Things to love

I am desperately trying to work out wether I am brave enough to do this project with my Rainbows....



She took a load of roving, got the kids to dye it and then span it up to make a beautiful blanket. I've yet to work out how to do the dying without trashing the church hall though. Maybe if I wait until the summer we can do it outside...



The roving looks like it should spin up to be clown yarn, but somehow because the same colours appear over and over the project works.

Sheffield wheel

Last night I took my Rainbows for a ride on the Wheel of Sheffield. It's been a fixture of our sky line for 18 months and finally leaves in just over 2 weeks. As part of the centenary celebrations for Girlguiding we've been seeing how many girls we can get on wheel during our centenary year. We had a magical ride, seeing the sun set over the city, and seeing familiar buildings from a whole new perspective!

Celebration

Over the past 12 months we've been celebrating the start of Guiding. We've had lots of events over the year for girls, but today was chance to say thank you to the adults who run all the units. I've just got back from a garden party where it was most strange to see all these ladies who normally you only ever see in uniform dressed in their best. The weather was little chilly so I was very glad to be able to wear my Aeolian shawl (for only the second time!) for some much needed warmth.
I showed you the finished photos last year but I don't think I ever showed you me wearing it, and it's very nearly guiding blue!


Happy birthday Girlguiding, here's to another 100 years!

Flying

I took my Rainbows to the park on Tuesday, as ever one of the biggest favourites were the swings. The feeling of flying through the air,getting higher and higher, simple pleasures when you're 7!

Switzerland

A brief selection of my photos from Switzerland. We took 26 Guides and Young Leaders and 7 adults overall it was an amazing trip, the weather to start off with was a little damp, including hail storms and thunder and lightning. By the end of the week however it was warm and sunny, with amazing views from the tops of the mountains. We shall gloss over the 24 hour coach journeys, and being pulled off the coach to go through customs at 1.30am, apparently home office instructions are that all youth groups must go through customs in case they've been on terrorist training camps....

Hghlights have to be the views from the top of the Schilhorn and watching a group of teenage girls relax and not worry about what they looked like, and what others were thinking about them.











Oh and apparenly when we next go I might be organising it.... (PS. I also found a wool shop, and yes, I bought wool!)

I'm back

I've arrived back safely from Switzerland ahead of schedule. the RSS feed reader has been caught up with (111 blog posts), and 139 emails have been read or deleted!
I still haven't opened my bag, I still need to shower but I have had an all important cup of tea. Photos are going to be forthcoming.

On my travels

I leave tomorrow for a trip to Switzerland with Guiding, I am paying to spend money with 30 Guides on a coach for 24 hours, at times I think I need my head examining....
I think the packing is done, the important things like what knitting to take were picked out several days earlier less important things like "do I have enough clean knickers?" were only thought about last night. The answer by the way was no, I went to sleep to the sound of a washing machine attempting take off. It needed this much time because the weather to be quite honest has been dreadful, I've done a few climbing instruction sessions this summer and have worn water proofs for every single one. Most summers they might get put on once maybe twice if I'm unlucky. My legs haven't seen daylight for weeks, I am ready for Switzerland to be hot and sunny!

See you all in 10 days or so....

I think the weather gods don't like me

Two weekends away camping this year and the weather has been identical for both. For those of you at the back not paying attention; I mean rain, and lots of it. Enough to flood a supposed wet weather shelter. Poor guides who I took camping for the first time didn't know what hit them. One bonus it stopped raining for long enough to dry the tentsand take them down. The rain started just in time for us to go home.




Click for bigger versions. The last time I experienced rain like it was when I was in Thailand at the end of the rainy season...

Good for the soul

The last day has been one of those days that every now and again I need. There is just something so heart warming about watching a group of small children having fun. Fun they wouldn't be having if I wasn't there.
Last night I took 13 5 year old girls away for an overnight stay. We made our own pizza from scratch, made fairy cakes, sang laughed, slept (a little!), and also had fun doing farm jobs. I am now exhausted, I have no idea how people have the energy to become parents, but I had a lovely time.



(Please note I do have permission from parents to take photos, and use them for publicity purposes, I think this counts!)

