having a ball

Thought we'd end term on a roll! :) 
Here's our Human Hamster ball !!! Woop!

And, seeing as its too dark and cold and new to do much with it, we're going 10-pin bowling at AMF Shrewsbury on Thursday - usual time - 8:05 - 9:35 (OK actually 8:00 to 9:30 as it would be too confusing to explain why I wanted to book it from 8:05). Meet at AMF, but let me know if you have transport issues and we can sort you out. It's free so long as you have paid your subs, but bring some pennies for chips'n'coke etc.

Narrow game

Wow! freezy cold Llanymynech! But fortunately only the entrance passage - the rest of the cave was pretty much normal.

Thanks guys, for helping set up the scout's narrow game for today (wide game, but in a cave, so narrow...). The cave is now full of scary devil spiders! Look out! It's behind you!

Now where is Santa?

Phew! All made it out! 

Bright eyes

First of all, please vote on the poll in the next post about the winter mountain walking - the mountain group will plan around what we want, but only if we tell them!

I promised that the explorers would decorate Llanymynech cave for the scouts to visit on Friday... Some nice pretty LEDs - not to make them look like scary wild animals and scare the scouts away!

 "arghhh!!! let me out of here!"

We will meet at the car park at Llanymynech and put some LED decoration in the cave for the scouts for their friday Santa Cave Rescue and maybe even leave them some treats...

You can see a location map on the scout blog - we'll meet at Llanymynech at 8:30-9:30 (bit late as the Drum Corps are partying) - we need to coordinate transport so give me a call if you are not coordinated...

Oh, and of course you need a consent form!

Walking in the winter, wonder where?

The SSGMG (or who ever they are these days) are planning the Scotland expedition, a bit earlier this year to avoid Easter exam last-minute-revision-cramming-even-though-its-too-late-by-now. It's open for any of you that are 15 or over and have been on one of the hikes and shown that you are OK in the hills (why not come on the 'in search of snow hike in Jan? and get DofE fitness ticked off if you come on them all for a year?) We will be staying in cabins probably for a week and it's great - that's where I got my chicken head facebook profile pic - just before doing a half mile glissade! (technical term for intended bum slide)

Arms and the explorer

There is a risk that I may have to go to Brussels on Thurs, and anyway, we have to conclude the rifle marksmanship training for the explorers taking marksmanship for their Bronze DofE skill. So, we will not meet on Thursday 6 December, but instead meet on Saturday 8 December at Leaton Hall Rifle Range where we will do a sticker shoot for those aiming for NRSA badges, or a YPS competition shoot for those just starting out or yet to earn their YPS award. 

Here's the latest Boreatton member of the national squad earning her NSRA Junior C - 10m standing - course of 40 shots! See - Boreatton do well on the national stage!

You need to complete a permission form for rifle shooting remember. Also, as there are 16 of us it would make it easier to split the group into two halves - I suggest that those that  have not done the YPS course or been in the Boreatton Rifle squad come at 2:00pm-3:30pm and squad members or those shooting for 10m NSRA badges come 3:30pm-5:00pm. Oh, and as it is getting festive, there will be chocolate!

Online Ticketing for chocolate sticker shoot powered by Eventbrite

Putting the band together...

Wrist band that is.... :)

Yeh! paracord wrist bands for all! And if you're out in the wild and need a paracord as emergency guyrope/splint/bootlace/... you've got 8 foot of it and a shackle!

Knot on the blog

OK I know - I'm leaving it a bit late to blog the prog, but I am doing it bit by bit... This week we will do a sort of crissy-crafty thing so bring some music, food , drink, whatever and we'll chill whilst we craft some stuff... making emergency survival thingys... 



dance-of-entanglement-exploring-our-attachments-literally-tied-up ??? 

Hmmm... maybe knot...

Ultra chocolate

The U-V treasure hunt worked!

And we got to the end...

...where we found treasure! Ultra-Chocolate!



We've challenged Bicton to join us for an inter unit U-V treasure hunt now we know that it works and that we can set up the trail and run it in an evening - should be fun!

