Guider and Parent lock horns

What the Guider sees:

A girl that hasn't attended a single meeting yet this term.
There have only been 5, how could you not manage just one of them?
You only made it to half of camp.
Yes I know you came to help at the firework night and both parades, but so did most of the other girls.
Are you really committed to this?
It makes me wonder why I put so much time into something that you can't be bothered with anyway.









What the Mother sees:

It must be really tiring to try to do tennis and rangers on the same night, but you really need to keep up your exercise classes now you don't do PE at school my love, please don't give up tennis just yet.
Why are you still going to camp when you need your sleep before you go to work in the stable yard for a whole day?  I know you like camp but....ok, ok, go for one night, I hope your leader understands.
I know you can't let Brownies down and that you have to go every week, they don't have enough young leaders now to manage without you.
Yes, you can give up work so you can try to fit all this other stuff in and still have time to get your school work done, I understand.
You look so tired and drawn at the moment honey, all these extra NCS volunteer hours are wearing you out, something will have to give whilst you do it.



Sometimes as a Ranger leader it's easy to forget how full these girls lives are already.  Remember to cut them some slack now and again.

As a Rainbow, Brownie or Guide Leader it's easy to forget how dedicated the Young Leaders are turning up every week.  Remember to give them a week off now and again.

None of them have to be in Guiding at all, remember to thank them for what they do no matter how big or small.

Remember:  if Guiding isn't fun, it isn't Guiding.

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The start of a civil engineer?

 I was offered a quite staggering number of cardboard tubes to use at Rangers (aka someone wanted their garage emptying of them!)

Never one to say no I filled my car and HWMBOs car with them and then came up with a plan.

 Marble run on a large scale!

A few rolls of duck (duct - you say potato I say potarto) tape later  and it was snaking it's way all around the building where we meet.

 Ping pong balls were put into play.

And we had a night filled.

There is a civil engineer challenge badge and whilst build a marble run isn't on the criteria for earning the badge, I always feel these things should be flexible....

especially when I have no desire to have a garage full of cardboard tubes either!

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Bushcraft intermediate training day

Back in March I went on a Bushcraft training day and in the summer I took those new skills into the field.

I got the chance to join a bushcraft intermediate training day to learn more about cooking and other add-ons.

The Chimney Starter was a piece of gold I was previously unware of and one was winging it's way from Amazon before the mud on my boots was dry.  It should stop hours of HWMBO wafting newspaper over BBQ coals.

It gets them white hot in 20 minutes with almost zero effort.

With the charcoal heating nicely, we started on the 'real' fire.

Learning how to build a good fire that is easy to light and will stay lit is a great skill to have.

And we were soon away and not cooking on gas.

For the roast chicken, we wrapped 5 white hot coals in tin foil and stuffed it with them.  This starts the chicken cooking from inside.

The whole chicken was then wrapped in foil, sat on a bed of hot coals and some more placed on top and covered completely over.

And then left near the fire for about 2 hours.

The good quality, long lasting coals keep their heat and cook it.

The dutch ovens were set up.  We had a lesson first thing about how to season them and never to wash them in soapy water.

The vegetables hung on the tripods with the occasional stir.






The chicken was temperature tested a few times, it was going great guns.

The second chicken was set to steam.  sat on a lid inside a billy with a couple of inches of water to create steam and then a lid on it.  It has to be kept topped up, not too much water but enough to see it bubbling in the bottom of the pan.  Because a lot of water came out of the chicken it look like it was having a jacuzzi at one point!

This made for a really moist meat, you could put an onion in with it for a bit of flavour and use the water to make gravy.









Cake was a must.  We lined the dutch ovens with grease proof paper, sliced apples into the bottom, added some brown sugar and a cake mix.  Lid on and coals put under and on top of the ovens.

It baked beautifully, once done you can take the coals away and the ovens will just keep the pudding warm.

A vegetable soup was mixed with water from the kelly kettle and all three courses were cooking away.

With some trout placed in wet newspaper gently cooking too as an added bonus.

The trout was moved around to where ever there was a good heat but the paper would not catch.

Finally we just needed to steamed chicken to be fully cooked through, so the fire was built a little harder around it to really get the water boiling.

With the gravy made from boiling water from the kelly kettle we were good to eat and an amazing meal it was too.

All food tastes better when cooked outside on an open fire but this really was a tasty meal.









After lunch what would be better than to hang some hammocks and climb into them















...for a little while

















Apart from the fact we still had water filtration, pitching tarpaulins in a squillion different ways for different purposes and lighting fires with a bow drill.

I'm really going to have to ramp up my knotting skills if I'm going to get any further with this.   Fisherman's and prusik being the 2 that threw me today. My knotting a shamefully bad.

'Please try harder' will not be written on my gravestone it will be "For the love of God will you just try to remember for more than one day, you've been shown this a billion times already"

I am loving this sort of fun in a field at the moment but I suspect I may be starting to hit my level of expertise.  I think I could be the first fatality on the advanced course!  I am also wondering how long HWMBO will be prepared to put up with my post course spending habit of 'must have' things that then live in the shed/garage/loft for 360 days of the year!!

