The Scout Law

 This is a really super illustrated version of the Scout Law which makes its point well.

Having fun together no matter what

 

Very much a "As we were" post, if you lived in any urban centre there were areas that were cleared, all buildings being gone and people scattered to new estates leaving just memories of what was.

Here in the Midlands it was no exception if you lived in Brum, the Black Country boroughs, Stoke on Trent or as as this picture is of, Nottingham and within it as much as town planners and their ilk saw the environment as one that was unsatisfactory for people to grow up and live in.

Many of us from families who originated there however recall a life that was rich and part of that richness was the variety of activities  and the closeness of whole families in each group of streets forming one vast extended family.

Here we have school friends who were Wolf Cubs, Brownies, Guides and Scouts where meeting places and the like were shared who looked forward to week and the camps where you'd be away from the built up area with as it was then the air pollution from coal fires (and in my district the intense smoke of coal fire pottery kilns surrounding your house).

Today Scouts and Girl Guides helps keep some of that glue that keeps our cleaner environment but at times more disconnected communities together better able to support themselves.

The Old in the midst of the New

 

The onset of winter, definately a felt thing this week with temperatures down to 1 degree c does bring interesting lighting from the harshness of the summer months and here t brings out the feel of these nineteeth century cottages built backing on to the local canal for workers in the steam mill and nearby coal mines in living memory.

Anniversaries

 

A couple of weeks ago we marked five years of Squirrels, born during Covid, forty years of Beavers  for six to eight year olds and a massive One Hundred and Ten years of Cubs with a special badge being issued.

Each program dovetails into each other as you learn new skills and have exciting experiences as you get older in the Scouts family.

Recovering walk

 While there are possibilities of temperature drops and even snow in the next few days I did get out for a walk although I needed my walking stick having some issues with my left leg yesterday which made getting about difficult.

Sometimes you just have to make the effort and get yourself slowly moving again.

Remembrance Day

 

Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday and tomorrow is Armistice Day, the actual day when thank goodness W.W.1. ended, not that sadly all that loss of life prevented us having yet another.

We mark it for reason that are as much about our contribution in the wider Scouting community for what scouts and former scouts contributed, our losses as paying our respects for those who died fighting for our freedoms and liberties in our country and beyond.

We will remember those who give their lives and those while surviving carried the cost.

A riot of colour

 

Autumn leaves in all their magnificance taken in South Staffordshire a few days ago.

Spooky crafts

 

I was away across the weekend where we celebrated halloween in style playing games, having fun and here are two Jack o' Lanterns we made together lit by tea lights which is why there's a hole on the top.

I'm quite sure many beavers, cubs and scounts tok part in similar activities this weekend.

1,250th post

As this goes out, I should be just back from a weekend away that has more in common with a cubs Halloween Weekend in lots of ways and it does take a bit out of me as much as I enjoy it.

Conkers were always a part of that time first time around before goggles and health and saftey restricted the games we payed establishing who thad the strongest conker and this was one I found recently and taken practising my manual focussing skills as with high magnifications the area front and back of the subject get less sharp and so you're trying to keep the object in focus and less that backdrop.

Photography was and is a thing when it comes to Gaining an Award and a badge in Scouts even if the sorts of camera we might use have changed beyond recognition in the intervening years

And things around modern scouting is what we talk about here as much as both what I do today inspired by that and we look at scouting as we recall it from our own childhood pasts from those early posts in 2018 to now.

It may vary from week to week but that's the focus so we're celebrating the 1,250th post here today.