Posts

Summer Silliness

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This month has been rather slower on the badge front due to end-of-school-year exhaustion for one thing. However, on the penultimate week of term I accompanied a school Duke of Edinburgh's Award trip to the Brecon Beacons in Wales, with fellow rebel Rachel and two D of E leaders. Obviously we had to take Fred the houseplant with us and he accompanied us on several walks, stayed in tents and minibuses and played in an adventure playground. He also came to a cafe. The weather was generally awful, but he coped magnificently (as did we and the kids). While there I finished my Camper Badge, and started my Advanced Camper Badge. I only had the menu planning and camp kitchen to do for camping, as I had camped lots the previous year but hadn't needed to cater. Advanced camping should be finished after a festival next month and Rebel Camp. I highly recommend camping in the rain, and hiking in the Welsh hills on damp days. The woods and waterfalls were magnificent. There are also lots of...
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Summer Update

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Well, it's been a while! I have had a busy couple of months with work so haven't had much chance to blog. Saying that, lots of Rebel shenanigans has been occurring so I will bring you up to date. I have finished off 9 badges that I have been working on slowly, so managed quite a haul of points for Team Nelson in the Rebel Cup! Mindfulness was finally finished by trying a third type of yoga; an aerial silks yoga class began round the corner from me, so I was convinced to go with a friend. I rather enjoyed it; aerial yoga is somewhat different to other types of yoga I have tried and involves being supported by silks suspended from the ceiling. My highlight was managing to do an inverted star after several attempts. For what seemed a relatively gentle class, I didn't half ache later in the week. Highly recommended! I have been foraging for years, mostly for blackberries, elderberries, sloes and wild garlic leaves so was interested to learn more. The part that surprised me most...
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Maverick Award

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I completed my Bronze Maverick Award this month - very exciting, and I feel I should share my adventure with you.  My Community For this I ran a Warhammer Club after school for Secondary School students with an interest in the hobby. I have been doing this for some years with a fellow Rebel, but this year decided that the club needed to be more structured and the kids needed to be given a focus and more responsibility. To this end we created the 'Council of Doom' for the older students so that they had a say in how the club was run, and took responsibility for teaching new and less experienced students about the joys of Warhammer. This worked well until they had to go to revision classes instead. However, younger students took up the mantle of responsibility and organised our resources cupboard to a degree I am incapable of, and continued building our 'Age of Sigmar' army in readiness for the Armies on Parade competition in the autumn. I also started volunteering for my...
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Film Critic Badge

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It's A Wonderful Life I had never watched this movie before, and as it was on in December I thought I would view it for my Christmas Challenge Badge. This is a gentle tragi-comedy from 1947, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The acting was pretty good as was the scenery, and I had forgotten how atmospheric black and white film was. James Stewart made a great lead as George Bailey, and was backed up well by Donna Reed as his wife, Mary. George was a building society owner in a small American town, whose nemesis was the rich and cantankerous banker Mr Potter; Potter made George's life difficult at every turn, eventually threatening to ruin him and causing him to seriously consider suicide. Obviously at this point, George was saved by his guardian angel, Clarence, and made to see what a difference he made to everyone's lives.  All ended well with the townspeople saving George from ruin. Lovely, and not a bit cheesy! Odette Biographical drama from 1950 about Odette Sansom, a French w...
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My Beliefs: Gardening for Wildlife

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I believe that private gardens and public spaces should be havens for wildlife, as well as being pleasant for humans, with imperfect lawns containing patches of long grass and wildflowers, weeds in the borders and between the cracks in the patio. So many gardens are sterile and clean, perhaps for convenience; I understand this - people are busy and don't want their kids or pets getting muddy and making a mess, don't necessarily have the skills to maintain a garden or think that these skills are not for them or something they could not learn. I realise that this is a gross generalisation, but one that I experience often with friends and colleagues. I decided to investigate what wildlife and plants I actually had in my small town garden (c. 85m2), and to then research ways in which I could improve the habitats therein to encourage more wildlife of all shapes and sizes, and to provide a wider range of plants. So far I have noted nearly 140 flowering plants as well as trees and sh...
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Data, Detectives and Dodgy Embroidery

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Craft Part 2 has begun! Having discovered a small hole in my favourite grotty cardigan I decided to make it bigger, edged it using eyelet hole stitching and added petals and leaves with fishbone stitch. I am quite pleased with it! I am also rather startled by the amount of positive comments I have received for it, my favourite being 'Miss, you've got a flower on your bum!', as well as by the number of people who said they would have no idea how to do it. I guess I still naively think that everybody learns to sew in childhood - I should know better! I have completed Detective Badge so have made a slideshow full of information about my favourite detective, Albert Campion, whom I have loved since a teenager after seeing Peter Davison portray him in a BBC series. I have since read all the original books by Margery Allingham many times. I made a slideshow rather than a scrapbook as I am trying to declutter the house and am not fond of scrapbooks really. I have discov...
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Maverick Award: My Beliefs

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I believe that private gardens and public spaces should be havens for wildlife, as well as being pleasant for humans, with imperfect lawns containing patches of long grass and wildflowers, weeds in the borders and between the cracks in the patio. So many gardens are sterile and clean, perhaps for convenience; I understand this - people are busy and don't want their kids or pets getting muddy and making a mess, don't necessarily have the skills to maintain a garden or think that these skills are not for them or something they could not learn. I realise that this is a gross generalisation! I trained as a horticulturalist and landscaper many years ago, so have the confidence and skills to grow my garden and know why some things work and others don't. I have been fascinated by nature for most of my life, and still get excited when I see spiders or slow worms, or snakes, or frogs or eagles! I'm rather fond of ants and woodlice too, but slugs are my horticultural nemesis. How...
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