Sparklers

River Lea Beavers always like to mark Guy Fawkes night in one way or another. Tonight I joined them to make cardboard fireworks, learn the safety code and then to enjoy waving a sparkler around outside. I had great fun.

Investitures

An important part of all Scout Groups is investing new members.

Several times, recently, I have been down to Lynx Troop to witness Leaders and Scouts making their promise and being invested. The GSL has invested the Leaders and the Scout Leader the Scouts. Above is a typical moment during this ceremony.

Well done all.

One of our Dinosaurs is missing!

A trip to the shop

I am sure you have guessed by now that the destination of the Heron Cub Pack trip was the Natural History Museum in London and, as far as we know, all dinosaurs were still there when we left!

Blue whale and mammals

I had the privilege of travelling by train and tube with the Cubs to the Museum. Once there we looked in the Dinosaur section, visited the Blue Whale area, went to see human biology area and loved the investigation centre. Some of the Cubs claimed to have spotted Terry Wogan in the dinosaur section, which I saw made a few leaders give a wry smile!



Dinosaur Walkway


We travelled back the HQ where we had an evening meal from the local fish and chip shop before gathering outside for a roaring campfire and making s’mores.

In the investigation centre



The Cubs then got into their sleeping bags and we all watched “One of our Dinosaurs is missing” before dropping off to sleep.



In the investigation centre


This morning we ate a breakfast of bacon rolls and watched some Looney tunes before the Cubs were collected and we locked up and came home.

Human Biology area

meeting an ancestor

 It was another successful trip to London. Well done Herons!

Goodnight

and home again.

All safely back to HQ and a quick game of Duck and Goose before the evening meal arrives.

River Walk

Don't forget that our September Centenary activity is a Family River walk to Stanstead Abbotts. Just turn up and join us at the HQ on Sunday 4th September in suitable clothing and be ready to set off at 2pm.

There will not be anything organised at the other end (because the walk is the activity its self) and so feel free to bring a picnic, get a meal or refreshments from the Pub, turn around and walk straight back or even go to the station and get a train home.

Young people need an adult with them and so why not enjoy those last few hours of the school summer holidays together as a family and get some fresh air at the same time. 

Any queries contact Rama (GSL Gavin Matthews) details found on newsletter or Group website or send a message via the website or here.

I'll be there - will you?

Wheelie blooming!

Can you see me?

I spent an enjoyable afternoon at the Scout HQ helping get it ready for Ware in Bloom.

Shere Khan from Herons was co-ordinating the planting, the window baskets, the newly planted beds and the wheel barrows.

She has bought and grown lots of bedding plants for us to use and Badger was very handy at fixing things to the walls (and roof!) and clearing spaces for the large beds.

This is the stage 1 of a long term project, with each section helping to tend and water the plants on the evening they meet. Shere Khan will fill you in with more details if you need them.



Wheel barrows



There are more plans a foot for next year with even more projects and hopefully even more of the Group taking part as time allows.



Awaiting my instructions.



In the meantime please enjoy our display when you next visit the HQ, but remember that a Scout should show respect to property and is trusted and so I am trusting all our members to take care of the plants and take responsibility for ensuring they are not picked, trodden on, fallen into during games or any other such misfortunes!

Making my selection.

Any offers of help or donations of plants, gardening equipment, compost etc should be directed via Shere Khan. If you don't how to contact her please post a comment here and I will let her know.

AGM

It is that time of year again..a time to reflect and celebrate the past year, a time for awards and a time to meet together (plus all the formal bits of course)....It is time for the group AGM!

This year it was held on a Wednesday. The day and time varies from year to year because each section take a turn to host the event and this year it was the turn of River Lea Beavers.

The evening started off with the formal Group round up presented by the GSL, the minutes from last year, the electing of the committee and the report from the treasurer. We also found out what great technical skill the chairman has when it comes to mobile phones!

We awarded Mrs D'Arcy her prize for getting the most questions correct on the Scouting quiz held at the Hog Roast.

After this the evening moved on the the entertainment. The Beavers regaled us with tales of their daring-dos and calming capers and then allowed us all to witness two special ceremonies. Three Beavers were invested and those who had made their Scout promise were able to join in with this. They then allowed those present to witness a "Swimming up" ceremony, quite a privilege. (I do, by the way have some photos and video from a previous swimming up which I will share with you at some point.)