Happy Thinking Day

Today Girl Guides, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts all over the world will be thinking of each other. Just imagine that, 38million people from 216 countries, all thinking about someone other than themselves. In the richer nations like the UK we collect Thinking Day pennies to help fund Guiding and Scouting in nations that are less well off. Guides and Scouts in many African countries act as health ambassadors trying to educate local people about AIDS prevention. Even in countries like the UK Guiding and Scouting encourage young people to think beyond themselves and to recognize that however hard life might seem for them, someone, somewhere in the world has a far worse lot.
So if you were ever a Brownie, Guide, Cub, or Scout or even more magically a leader, Happy Thinking Day, and enjoy this PR video I found on YouTube, 30 years old, but explains beautifully why I give up my time to be a Guider.

I promise no snow

Well maybe a little, we still have snow, this makes 10 days now, longer than I have ever experienced in my lifetime. Just thought you might like to know!
Have just got back from Rainbows where we made tye dye tea towels, you'd never think a 5 year old id them (with help it's hard to wrap an elastic band tightly with little fingers. We're going to sell them to raise funds to send books to Africa as part of Girlguiding Uk's Change the World Challenge. After that I want my knitting group, knitting in a pub, what could be better! Speaking of knitting, a knitting meme. You bold anything you have done and italic things you plan to do in that time old fashion!
Feel free to steal!

Afghan
American/English knitting
Baby items
Bobbles
Buttonholes
Cable stitch patterns
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Combination knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing spinning fibre
Dyeing with plant colours
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Free-form knitting
Fulling/felting
Garter stitch
Gloves
Graffiti knitting
Hair accessories
Hats: Cuff-up
Hats: Top-down
Holiday related knitting
Household items
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewellery
Kitchener stitch
Knitted flowers
Knitting a gift
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting art
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting on a loom
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting to make money
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Knitting with dpns
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with wool
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO
Machine knitting
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Participate in an exchange
Participating in a KAL
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe-up
Socks: top-down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Tassels
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male how to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy/doll clothing
Tubular CO
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting
Writing a pattern


Not bad for a year of knitting!

What a day

Despite Tuesday's being my easiest teaching load I always finished the day feeling drained! I teach my 2 most difficult groups and spend the rest of the day planning and marking. After a day at school I also had my first Rainbow meeting of the term. We had 5 new starters tonight which might not sound much but is actually a third of the unit. In addition to that one of the older Rainbows decided that she wanted to do nothing but cry when she didn't get her own way. Luckily I'm remarkably good at ignoring this behaviour and I don't think she'll try it again having hopefully realised it won't work!
I'm also trying to organise a date to take the Rainbows away for a night, it's harder than you think to find a weekend that 4 busy adults are all free on, and you can book the accommodation!
After rainbows is knitting, which is lovely as I get to see al my knitting friends who are always good for just the sort of natter I enjoy, they're a fabulous group of funny, smart and to be quite honest dirty minded women, I love them to bits!
It's after bedtime, but I am determined to keep posting regularly so thought I'd better drop by with an update. Besides which if it wasn't for this blog and Facebook my Mum would have no idea what I'm up to!

It's nearly all over

Thank heavens, hopefully by this time tomorrow the American people will have exercised their democratic right and voted. I won't be sad to see the end of this, this election feels like it has gone on for ever. What I do find interesting though is how this election has captured the imagination of the kids at school. I put BBC news (it's stremed over the internet) on at school in registration today and they knew who all the candidates are even had opinion on who they wanted to win. I bet the same could not be said of politicians in our own country!

Anyway I must dash, I'm taking my rainbows for a night walk in the drizzle... we have sparklers though so all will be well!

This could be the straw that breaks the camels back...

I've just finished a really upsetting phone call. It was from one of the wonderful Guiders in my district. she has been running her unit for just over a year, and has had enough.
Really it's a combination of factors, she's started a new job, she feels inexperienced and feels like she's not planning a good enough program, the parents don't support her when she needs an extra adult, and the behaviour of the girls is very poor.
She's said she can stay until Christmas and after that she wants to carry on as assistant but no more.

This is the 2nd Brownie unit in my district that will be or is currently without someone to run them. I also have a guide unit with 40 girls currently being run by just 2 guiders. There is not a unit in the district that I feel is running to the potential it could be due to a shortage of regular helpers who could help share the load. There are 300 girls in units in my district, and so many of their parents view Guiding as a right. Despite many pleas for help the stock answer is that they are too busy. I long to wave my diary in their face, tell them what my week has been like, tell them just how few hours I spend at home between leaving for work, arriving home, leaving again, and coming home and collapsing in to bed. Tonight is the first night I will have in this week, next week is much the same.
I run my own Rainbow unit, am district commissioner, catering officer for the climbing club, am a first year teacher and I would quite like to actually see my friends and family occasionally. If I can do it, anyone can, for the most part we don't even want someone to organise meetings, we just someone who will turn up regularly for just an hour and a half a week.To me it's just another example of the selfish nature of society at the moment.