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Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

I love Peter Pan, the play, the story, even the ride in Disney. I always have.

I used to read constantly in my younger days, but now I have so little time. But The Complete Peter Pan was always going to draw me in and there I sat with a bowl of nuts for company.

We all know 'The' Peter Pan story, Peter and Wendy.

But the book I had was 'The Complete' Peter Pan and there is a very different story about him in this book called Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

It was originally part of a book called The Little White Bird and it was the first time Peter Pan 'came to life'.  The chapters about Peter were then published independently.  It is a beautiful story.  

There are elements of it that you can see fed into the Peter and Wendy we all know but it is not a prequel, not even close, it is a completely different story and it is so cleverly imaginative in a simple way.

Peter is only seven days old when he leaves his mother.  All babies start as birds and Peter had the itch where his wings were and flew back to the island where his life started.

The story begins about the children in the park before the gates are locked and is absurdly innocent in the things they believe about different parts of the park, beautiful games children play with their minds, but the story moves to after the gates are locked and the birds, fairies and of course Peter.  Peter loses the ability to fly and gains a boat, he manages to get back to his mother and leaves her again.  In the end he loses her completely.

Some parts are funny:

'The Gardens are noted for two types of cricket: boy cricket, which is the real cricket with a bat, and girl cricket, which is with a racquet and the governess.  Girls can't really play cricket, and when you are watching their futile efforts you make funny sounds at them.  Nevertheless, there was a very disagreeable incident one day when some forward girl challenged David's team, and a disturbing creature called Angela Clare sent down so many yonkers that.....'

Some parts of the book touched me so deeply.

Solomon Caw sends the baby birds to become real babies.

'...a message from a lady, saying she would be obliged if he could let her have a good one.  They always ask for the best one he has, and if he likes the letter he sends one from Class A, but if it ruffles him he sends very funny ones indeed. Sometimes he sends none at all....'

Peter loses his mother for good.

'Ah, Peter! We who have made the great mistake, how differently we should all act at the second chance. But Solomon was right - there is no second chance, not for most of us.When we reach the window it is Lock-out time. The iron bars are up for life' 

The beautiful House Swallows.

'but he has still a vague memory that he was a human once, and it makes him especially kind to the house swallows when they visit the island, for the house swallows are the spirits of little children who have died.  They always build in the eaves of the houses where they lived when they were humans, and sometimes they try to fly in at a nursery window, and perhaps that is why Peter loves them best of all the birds.'

And the thimble given to Peter by Maimie as a kiss followed by the kisses they have called thimbles.

I would like to be given a thimble.

As I said, it is a beautiful story, I think it is a story for adults not children.  Maybe because I am an adult I do not understand how a child would understand it but perhaps they don't need to understand, in the way they don't have to understand the fairies, they just accept they are there.

Cog and I spent a lovely afternoon wandering around Kensington Gardens once.  I wish we had read this story first. I will go back and try to find a fairy circle but Cog will never be that age again where she would have be as excited as I am now.  She will have to be my age I think to get back to that.

She understands the Peter Pan with pirates but not the Peter Pan that rides a goat, or more importantly how he got a goat to ride. But I know now

The Complete Peter Pan is published by Alma Classics, it includes Peter and Wendy, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Peter Pan the play and extra information about the writer, books and characters. 

J M Barrie gave all the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital.  Since then the hospital has received royalties every time a production of the play is put on, as well as from the sale of Peter Pan books and other products.

I was given this book for free so I made a donation to to the Great Ormond Street Christmas appeal directly.

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Remembrance 2015

 The Rangers went to 2 different rehearsals on the Friday night before remembrance.  We cover 2 villages mainly (although the girls come from many more).  Both rehearsals run at the same time in the 2 different villages.   I went to the one that is usually the most difficult (in terms of being pushed around by the Scouters) with the 'real' flag and left the other girls to fend for themselves at the other village with a borrowed flag.




Nearly every girl came to the Parade in the morning, I tell them this is their priority parade. The few that didn't come had very good reasons or had told me they would only do the afternoon one.

I know a couple of them took time off work to do it, one came in straight from being on a sleepover with her Rainbows.

It was our turn to carry the Union Jack in this parade and I was so proud of the girl that did it.  It is a great privilege and she treated it that way.

There were 6 girls in the afternoon that did both parades and some extras, so we had a really good turn out for both.

It's interesting, the afternoon  parade and service is much more formal but fewer numbers and much easier to be a part of.  I always feel more relaxed at the more formal one!!

That is about the different leaders, they tend to work together much better.

No Scouts turned up to carry the Union Flag in the afternoon and the Ranger that carried it in the morning overheard the 'panic'.  She calmly said "I did it this morning so I have some experience if you would like me to do it for you."

