Leap forward into Spring · Sunday March 25, 2007 by Lily
Today was the first all-day meeting for the Explorer Scouts who are hoping to go to Russia in 2008. After making sure we “leapt forward into Spring,” with our clocks, we deposited R at the scout hut at 10.30, which had been well covered by grafitti since last week. Why you ask yourself, probably for the same sorts of reasons we had 10 panes of glass broken in our greenhouse 2 weeks ago.
Anyway, they printed off a white T-shirt each to wear whilst fund raising, did a bit of cooking, played some team-building games and had some chats and instruction, the chief outcome, for R at least, was the good news that mostly they will not be eating meat. It had seemed as though there was a very real chance ds would have to try to eat a bit of meat, if pushed, because they will be carrying most of their food and they can’t cater for special diets. They were told they will have to cook and take an active part in everything so ds came back raring to improve his cookery skills.
We generally try to grow some of our own organic fruit and vegetables. That was fine when dh worked shifts locally, but recently the garden has been neglected because of long hours commuting and all our caring commitments to granny, grandchildren and of course to Rupert.
They are intending to visit St Petersburg, Moscow and Omsk for their trip. Ds is very excited. It has been my dream to travel the Trans-Siberian Railway, which they will do in part. Dd spent 5 months in St Petersburg and I was able to visit her for a week 9 years ago.
There are some wonderful opportunities in scouting. Dd visited Sweden with the National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra, in addition to 3 week camps/homestays in Germany and Poland.
We set off early to pick R up which was good as they finished 1/2 hour early. We called in to see ds1 and his family; as they gave us the cold there is no danger of passing on germs! Only ds and our younger granddaughter were in and she was having a nap. They live at the other side of our town. It’s nice to have them close by.
In the evening R made plans for the weeks ahead before and over Easter. He likes to plan all his days and know exactly what is happening when, and not have any surprises. We had a bit of tricky negotiating to do about next Thursday, when he really needs to go to an extra Maths class, but it is Explorers night.