Swimming up river to the lodge to change into a Cub.

The last part of the evening was the presentation of various awards and one of the Scout troop leaders got a cheer for a fairly unique achievement. He was presented with his wood badge and his 10 year service award in the same evening. Remarkable!

Finally, Steve Jordan spoke on behalf of the District and mentioned how the Group had changed since he was a 3rd Ware Leader. He was complimentary to the present day leadership team and was pleased that 3rd Ware still play a strong part in District events, as is witnessed by being awarded the Peter Geer trophy again this year.

We were then free to mingle and enjoy the food and drink on offer. Here's to another busy and successful year at 3rd Ware. 

If you were not there and did not get a copy of the report booklet, there is one pinned to the general noticeboard. Please feel free to have a browse and re-live the last year through words and pictures.

Canadian Friends

Meting some Canadian visitors

On Thursday night I again visited River Ash Beavers.It was a special occasion because they had some friends visiting from Canada! These were Sam and William, a Beaver and a Scout, who were over in England on holiday.

Our Canadian friends were welcomed into the meeting, and then joined in with all the activities, which for this evening was making gifts for Mother's Day. The Beavers made everlasting flowers, which looked fantastic! I'm sure that all their Mum's will have liked them.

We learned about some of the activity badges Beavers can earn in Canada, and then presented Sam and William with some 3rd Ware badges for their camp blankets.

Iona wrote:"When I took Gus to Beavers our subject was Mothers Day and Easter. We made flowers pots and flowers to put in them. After that we cut out Easter eggs and coloured them in, and people who were going to the Easter egg hunt on Sunday handed them in to Toad.

I enjoyed today a lot and I hope Gus did too!"

It's always fun to meet new friends and I look forward to meeting any other nationalities should the opportunity arise.

Beavering around

I do love a celebration and so this week I joined the River Lea Colony as they celebrated 25 years of Beavers. The Beavers played a couple of Balloon games and were given the County Birthday badge.

They were also thinking of others and so part of the evening was dedicated to making a card and certificate for a certain somebody this Sunday! I was impressed with the care the Beavers took and the thoughtful comments they made whilst colouring.

The Beavers also returned their bean plants tonight and Dormouse measured them and then award a first prize to Marcus for the tallest plant and a runner up prize for the next two tallest.

Thank you River Lea for inviting me down and I look forward to seeing you at the Easter Egg hunt on Sunday. Fresh air, chocolate and good friends, what else could one ask for?

Gus and the beanstalk

Helping the Herons - Part 2

I am very excited! Last night I was awarded my Home Help activity badge. Do you remember when I went down to the HQ and helped cook a meal (and then eat it)?  Well tonight I returned and also helped with the other tasks which included litter picking, ironing, window cleaning and sewing badges onto a huge camp blanket.

Our guests tonight were Badger (Beavers), Shere Khan (Falcon Cubs), Rama (GSL) and Oliver (Young Leader). Again they chose from Snuggles menu and were served freshly prepared and cooked food.

I did not have a scarf to iron and so had to disrobe and iron my hoodie. I did have to be careful because I did not want to melt the lettering.

Cleaning the windows was a piece of cake. Monkeys are very good at that. Does that surprise you? Well we are, because we like to clamber all over the place and it is a whole lot nicer if we can see through the glass, don't you think?

I helped with the sewing on of the badges. Did you know I have my own camp blanket? So far it does not have many badges, but Rama, the GSL, has said that I can have my nights away badge for the Beaver Sleepover and my Hikes away for the hike I undertook with River Ash. Akela has now awarded me the home help and so it is going to look pretty good with a selection of badges. I just need to persuade some one to sew the badges on, because I really am not very good at it!

I had a great evening with the Herons and want to say thank you to them for always making me so welcome. Everyone from Akela to the Young Leaders, from the Sixers to the newest Cub always welcome me and make sure I get to join in with everything. They also like to eat and that always goes down well in my book!

In the woods with the Herons

Monday was a busy day for me and I had to make some choices. I could go to the woods with the Herons or go with the Young Leaders to their training session. I chose the woods.

I did begin to reconsider that choice when I found out that the Cubs were collecting liquid toxic waste and carrying it around the woods, supposedly without spilling it. Fortunately the leaders let me into the secret...it was just coloured water....phew. The Cubs had a great time playing this wide game and their happy noise level proved this.