Rock and ROLL!

We've bought the ball!

... go Boreatton Hamster Scouts!

Ultra violet - ultra wet

Uh oh - falling behind with the blog... ahem - I will make amends soon...

Meanwhile here's a consent form for tonight when we do a dry run for the u-v town trail for Bicton Explorers! 
When I say dry run, that may be optimistic so we will see how it goes! (just heard the weather forecast for the next hour - 10 hours of rain is incoming! Oh well - if we can do it in that then we can definitely do it on a nice evening! Plan B will be to go to a Cafe and drink hot chocs whilst looking at how awful it is!

BSGMG

Hah! They tried to take the SSGMG away from us because it had turned into a private mountaineering team for Boreatton! But we've got it back - Pete and I begged them and so they've given us both T2 permits and now we can do the hikes ourselves! And they'll even take us to Scotland to do the serious snow sliding!

This Sunday is Cnicht, the Matterhorn of the Moelwyns! 


Mini on the top - I didn't take a pic of the 'Matterhorn view' as it is a bit of a scramble and I was busy scrambling! 


and here's another pic from last time with Rich setting a good example of being careful on thin ice! 

A nice shortish day with a bit of a scramble and dams and lakes to play in. As this is the first one with my shiny new permit and as Pete is away, they've given me another leader from Yr Hafod, who I secretly think is spying on me to see that I really have got a good gang of mountain walkers so I need a bunch of you to turn out with all the right gear! It's a nice little mountain, so should be fun!

Let me know if your coming asap!

scoutiness

Hmmm... I think we need a consent form every time we do anything away from the hut, but the district bonfiore didn't have any consents so maybe I'm being too scouty??? Anyway - it would be good to have consent to wave sparklers and launch display fireworks as this is sometimes disapproved of as a risky activity, so here's a form! :) 

Remembrance Parade

On Sunday we have our remembrance parade at Baschurch. All explorers are expected to attend - this is the one occasion where I ask scouts to prioritise scouts ahead of crucial rugby fixtures/shopping trips/lying in bed like a toad/EVERYTHING ELSE so I expect to see you all at the Admiral Duncan Car Park at 10:15 ready to form up behind our drum corps. There is limited parking at the Duncan so please park elsewhere and walk to our marshalling area. We are affiliated to the Royal British Legion which together with having the only drum corps in the county makes us quite unique! The parade will be dismissed at about 12:15 by the British Legion.

You need to be smart with (clean and fully badged up) explorer shirt, school trousers and (clean and freshly ironed) necker. Drum Corpsmen need to wear Navy trousers white belt beret etc. All explorers parading should wear the RBL affiliation badge. See me on Friday if you do not have any of these.

We will have a good turn out of explorers this year as there are lots of us now! - I might even get Philippa to take an 'explorers parading' photo (although she often prefers pics of her foot)

Pyrotechnics

We will have our meeting on Friday rather than Thursday this week so we can do our usual pyrotechnics with scouts! OK not quite so extravagant as this pic but close!

The Boreatton Firework meeting will be from 19:30 (to set up - Explorers will organise and launch the fireworks and scouts do the food and I guess we'll sort out the fire together!) to 21:30 at Leaton Hall on Friday 9 November.


There is also a district event on Mon 5th at 1st Shrewsbury HQ - I can't go to both but you are all members of the district so will be welcome... see email from our DESA:

The Leaders from 1st Shrewsbury are going to put on a barbecue barrell so Explorers can bring sausages to cook.  We will still make this a 'Bring and Share Supper' so please bring party food e.g cakes, sausgae rolls etc.

We can have fireworks so perhaps each Unit attending might like to bring a few.  Let me know if any Leaders can purchase fireworks at a reduced rate.  We could then charge each Explorer attending a small amount to cover the cost. 

 

Hope to see you all on the 5th November

 ...

