All packed up revving to go

Next weekend we're off to Tranabo, our cottage in the woods, for a sleep over, in preparation for the group camp in May. We usually have a sleep over in the scout hut in the autumn, a sleep over indoors in the cottage early spring/late winter and then sleep outdoors, in old troop tents, at the camp in late spring. It's a nice progression for the kids, who, in some cases, never have been away from their mums and dads before.

We started of by warming up and releasing some steam with a tag game: First round the tagged people joined hands in pairs, then threes, but when a forth person got tagged, the quad split into pairs again. (Does that make sense?) It was a great game! The second round, instead of breaking the chains, it got built onto, and in the end two loooong chains of taggers herded the few brave left in to a corner of the field. This game really practise quick communication and teamwork.

This week we had two things going on: Talking about packing, and finding nice sticks to finish the sixes' flags. The weather was perfect for both: Lovely crisp spring sunshine, and dry ground. Victor talked about how to pack evenly in a backpack, while I demonstrated the less favourable option, by carrying my packing in a sports trunk and two carrier bags. "It's ok", said Victor, "but how are you going to carry your pack to the cottage?" The second-years seconded him, whispering to the first-years about the biiiig hill up through the woods to the cottage. We agreed that a backback, even a school back pack, was better than carrier bags anyway.

The Cubs also had very strong opinions about me bringing a china plate and ditto cup. "Just THINK about the poor wild animals!" said one of the boys, "You're so clumpsy, you'll fall and break your plate and then all the animals will cut their feet on the shards!" He didn't agree with my need for bringing ALL my beauty creams either. He was SO funny!

"Lotta, do you REALLY think there is a fashion show on in the woods?" He sneered at my silk pyjamas, and told me that I'd need three t-shirts to keep warm if I chose to bring those, and didn't approve of my cookery book either, even if it had all organic recipes. He told me firmly to write down a few EASY favourites on a note and keep it in a pocket instead.

For some strange reason a majority of the Cubs didn't think that bringing a toothbrush was essential... Hmmm....

After Victor and I had done our little 'play', the Cubs played Kim's game with the 'right' stuff splayed out on a tarpoline on the ground. They were very good, most remembering almost all the stuff, and noone forgot about the toothbrush (but one six left out the toothpaste). It was getting a little bit cold so after the sixes had found good sticks for their flags, we went inside.

As we brought the 'Brownies' and the 'Wolfcubs' together after Christmas, to be able to use the leader resources better, as my strenght is still not reliable and Marie has another shop opening and Jessica's job is restructuring (you probably know what it's like) we are now 33 cubs and at the most 8 leaders. Being 8 consistant leaders allows a leader to have a meeting off when we need to, and still feel that we can provide the Cubs with safe and fun activities. We also have parents comming in to help some times, and if we need to, some of the other leaders in the group help out. Last night, Therese from scouts came in to help. Thank's!

Bringing the two groups together also meant that we had to adjust the sixes a little bit, as we had two caterpillar sixes, two glow worm sixes etc. In some cases the sixes could be merged, in other's we had to split them and make new ones. So now we have six: The Caterpillars, the Glow Worms, the Flies, The Lady Birds, the Dragon Flies, the Ants. The making of the flags turned out to be a good exercise in democracy, as in some cases a choice had to be made about which flag to use, in other which way up the flag should be. The flags were then ceremoniously handed to the leaders for safe keeping, before we sang the scout song and finished.

And oh, as it was my birthday (28th, if you count hexadecimals) everyone sang to me in both Swedish and English and I got these absolutely LOVELY flowers! Thank you so much!!!!

Around the world in 40 minutes

There were loads of people at the meeting on September 25th; Both packs were there, and lots of parents! Unfortunately no pictures.

While the Akelas were dealing with the parents inside, all the sixes went on a trail around the world and answered lots of very tricky questions about continents, countries, flags and languages. The cubs also did lots of practical things like spelling, throwing balls into buckets and throwing an old fashioned life line. And of course some games and songs!

Meanwhile, indoors Marie and Lotta had the parents reading the scout law, explained how the law and the promise makes scouting different from Woodcrafters and football teams, how Falkenberg scout group is a part of a family of millions and millions. They also told the parents of the seven different parts of the scout method: Law and promise, symbols and ceremonies, the six, learning by doing, the outdoors, caring for oneself, the society and the world and supportive and listening leadership. Then the parents were put into sixes and told to plan a meeting for their children, using as many of the seven parts as possible.