Thanks Herons for inviting me.

After this the GSL and the Chairman let me accompany them to the District HQ to discuss the plans for a new HQ building at some point in the future. As I said a busy day!

Expedition planning

Where we are going.

Last night I popped in to Scouts to have a quick visit and see what they were doing this week. They were taking part in some red nose day challenges. Then I nipped next door to the District HQ for the presentation to the Scouts and Explorers, who are coming to Wales with us at Easter, and their parents.



The Scouts in our building

The trip is a joint venture and is part of our centenary celebrations. We are travelling to Coetmor mill and introducing some of our Scouts to the delights of hillwalking in the Welsh Mountains as well as taking part in cycling and climbing. We will be accompanied by a group of Explorer Scouts. 

Some of the Explorers who will be join us in Wales

They have been invited because they are all ex-3rd Ware and so are attending as past members of the Group. The Leaders running it are also all 3rd Ware members or are Explorer Leaders who are past members of 3rd Ware.

No one told me that once you join 3rd Ware there is no escape because they will keep inviting you back!



I help one of the Explorer leader and some Scouts 
with their map skills

The presentation gave all the information needed for the trip and showed examples of suitable kit to take if one is going to be safe and comfortable. That is for the human of course, being a monkey I pretty much come as I am.

I will be blogging whilst we are away to keep you up to date and to give the parents of the young people a small insight into the things their son or daughter is up to.

Red Nose Falcons

On Tuesday night, Falcon Pack invited me down to join in with their fund raising evening which was in aid of Comic Relief. Each Cub donated some money to wear red clothes and was then able to try their hand at some of the challenges on the 100 challenge sheet.

They tried to eat a doughnut without licking their lips (113), eat as many cream crackers as they could in a minute (114), build 100 piece Lego towers (121), plant cress seeds (109), do 100 skips or star jumps (149), make and eat a fruit salad (106), write a comment on my blog (65), iron and roll their Group scarf (160) (51) and line up 100 dominoes before knocking them down (150).

The hall was busy all evening and there were also cakes on sale which boosted the total by another £17. All together the Cubs made nearly £100 for Comic Relief which will be used to help disadvantaged people here and in Africa. This was also the final part of the Community Challenge for 15 Cubs so Rama (who came down to eat cake!) kindly presented the badges at the end of the evening.

This is the final challenge badge for five of the Cubs and next week they will be getting their Silver Awards. Thanks to Akela who helped me write this post.

Helping the Herons

The kitchen staff!

On Monday night I went to visit those crazy Herons at the HQ. They were starting their Home Help badge. Half the pack (green six and red six) were cleaning the windows, ironing their own scarves (that had been freshly laundered over the weekend) sewing on a badge and cleaning silver. Learning these skills at the HQ building means that they should now be able to go home and "help" with these tasks when needed, knowing that they will be of assistance.

The other half of the pack (blue six and yellow six) had invited me, Dormouse (Beavers), Shere Khan (Cubs), Rama (GSL) and Oli (YL) to dine in the committee room. First they set the tables and took their guests orders. The tables looked great and even had candles, menus and breadsticks. As well as lovely red tablecloths.

Each guest could choose an omelette and a variety of fillings which was served with a fresh salad (Rama's favourite!) some warm crusty bread. The Cubs needed to take the order and then go to the kitchen and cook what each guest had requested. This they did with aplomb  and it was duly served to the grateful diners.

The meal was accompanied by a drink and followed by Peach flan and cream. After this had been eaten and cleared away tea, coffee and an after dinner mint were the order of the day. We all enjoyed our meal and would recommend Snuggles Diner to everyone. 

I am beginning to understand that food is very important to those at 3rd Ware. They seem to do a lot of eating, which is fine by me as long as I get an invite! I am going down in a few weeks time when the Red and Green sixes are cooking.

Hello Falcons!

Right at this very minute Gus' PA is getting lots of comments from the Falcon Cubs!

I have not published them yet because he needs to read them properly when he gets home and make sure they are suitable to go on the web and relate the the topic you have commented on.

Thanks Falcons for commenting on the Blog and Gus looks forward to getting a few emails from you tomorrow reminding of him what you have been doing tonight. He will then be able to put some of your messages in a seperate article about your fund raising evening when he writes it. Look out over the next couple of days.