Following the Leaders Meeting I can confirm that 1st Shrewsbury Explorer Unit have agreed for the District to hold a Bonfire Event at their Headquarters on November 5th.
Start 19.30 Finish 21.30. Parents are welcome to stay and meet us.

The venue is The Elms, Belvidere Avenue, SY2 5PD. Uniform is not required for this event.

This will be a fire and a Bring and Share Supper.

Mark from Monkmoor has arranged to deliver wood for the fire.  I will provide baked potatoes.  Please can I ask each Unit to bring a contribution for the supper. 
 

open air caving (every drop a waterfall...)

At last! Some pics from our caving camp in S Wales! Well, I say caving but I was helping run the gorge walk and Sunday Hike so no underground pics :( 
But the gorge walks are good - like caving but brighter and more chances to jump! (crazy mad jumping scouts...)
Here's some pics :)

...and the crazy mad jumps...
       ...are here! 

Running up ancient hills, hugging ancient trees

Hurrah! First Boreatton Explorers completed their Bronze DofE expedition so some of them have now completed all the section of their Bronze award! Just need to get it all on your eDofE account if you can remember your login details...
Here're some pics of the day - hiking, hugging, hanging out... The practice group couldn't find any ancient trees so they hugged ancient explorers... nice try guys but keep practising!

Precious metal

Here's some pics from Bisley! Our most successful competition yet with some great shooting and bronze and silver precious metal to bring home. Lorna came 3rd in the 6yd Air Rfle main event under 18 (and actually only one over 18 could beat her score!) and Charlie just outside the medals coming 5th in the under 12s. Evie came 7th in the full bore, and we had a handfull of others in top 20 places. And I came second in the full bore! Great camp as always, and we'll organise a final session for this year's team to shoot for badges in a week or so... Well done everyone!

H sleeps

The latest in my collection of photos themed as 'H sleeping in interesting places...'

"on the electronic range at Bisley with medals"

...of ancient trees

We liked the early record of bronze expeditions and decided to make our own cave (aka scout hut) art depicting the warrior in the ancient tree...
It's the theme for the expedition so first we checked the practicalities of the hug measure of a tree...

Like people, trees grow and age at different rates depending on where they are and what happens to them during their lifetime. But here’s a rough guide to when trees start to be of interest to the Ancient Tree Hunt, based on our hug method of measurement.

The 'hug' method for measuring trees A hug is based on the finger tip to finger tip measurement of an adult, which we take to be about 1.5m. This distance is usually almost the same as your height, and means you can measure a tree even if you forget your tape measure!

The trees below might be ancient if they measured the following:

Oak – 3 adult hugs
Beech – 2 adult hugs
Scots Pine– 1 adult hug
Rowan – one adult hug
Birch – a wrist hug
Hawthorn – an elbow hug
Cedar of Lebanon – 4 adult hugs
Field Maple - 1 adult hug
Sweet Chestnut - 4 adult hugs
Ash - 2 adult hugs

Here's an ancient puggle oak

yep - that's a four-hugger!

...and from it emerged the bronze axed hunter... 

clad in smoke and laser-light

signed by the artists

Bronze age!

an early bronze DofE expedition descended into chaos and conflict when it was realised that a pot noodle was not enough to survive on

Well certainly back to low tech as we do the expedition! Lightweight greenfield camping in sub-zero...
Here's some forms!

10

The explorers had their 10th party to coincide with the county fun day and promised that we could play with all the Beaver toys after they'd all got out from underfoot, which sounded fun so a big bunch of us went. We were the biggest group there! And we went to the fun day too as the Drum Corps has quite a few of us these days. It was great, until the Beavers went and they packed everything up!!! !!! where's our toys! no hamster balls! not fair! Oh well - the BBQ was good and just meeting up with friends from the SSGMG (Hi Callum!) and Jamboree and caving camp and stuff... The EL wire was cool too!


Here's some pics from some bits of the day - if you look carefully in the background you can't see the hamster balls that aren't there D8

We started the whole thing off...

 with Danny the CC

 and then the Bear came!

