If you want to follow the story so far, I’ve talked about: Anita’s B&B, Monday in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Tuesday at Our Chalet, Wednesday in Neuchâtel and Thursday at Reichenbach Falls and on the Brienzersee. Friday was a light day for our driver. I’m still kind of bitter and bemused over how much we paid … More Switzerland 2014: St Beatus Caves, a boat trip and a rainstorm
I notice I write a little more about archery than fencing here but I teach both and my latest fencing session went well enough that I thought it deserved a post of its own. My first session back in the hall with my Brownies after two years and two weeks didn’t go great. By the … More Fencing with my Brownies
This is probably the last virtual event I’ll do with Girlguiding – or at least, the last major event. I have no doubt we’ll do another Zoom Brownie meeting at some point when half the unit gets the dread plague from school, but virtual events are noticeably dwindling. All the big in-person camps and festivals have … More Castaway: a virtual sleepover
It’s now Thursday on my 2014 county trip to Switzerland and today we’re off to Reichenbach Falls and we’re going to return to Interlaken on a boat across the Brienzersee. I’ve already covered Anita’s B&B, Monday in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Tuesday at Our Chalet (is on its way) and Wednesday in Neuchâtel and Yverdon-les-Bains and … More Switzerland 2014: Reichenbach Falls & a boat trip on Brienzersee
Now we’re back on track! This is my county trip to Switzerland in 2014 and after starting in the wrong place, I’m now getting my days in the right order. Today is Wednesday and I’m going solo, off to my adopted home city of Neuchâtel and for a little spa afternoon at Yverdon-les-Bains. The story … More Switzerland 2014: My day off in Neuchâtel and Yverdon-les-Bains
Over the Christmas break, I reorganised this blog a bit – added clickable maps to the travel stuff and made the adventures into a page rather than an endless warren of nested menus – and in the process, I discovered where I had blank spaces. Enough blank spaces to occupy a full quarter of the … More Switzerland 2014: A day in the Lauterbrunnen Valley
My ordinary church hall Brownies seem to have become Forest Brownies. I’m in an outdoorsy bushcraft wild state of mind and the plague is still ravaging, so Monday Evenings Indoors Brownies are (maybe temporarily) Forest Brownies now. Being a Brownie leader is stressful sometimes, especially when you only took on the Brown Owl job right … More Forest Brownies: campcraft & firelighting in the woods
Another year, another large-scale event missed. This time it’s Wellies & Wristbands 2021. I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s not my favourite of Girlguiding’s flagship events because I find it’s just too much and it’s too busy and too noisy and mostly too expensive but I could fix all of that and make this … More Wellies & Wristbands 2021 (at home)
Happy International Women’s Day! I’ve not really acknowledged the day before. I’ve enjoyed Richard Herring’s annual “it’s November 19th” in response to thousands upon thousands of men whining “but when’s International Men’s Day??” (he’s now retired from doing it) and I’ve felt a quiet sort of pleasure in the fact that I’m a Girlguiding volunteer but … More Happy International Women’s Day!
I’ve done Sparkle & Ice every year since it began. There was muddy 2017, volunteering 2018, icy 2019 and stormy 2020 and now we’ve got at-home 2021. Just because Sparkle & Ice 2021 isn’t happening doesn’t mean I’m going to miss it. Last year, Girlguiding did an online version of Wellies & Wristbands because that’s … More Sparkle & Ice 2021: the at-home version
I Am A Polar Bear 