Rangers Back in the Wild

>>  Wednesday, July 29, 2020

So Girlguiding finally decided that 'face to face' meetings could be allowed.  But there were so many rules about how many, where, how and a bookcase worth of paperwork and risk assessments to do that, they insisted, needed to be submitted two weeks prior to the event date.


So to be frank, they were playing lip service to 'we care about girl's mental health' and had shoved common sense into a dark corner.

But I managed to get my commissioner to agree to a no-brainer night and with a risk assessment as long as my arm and carrying more PPE than a surgeon on call, we set off over the socially distancing fields.


And what a night for it

The girls kept their distance naturally, but these large sweeping fields just lend themselves to that.
   

You can't kick up the sweet smelling hay with people too close, they just get in the way.
A gentle warm breeze carried the beautiful smell of a summer evening.
The sun started to set
We were headed towards home.

Chattering brightly.
We are so lucky to live here
As the sun went down the damp chill immediately set over the hay fields.












As we got to the meeting point and the more distant girls were picked up by parents, the closer to home girls started to text parents to say "don't pick up us, it's too lovely to get in a car, we want to walk the rest of the way home."

I rang all the parents to check they were happy and off the girls set again. I watched them disappear down the road, no longer my responsibility but still they socially distanced, chattering and ambling along just the same.

And I stood and watched the sun go down fully before heading the final mile home in the twilight.


And I thought 'we got this' but as it turns out we 'didn't got this' because I'm now struggling to come up with another 'face to face' night at a place we are allowed to meet with a covid safe activity etc

I can't walk them around fields forever but we all need to be together.  Virtual is great but what people really need is people. And some of my Rangers need to be with their safe space peer group so badly.

I'm not feeling the love for Girlguiding and its seemingly endless ways to say 'computer ses no' 

But I am feeling the love for the Rangers and their needs and we will get through this.



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Rangers Mission to Moth - online meeting

>>  Friday, July 17, 2020

Leicester went into stricter lock-down just as the rest of the country was starting to party in the pubs and get out and about.  A number of my Rangers were really upset about it.  They'd played by the rules and felt they were now being punished for something they didn't do.  To cheer them up I offered an extra meeting that week on the Saturday night.  We'd been saying for a while we wanted to do 'Mission to Moth' so it was declared the thing to do.

It needs a dark night - so that was school boy error number 1.  It was not going to be early to bed!

The kit was sorted and the messages started to come in like "I've not got a banana" and "we haven't got beer" - they'd had 5 days to think about it!  I gave them the best advice I could "Google it for a substitute then" !


















I was not totally surprised to see that Charnmud was still making an appearance on my kit.  That damned stuff will go to the grave with me!
















We all got on with the prep whilst it was still light.

School boy error number 2!  When you want to show your bowl contents to the camera - don't tip it up over the keyboard of your daughter's laptop.  Brown sugar mixed in cola with smashed banana seeping under the keys - suspect that will turn out to be an expensive mistake.








The rangers got on with the task in hand whilst I mopped and prayed.

And chattered whilst it got dark.


It was a pleasant evening spent but unfortunately cold and windy...

...which was probably school boy error number 3.













So between 6 of us we managed to attract 1 moth - yes one!   I have more than that in my bedroom some nights!


But what matters was at least two Rangers said "I've really enjoyed tonight, I found it really relaxing, it was so good to get away from everything and just watch and chat"


So in my eyes that's mission accomplished, happy girls, that's all I ever want to see.


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Rutland Round Section 1a - Oakham to Prior's Coppice

>>  Saturday, July 11, 2020

Because I joined the group 'doing the round' late, I'd already done sections 2 & 3. So with my ever patient walking partner, we started at Oakham to do the first part of section 1.

Because of the lock-down and not car sharing we have to do each section in  two parts.

So this was a planned 14 mile round walk out from Oakham, the first 7 miles on the Rutland Round then a different route back to Oakham


 It started fine, although I had a nag of something happening in my right foot.

Egleton was lovely.
 The fast London line that still has a walk over crossing (no signs or clues about when the trains might be coming through) in this day an age, given the speed the trains run, it's madness but there we go, bridges cost money.
 Up a steep incline to get a view of Rutland water behind us.
 And on toward Brooke.
 The Macmillan way and the Rutland Round share this path.
 The Lime (or Linden) trees smelt incredible, so strong
 Brooke is a little village but very select and well kept.
  There's no affordable housing going to be built here anytime soon!
 The land around holds its medieval past in plain sight.
 And the footpaths are maintained as well as the houses around here!
 And so to Braunston-in-Rutland - never forget the 'in-Rutland' part, it adds a million onto the house price!



 And out past Prior's Coppice - a last remaining part of the medieval Royal Forest
 By this point the nag in my foot had become an unbearable pain and we stopped for lunch and painkillers but it was clear I could not walk another 7 miles.

Forever patient walking partner picked off a much shorter route back to Oakham, a fair amount of it on road.
 So we turned around and headed back towards Braunston(in-Rutland!)

But it was becoming a pain that was bringing tears to my eyes and a pathetic hobble

A problem of being out in the fields is no one else can walk you out of there.

Finally we finished through Brooke Hill Wood and the Leighfield Way.

A round walk of 10 miles.





Ice on the foot and a wonder about what on earth this injury is and is it going to prevent me finishing this Round anytime soon.

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Promise Renewal (digital and dirty)

>>  Sunday, July 05, 2020

The climatic end of a huge Midlands Guiding Challenge was a mass digital promise renewal.  This coincided with our Midlands Commissioner finishing her 5 year tenure so it was a very big moment in guiding.  She has been a great commissioner at many levels and I'm sure she could be the Chief Commissioner if she wanted to embrace that challenge.

 Leading up to this event I'd been watching the news (and local forums) talking about hundreds of people gathering at a local private reservoir.  Drinking, swimming, drugs and everything else that goes with large groups of young adults and sunshine.

I spend a lot of time round this way, it is my main long run route.  But as lockdown has progressed I stopped going, the numbers of people went from rarely seeing anyone to tens of people and now 400 at a time.  Knowing there were so many people there was no way I was going close but the photos of litter coming up were annoying, there is rarely any litter there at all.

There's only 2 things you can do if something is really annoying you

1) moan about it on Facebook
2) do something about it
 A huge number of people already had number one covered off so I opted for number 2.

The weather was wet, blowy and turning chiller so there was unlikely to be a beach party happening,. So I shoved some bags, gloves, and a pokey stick in the boot and set off.
 When I got there it looked like someone had already cleared it.  But they had done the first pass.



 I went over it and picked a heavy bag of gas canisters, balloons, bottle tops, sweet wrappers etc

I felt pleased with myself but also a bit unfulfilled

So I took a wander further along the water and the different pull ins.


 People never fail to disappointed do they!
 4 large bags later and I was feeling like I'd done a jolly good job.

I bumped into a guy down there that is working close by and is clearing up this much and more regularly and the Canal and Rivers Trust are also sending people down to clear up.

I'll probably go again.

So back to the promise.

I had renewed my promise the best way I know how, I went and did something positive.

 “I promise that I will do my best,
 to be true to myself and develop my beliefs, 
to serve the Queen and my community, 
to help other people and to keep the Guide Law”

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