 ...briefly...

 and then it was just time to relax (nice nails)...

 ...chill...

 and glo! 8D

...chill and glo!

PS we've applied for some money to get our own hamster ball - they promised us hamster balls, and we deserve them - we will roll!!!

Expediting the expedition

We had planned to get ready for our expedition  this meeting and have the pre-expedition meeting withour assessor for those that are being assessed! However... Richard can't after all come tonight,and neither can most of those doing their assessed expedition (6th form open days etc). Finally, it's my only night available to pack for the rifles camp. 
So, it seems  sensible to bow to the inevitable and reschedule the meeting to NEXT TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER at BICTON SCHOOL from 7:30-9:30 pm. We will have big joint meeting with Bicton Explorers, have our meeting with our assessor (Richard), meet the Bicton DofE group  we will be camping with, and do the rucksac packing kit check and distribution of tents, practice eating our meal (remember not to have dinner before coming so we can see how well fed you are after your planned meal, and generally do all we had planned for the troop night.
Apologies for late notice :( - Philippa  will be phoning everyone so hopefully you will either have spoken to Phil or read this before the meeting. If not, I have organised a special activity for those that come to PGL anyway - helping prepare for camp! (i.e. helping me load the Landy!          
PS Those being assessed, don't forget to bring you complete route card (inc tick off points, times and bearings, escape options, and also be ready to talk about your aim - ancient tree survey - and how you will do your final presentation!                                                                                                               

Rifles Camp

Last minute details!
Forms - don't forget your shhoting form, camping consent and £10 final payment - there is no meeting tonight so you MUST bring you forms to your driver before you leave!!!
Transport - I will be taking the kit in the Landy, so setting off really early. The rest of you are travelling in leaders cars. There will be four scouts travelling with Matt Anwyl and he will have agreed arrangements with them; Pete and Anthony will leave from Pete's house and you should plan to get there for 5pm. Your personal gear will travel with you in a full car, so if you really need to have 3 rucksacks full of stuff (I have seen it in the past!) You will share your seat with your gear andbe a bit squashed and crumpled when you arrive...
Those that live in Bicton have an option to be collected from Bicton, so if you want to be picked up from there give Pete or me a ring and we will sort it out. Pick up from Bicton will be around 5:30pm (depending how much gear people bring and how hard it is to squeeze it all in :)
Remember, Bisley has always been COLD and it's hard to aim whilst shivering!!!                                

Another week... another camp...

Woah its busy this term! Camp 5 already... and the clocks not yet back!
We're all set for NSARC 2012 and here are the forms!

Stanley Hall

Here's a map!

See you all on Saturday! 
Don't forget - you need usual nights away kit including waterproofs, sleeping bag, kfs plate mug, change of clothes. I will provide tents and some cooking stoves, so if you want to cook snacks, bring some food! We will be provided with a BBQ and breakfast, but a pack lunch might be a good idea.
Don't forget your EL wire! And gear to wear it with! (Note that you should make sure it is switched off until we use it (if you disconnect the wire, you still have to turn it off to stop the inverter flattening the batteries (make sure it is not buzzing quietly to itself)))
Come wearing explorer shirt and Boreatton necker, but I expect we will be less formal later on. I will pay for you all and tell the marshals on the gate, so make £10 cheques and cash payable to me! You will be able to find me at the Archery stand if you can't hear me with the band or at the explorer camp.
The four whose parents I spoke to today are travelling to arrive in time to see BG. Two have told me they are travelling there themselves - I can give you lifts back. The rest need to meet me at Leaton Hall at 8:30 and we will get there for the start! The four travelling together will return to Ruyton for 9:30 on Sunday, the rest can come back with me a little later that morning - probably around 11:00, but it depends how quickly we get b'fast and tidy up!
Some of you have given me camp forms, some of you have given me camp forms and shooting forms, and some of you haven't!!! I must have your consent forms, and if you intend to shoot, you must carry your shooting form (our rifle squad forms do not apply to this event).
Phew... lots of last minute info...
See you there!