/rant over, normal service will resume tomorrow with a giveaway!

Bounce

The camp I went to was in Northamptonshire and called Bounce, my Mum commented when she saw me today that I seemed really up-beat and happy, and I am, going away for a week, away from the phone and email gave me a chance to escape for a while and not think about anything more than eating, sleeping and teaching climbing.

Anyway I've uploaded my photos, and thought I'd share a few. I took my own knitting to camp, but one of the activities was also chance to teach the Guides to knit with the aim of making a charity blanket. I had to cast on a few squares, and fix a few mistakes but didn't get chance to do alot as it was at the same time I was teaching climbing.
There was also a stained glass window we were painting, which ended up being really beautiful.

Then of course there the outdoor activities, I was running climbing on the oldest mobile climbing tower I think I have ever seen, they also had bungee trampolines, shooting, archery, and a huge bouncy slide. The girls got to do so many more things but I was so busy running the climbing I didn't get chance to see.

I belong....

There was a t-shirt produced by Girlguiding UK, on it it says I belong.... and then lists a load of amazing facts about the organisation, it talks about the brilliant things we do an says something like this...
Almost half of the women in Britain have been involved in guiding at some point in their lives
Around 30 per cent of eight-year-old girls are in Brownies
Seventy per cent of five- to seven-year-olds, 73 per cent of seven- to ten-year-olds, 81 per cent of ten to 15-year-olds and a massive 96 per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds like to spend time together without any boys being there

I've just got back from a week at camp where I have been reminded just how much this movement can do for girls from any walk of life, and how much pleasure I get from working with them. I've come away re-energised about my own unit and have made so many new friends. I arrived at camp a stranger, with in 6 hours I had made so many new friends.

I'm just trying to catch up after a week away, I have taken some photo, I'll put them up tomorrow.

Tour de France Knitalong

This summer I'll be joining in with the Tour de France knitalong, see the bog button in my sidebar if you want to head over to the blog. Signups are now closed, but before the tour sets off on Thursday (which is also just as I'm heading off on holiday for a week!) we've been invited to create a blog button for our teams. 'm part of team AG2R- LaMondiale, and I'm not very good at playing with words, but I have made a blog button. Hopefully it will win me a prize!

I'm planning on knitting these-

but will be playing catch up, they are not going to fit in the saddle bags while horseriding!


As for Guide Camp, it was lovely, I'm a little sunburnt and tired as I seem to be stuck in to a pattern of waking up at 7am!
I'd now better go and start packing, meant to be moving sometime today if we can ever get hold of our landlady!

NaComLeavMo

Well NaComLeavMo is over, and I completed it successfully. Of the 200 blogs on the list I visited all of them, and left comments on most. I've also loved having a few more comments floating around here. It was such a success that Mel who ran it is going to turn it in to a regular thing. Instead of it being for a month it's going to be for a week every month, which should make it a little less insane!
If you're interested, sign ups open on Tuesday, just head over to Stirrup Queens and there will be a way of signing up. I'll be doing it again.

Best get a move on, I'm off to guide camp for the weekend and need to get some stuff done before I leave!

Wiped Out...

What with all this comment leaving, finishing off my PGCE, and packing to move house I'm finding very little time to write on here, when I do find time I'm left with writers block.
After a rubbish start today (I had to have my first day off sick from the course) I perked up a bit, which was lucky as it was the last Rainbow meeting of the year and I was then teaching climbing yet. I think the day off might have done the trick, I now feel like I can make it through the next couple of days, it was starting to get to the point where I could no longer concentrate and was just in a dreadful mood. After a bit of time to regroup 'm ready to battle on, though a session of moving boxes this evening has left me ready for bed!
On that note, I'm off to bed, come back in the next couple of days for a post about sea-kyaking and backpacking in Canada when I was 13.

A quickie..

Just a quick post to share something I found today that I loved, and immediately though to share with my Mum, closely followed by you guys!
This is only going to be quick as in 15 minutes I have to dash out to cook (aka cover myself with flour and get covered in icing sugar) with my Rainbows.
If you need to smile today then please go here and listen to this. I nearly spat shortbread biscuits over my computer I laughed so hard.

Today was my last day in school, and I have 1 and a half weeks left in uni before I'm a proper teacher.