3rd Ware Centenary badge

A while ago I said that I would tell you about our centenary badge. Well here it is! It is in the group colours of Green and Black and has the Scout logo on it and our centenary tag line of "3rd Ware 100 Scouting Years". It is being worn by all members of the Group and was given as a keepsake to past members who attended the Museum opening.

How did we get such a fine badge, I hear you ask. Well settle down and let me tell you.

Last year every young person in the Group was invited to design a badge. The shape was already determined, because we wanted to wear it on the point of our scarf and they need to include the words "3rd Ware 100 Scouting Years". We also asked that they used no more than 7 colours. Apart from that the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts had free rein to use their own imagination and creativity.

Each section then collected their own young people's entries and their Leaders took a vote. The design chosen was put forwarded into the final six to represent that section. (Six because the GSL also selected a wildcard one from all the remaining entries that had not been chosen by their own leadership team.)

These six designs were then scanned and blown up to A4 size and displayed on the walls of the Scout Hall. Every young person then cast their own personal vote for one of the finalists. These were emailed to the GSL who tallied them up as they came in and the winner was the design with the most overall individual votes.

In this case it was a Cub called Tiegan. I hope you agree she did a fine job and produced a badge we can be proud of.

County Expedition to Denmark

Here I am - ready to travel!

I was with the Scouts yesterday. I went to the Denmark expedition, team building, afternoon. It was very exciting. First of all they made and cooked meatballs, well they were supposed to be meatballs but one group actually turned theirs into burgers. (I am not sure that was intentional!)

The next thing that happened was that they put up tents, with a twist - two people in each group had to be blindfolded, and these were the only people whom were allowed to touch the tent!

The final activity was making a spaghetti tower. Using only four jelly babies and a handful of spaghetti, a raw egg had to be held off of the ground. Those towers looked really interesting, if that's the right word to use!

Finally the parents arrived and there was a presentation informing everyone about the things that will be happening when they get to Denmark. I wish I could go.

One of the young people helped me write this blog entry when he got home from the training afternoon. Many thanks go to him.

Half term

Well I am not sure what you did with your half term, but mine was surprisingly quiet. Not so much so for the rest of the Group! One of our travel Bugs has moved on to Norfolk, taken by one of the Beaver Scouts, and a few planning meetings took place.

The Scout Troop Leaders had another social, but I declined my invite this time and stayed home, they tend to keep late hours and a monkey needs his beauty sleep, don't you know?

A cross selection of the Group Leaders met to discuss the plans for going to The Gambia next year. We are want to visit our twin Group and meet face to face.  I hope that they will take me even though it will no longer be the centenary year.

Plans are in place now for Wales, at Easter, with 20 young people signed up. These include our present day Scouts and a handful of Explorers who used to be at 3rd Ware and are accompanying the Group on this joint expedition.

The new newsletter has been written and will be out next week and the new displays are up at the HQ building; I gave a hand with this. I had a quick look at the centenary collage whilst I was there and really hope that next time I visit The HQ more people will have added their own photograph. Is yours on there? It is for adult and young people.

My last job was to water the flowers at the front of the HQ. We are taking part in Ware in Bloom and so it is important that we all lend a hand when we can. This is the beginning of our project, there is plenty more in the pipeline. Shere Khan and Badger did a stirling job tidying up the compound and pruning the trees and hedges.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Last night I spent the evening with the River Lea Beavers. They are a very lively bunch of young people aged 6 to 8 years old, who really know how to enjoy themselves, I had a great time and can not wait to go back!

We were celebrating Chinese New Year and I found out all sorts of interesting information, got the chance to make a mask and tasted a Prawn cracker. MMMMMMmmmm. Did you know it is the year of the rabbit?

I also got to watch the Beavers play two games, one was a tag style game where they had to capture each others tails. I decided it was safer to watch this than risk them trying to join in. Well a monkey has to keep his dignity you know (and his hoodie clean)! I think it was almost better watching than playing. It made me smile a lot and the Beavers seemed to be having a good time.

Badger, Dormouse, Otter and the Young Leaders did a great job in providing fun and an exciting evening for the Beavers and I was delighted to have been invited down to the HQ to spend time with them.

I am looking forward to catching up with my new friends at the District Beaver sleepover on the 11th February. (I  hope to meet River Ash there as well and visit them soon.) Will you be there? I hope so because I am told it is a great event.