers had Annuals, here's a really nice one from 1991 that shows the FUN you could have as a Beaver, presented in a way that really appeals to six to eight year olds.

Believe it or not, I don't think I ever did anything about Beavers Badges you could work towards gaining and Awards because Beavers isn't just place for younger brothers and sisters of Cubs but very much a place where you learn things that move you on as you start to want to find out about things and have an adventure or two.

This shows the all important Moving On badge as you prepare to move into Cubs ready for the next stages on the Adventure of Life.

World Scout Conference 2027

It's great news that UK Scouts has won the bid to host the next World Scout Conference in 2027 in London being announced at this year’s World Scout Conference in Cairo, Egypt.

There will be 176 Member Organisations and global partners in  location that is very sustainable, easy for delegate s to easily get to and arround and has a diverse community.

Together, it is believed it will shape the future of the world’s largest youth Movement, supporting 57 million young people to learn skills for life. It’s a moment to found the future together, the theme of the winning bid.

Bank Holiday edition

The Bank Holiday is upon us before school resumes for autumn term and today is a day when I'll be exploring, getting very much in the undergrowth while many cubs leader will be planning the program for the next three months with group activities, a Christmas party and supporting individuals cubs in gaining their awards.

The great thing around this age is you're able to do more under your steam even if somethings will be supervised, you're phyiscally stronger but theirs nothing pulling you away like hours of homework from just enjoying enjoying life.
 

The past survives

 When the industrial revolution took off in these parts the resultant pits, iron works and potteries together with the associated housing for works obliterated much of what was around even if settlement went back to the Middle Ages with Doomsday Book references even if many others have little history just enveloping the old settlements that left us with a vast conurbation.

Some places did have the odd building survive, and the case of this building despite being in the sprawl of post war suburban nondescript development at the edges of this city region, a Sixteenth Century cottage survives and indeed was carefully  restored around Thirty-five years ago with its tradition gardens.

Walking by it is just fascinating to look at.

Scouting and Civil Order

 

A week and a bit ago, the Scout Association issued a press release looking at what we in Scouts do and how that contrasts to much of the rioting that had taken place in much of England and Northern Ireland.

Here is my thoughts.

In scouts we don't see peoples ethnicities as either limiting in terms of intelligence, capablilities of leading or issues in terms of getting along with other different groups and we have little time for anyone who treats people less favourably because of their background.

Rather than pushing a belief that people are engaged in a struggle against others that they must stay on top of prioritizing their race, religion or social class, we offer hope and belief that by your own efforts and application supported by all along the way you will realize your full potential regards of what your background is while we acknowledge and do all we can to minimize the barriers people may feel would limit it.

By doing this, we elevate everyones potential and believe the well-being of society is served better by this than the destruction,racial hatred and fear we saw on the streets being replaced by a message of hope and the promise of support open to all to be the best selves you can.

When it comes to knowing on what side of the fence we stand against hatred, we know which side we are on and that from our foundation, establishing groups around the World, what our values are.

We reject rioting and racial hatred.

Old school Brownies

Today for once we're paying a brief look at Brown badges and the like before the major program reorganization of the 2000's.

Like Scouts, Girl Guiding had a good number of publications such as annuals but this 1983 example isn't actually an annual, it calls itself a gift book and in some respects is more of a cross between those Ladybird guides to Scouts and Guides with some of the more "stories of what we do with photos" that tend to be in the annuals.

The original text in this edition is copyrighted 1981 although this is a re-print from two years later.

As with Scouts, these publications are no longer with us.

The original badge scheme in Girl Guides was similar to Scouts with awards for meeting certain challenges and here's a selection. 

Legacy Badge Categories consist of Artist, Athlete, Citizen, Cook, First Aid, Girl Scout Way, and Naturalist. Each individual badge book consists of 4-12 pages, and contains all the information needed to earn the badge.

The Imp was one pretty much every brownie had like the Trifoil membership badge and reflects the whole faeries story that's woven into it rather like in Cubs we had the Jungle Book.

This last one was the Highways Badge,

Brownies Dolls

 

I have mentioned scouting related action figures in the past here but there were dolls made for those girls who being 7 1/2 to 10 were in Brownies, the GG equivalent of Cubs which would be used in play.

This Vogue Ginty one is from 1978 showing the then uniform of brown tunic with pockets plus belt and is fully posable.

Coming from a slightly different direction is this vintage soft doll the sort girls I am told  may play with or perhaps tuck into bed which when I've typed this I'll fall into!

Subs

Something that pokes its head up at that time year is the annual subscriptions paid by each local Scout Association branch to the national body.

These, like most things in national life, have gone up not least to cover the costs of recruiting more leaders to reduce the backlog of would be scouts on the list of members waiting for spaces to become available and also the business around safeguarding to fully review it not least as it applies to overnight stays.

Systems are good but it is felt there is some room for improvement when it comes to providing advice before and during any activity like pack holidays and in todays rather litigatious climate, whenever anything might go wrong often there are claims that need defending and the best defence is showing you have fully condidered everything risk and how you'd manage them.

No longer can you just gather up your pack and just say "We'll off to the Tissington trail or going to Chasewater", there's a lot more preperation involved.

That's why they've gone up

Fun by the river

Children at play on a river in the Trough of Bowland, near Lancaster on a warm day.

Some indication of the long term impact of changes in climate can be seen in the flow and depth of water as rivers have not returned to their usual condition.

Water containers

 On any sort of excursion keeping hydriated matters and carriage especially for children can have issues recalling the ban on safety grounds of ring pull canned drinks on school trips lest you cut yourself so back in the 1970's nad early 80's we tended to us plastic beakers with an airtight sealed top.

Mini vaccuum flaskes tended to be reserved for hot drinks when you were a bit older.

Given the Scouts Association program is for four to six year olds, whose motor skills are still developing this is a simpel to use design with ribbed edges for better grip and a simple resealable cap  for drinking from.

This one is from Girlguiding UK and has only just been discontinued and aimed at 10-14 year olds so it's still a bit pretty, had a pull up straw for drinking from and well designed top.

The capacity is adequate although a group leader may have a master supply to top them up from if you might be a distance from anywhere.bur for everyday usage they're fine and easy to carry.

Ribble valley

Cardwell House, Longridge, is situated in the Ribble Valley near Preston is an extensive detatched property with imposing gates and views.

Viaducts

 

One of the most interesting railway lines for the views is the Settle to Carlisle route which has many stations and viaducts such as this on the road towards Warton which was undertaking structural works last week

Farms

 For a County that historically includes the heavily urbanized south including the cities of Liverpool, Salford and Manchester, Lancashire does have pockets of countryside where arable farming and livestock are still important such as here just south east of Carnforth

To the far right you can see out Morecambe Bay and Furness.