They were very happy and I was doubly proud.


The Rangers really put themselves out for this weekend, they turn up numerous times.  They catch buses to get to rehearsals, they get up early, they walk extra distances to get to where they need to be, they iron their uniform and shine their shoes, they carry flags, do colour party, lead the little ones by example, do the readings, do the collections. They do have nerves, it is hard for them.  They do have other commitments and they give a lot of time to it.  Every year I am in awe by how much they are prepared to do and give for Remembrance.   They are an amazing set of girls and don't let my moaning about them at other times let you think otherwise!!

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Fireworks by the tea tent light

Well it turn out nice again after all.

After a morning of torrential rain, the weather dried up and brought out the crowds for our local fireworks display.

The Scouts pitched the tents and put up tables for us (bless those boys) and we go in with the supplies and serve the food and drinks.  A few Scouters hung around to help if needed.  It is useful to have someone that understands their own equipment around, and will fiddle with the gas if needed - I am useless in that field.  The Scouts take down the tents in the morning too.  I think we get the better half of the deal.

The money raised on the refreshments raised goes to our local Scout and Guide hut.

9 of the Rangers came to help out.  This is the same weekend they go to remembrance rehearsals and attend 2 parades and church services.  5 of them  set up the tea tent in a working order on their own and got on with it.  A complete production line.  The others went 'next door' to cook and serve the food with the Leaders.  The girls really are awesome sometimes.

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As I got to him he said, 'Shoot me' he was beyond all human aid

I have considered for sometime about anything that has touched me deeper for a reason to wear a poppy today, there is nothing:

At Pickham Ridge I can still see the bewilderment and fear on the men's faces when we went over the top. C and D Company was support, A and B had had to go front line. All over the battlefield the wounded were lying down, English and German asking for help. We weren't like the Good Samaritan in the Bible, we were the robbers who passed by and left them. You couldn't help them. I came across a Cornishman, ripped from shoulder to waist with shrapnel, his stomach on the ground beside him in a pool of blood. As I got to him he said, 'Shoot me,' he was beyond all human aid. Before we could even draw a revolver he had died. He just said 'Mother.' I will never forget it.

Private Harry Patch
Forgotten Voices Of The Great War

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Changing seasons

 The summer tan line has gone and the winter one has set in.

 We had new additions to the family.  The fish are breeding like it's spring.

The cat is happy to stay in and be with me more now the darker nights are drawing in.  I just wish she could be with me in a little less central way.

We have had some lovely days.














And very foggy nights: the Ranger penny and chip walk was a particular pea souper of an evening.  But it didn't deter them.


I have now been out for a total of 10 nights running with different events.  And for once not just Guiding.

Gwen Dickey made a good night out a great one.

David Hasslehoff took cheesy to a whole new and surprisingly enjoyable level.

And I still have to walk 500 miles with the Proclaimers and numerous Guiding things to go before a single evening in is in sight!

I suspect my writing will be light weight for a while until I stop having a life again!

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Dairy Free Yorkshire Puddings

Cog has developed an intolerance to dairy. 

She's doing very well with the changes to her diet and I actually think she is eating better (cleaner) as a result. Her fresh fruit and veg intake is definitely up.

But she was devastated at the thought of no Yorkshire with Sunday dinner, so I tried a dairy free recipe.  
This new recipe uses different proportions to the 'normal' 100gflour/280ml milk/1 egg that has been my main stay batter mix forever.


Dairy free batter mix

80g Plain Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 medium egg
125ml unsweetened soya milk
salt and pepper
oil for cooking 

Mix the whole lot up and really aerate well whether that is with a whisk or like me, with an old tupperware batter shaker.

The cooking method is the same as 'normal' batter:

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas Mark 7. Once it’s up to temperature heat the oil in your baking tray for about 5 minutes until it is really hot. bring the tray out of the oven and pour in the mix, oput it back for about 20 minutes (but that really depends on the pan you use and the size of the puddings you make)

I think you grow into a yorkshire pudding tray - which ever size you choose you learn how it cooks and then you know over a few goes how long they really need.

I was worried about how this new recipe would rise, being a thicker mix, so for the first attempt I put it in cupcake tins rather than the muffin size I normally make.

They cooked very well.  Another time I will try a bigger tin and see if I can get them to rise and stay risen in the same way.

My normal yorkshire have a tendency to flop and be a bit stodgy - I rather like them like that though - these were lighter but still had substance in there.

They look very crispy but they weren't, I was surprised by the golden colour but not being hard, perhaps that is the soya.

I prefer yorkshire sweet to savoury, these still worked well with chocolate spread (for me not Cog!) and golden syrup.









I cooked 11 and only 1 sad and small fella remained so overall I'll give these a thumbs up.

I'm up for trying a full sized Toad in the Hole with this recipe - I think it will work.

Cog and I are on a new baking learning curve, it's actually a fun challenge and the label reading of everything we buy has been a real eye opener.  Try it one time.

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