Winter too late

It has been snowing for several days now. Just think, only a week ago the daffodils, anemonea and snowdrops were in full bloom, the trees were getting that purple, pre-bud breaking aura and we were enjoying what felt like the first proper sunshine for the whole winter! Then for some reason Mother Nature decided to distribute all the snow she's failed to deliver before!

No Cubs this week, as it is the Easter holidays. Last weekend, while I was discussing the future leadership courses at Kjesäter Scout Centre, (also see blogg from January this year! Haven't learnt how to link to tags) both packs enjoyed half a day with the Rover Scouts, who had prepared both indoor and outdoor activities, as well as a light meal consisting of hot dogs and buns.

One of the activites was a quiz where one of the questions was: "What does Akela Lotta do for a living?" I was told that there was no hesitation in the Six:

"She works here, she is a scout leader! ", they eagerly called out and pointed to the Leader Room. (Correct answer: Sixth Form Teacher) I bet they think that I live in that room too!

The pictures are from earlier today. It snowed all through the night and most of the morning. Then the wind turned and suddenly warmer air came in from the sea and it started thawing. But now the wind is picking up again and it has started snowing quite alot. It is almost time to go out and do the pavements again! (There is a law here that states that as a house owner you have to keep the paths clean in front of your house). Well, the good thing is that I don't have to feel guilty about not doing enough about the garden!

Fire and bread

Could you ask for anything else in life but a hot fire and some freshly baked bread? Well, possibly that the wind wasn't so cutting and that the pale sun would shine just a little bit longer.

We are now 28 Cubs on Wednesdays and about the same on Thursdays! And they keep comming. I so wish we could accept them all, but now we've reached our limmit.

Tonight we had a visitor from the Venture Scouts, who showed the kids how to start a propper camp fire efficiantly and safely. While the fire took the Cubs got to mix some dough in a freezer bag. The dough then got wrapped around sticks and baked over the ambers while we tried to keep warm by singing some songs.

Just before the meeting one of the Cubs' mother came up to me and told me that their guinnea pig had died. Her son and his friend, who is also in Cubs, held a funeral in the garden.
-And would you believe, that when they had buried the beloved guinnea pig, they both stepped back and did the scout salut, she said with a smile.

Bread-on-a-stick
Enough for 12 breads
Mix 1000g of plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp of baking soda
(for a sweet bread add a little bit of sugar or honey) in a thick plastic bag and take to your picnic. When you are ready to bake your bread, pour in
300 ml water
into the bag and mix by kneeding the bag until you have a dough.
Take the dough out of the bag and wrapp or squeeze the dough onto a stick and grill it over the fire. When the bread starts to loosen from the stick it is done. Slide it off and fill it with jam or butter.
The dough can also be wrapped around a hot dog or sausage and then baked.

Of course I forgot to take any pictures, but if Links' turn out ok I'm going to post them later.

In the dark all Cubs are grey

This week we spent the whole meeting outdoors. Both packs met on Thursday to go for a little outing in the wood behind the hut.

We started with handing out the equipment: Trangias and storm lantern, as it soon would be dark.

Before dusk we had time to play a game, where all the sixes ran out and searched an area, aprox. 50 square meters, to find little green paper worms, the smallest only 2 cm long and the largest about 8. The tiny ones were worth 100p and the bigger ones 50 and 25p. The Cubs were only allowed to pick one at the time. They were really quick and enjoyed the game a lot.

Dusk was beginning to fall when we trooped along the path into the wood, all 50 Cubs and leaders and a couple of parent helpers. In a clearing we sat down in the sixes and everyone that wanted to could try lighting the carosene lamps, and then we set up the Trangias to cook rosehip soup. While the water came to a boil the Cubs told eachother stories, mostly ghost stories.

Soon it was very dark and we sat around our lanterns sipping the hot, sweet drink and enjoyed the company. Some people got restless and started playing in the permanent shelters that are set up in the woods, and I think the laughter and occasional screams scared all wildlife away.

Then we walked back to the hut where the parents were waiting, the Cubs merrily swinging the laterns. (They looked a bit like something out of SnowWhite).