When the meeting was over everyone sang the scout song. Next week the cubs will take home a nice course certificate for their parents as proof that they all have passed the first module of the basic scout leader course!

One Piece of Rubbish Aday

Someone nudged my memory today, and I had an idea. . .

Sweden is a relatively clean country. We have the highest numbers in the world of recycling, especially drink cans and PET bottles, as we get a small amount of money for every can or PET bottle we hand in at the shop. (This is paid for by an addition to the price of the drink in the first place) Nevertheless you see an awful lot of rubbish along the roads and on the ground in the town centres. Even in the middle of the woods! Some people seem to think that dropping rubbish on the ground is what you should do, even if there are bins around.

In 2005 the organisation Håll Sverige rent! (Keep Sweden Clean!) started a campain called One piece of rubbish aday (In Swedish of course) The campain, in all its simplicity, aims to raise people's awareness about the damgers of those little bits of rubbish that we drop on the ground and to get people to pick up their own rubbish, by urging people to pich up one piece of rubbish aday and put it in the nearest bin! If everyone did that, hey presto! We'd have a MUCH nicer environment!

Someone has now taken this idea onto Facebook, and someone else mentioned this in their blogg, which jolted my memory. And I thought, why not spead this via the Cub Scout groups around the world too!

So this autumn you'll hear more about what rubbish we have in Falkenberg, Sweden, and what we do with it!

Happy scouting!

Picture by: Alfred N

2008 Group Camp

Every year the Falkenberg Scout Group goes to Tranabo over the Ascension Day weekend. The Scouts, Explorer and Network scouts arrive already on Wedensday evening, as the Thursday is a national holiday. On Thursday morning the Juniors (10-12) arrive and then on Friday morning the Cubs (the Miniors) finally descend on the Tranabo forest. When the Cubs invade you know it! The theme of this years camp was water, but the Thursday's rain had dried fairly well before the Cubs were dropped of by their parents and left in the care of two sea monsters, one crazy fisherman, a diver and the little mermaid.

Well installed in the old military tents, the cubs commenced cooking their lunch on Trangias, with the help of the leaders, helpers and parent-helpers. We were lucky to have two dads joining us on this camp too, a new one and one that we apperantly didn't manage to scare off on the last sleepover. They were great!

On the lunch menu was a pasta dish with a ham sauce, raw carrots and cucumber. All the sixes were happily chopping away, and soon enough chomping away at the results. The Cubs were happy to share their food with the leaders and helpers, and believe you me when I say that they'd done a beautiful job of preparing the food. It was absolutely lovely, and the pride in the children's faces when we praised their cooking skills!

We had our friend Tom from Oxford with us. We accually have three Cubs whose mother tongue is English, but being inquisitive and curious the others weren't stopped by any language barriers either, and Tom was a very popular leader at camp.

After lunch an adventure trail was laid out for all at camp to enjoy। The sixes were mixed with older scouts and among other things the cubs and scouts got to try Ph-measuring, building a pressure driven PET-bottle rocket, panning for gold, target shooting with water guns, getting an egg to float, and shooting off waterfilled baloons with a catapult made out of bamboo sticks. The local paper came and did a piece on the camp.

When the trail was finished it was time to start cooking again! This time the Cubs cooked us a Sausage Stroganof with rice, served with tomatoes and cucumber. Again it was delicious!

In the evening there was a camp fire, where classical songs were sung, jokes said and some traditionally bad acting staged. After Kumbaya everyone walked back to the house for rosehip soup and a bun before bedtime.

The sky was filled with stars and the warm day was followed by a cold night, and some of the Cubs was a bit cold during the night, even if they had put extra night clothes on. But all survived 'til morning and at breakfast it was already warm enough to sit outside with our porridge, sandwiches and the left-over rosehip soup.

After an obsticle course and the packing up of all the equipment, it was time to lower the Swedish flag and the Union Jack that had been flying over camp. We summed up the camp and thanked eachother for making it the best camp ever. Then we sang the scout song and walked back to the road where the parents picked their tired, but happy, children up again.

St George and World Book Day

Wednesday was a day well worth celebrating: It is the Bard's birthday, his death day and also Cervantes, the guy who wrote the book about the mad, old man who read too many books and thought he was a knight and went out to fight windmills to save his damsel, died that day. Therefor UNESCO has made this the World Book Day. Another person who fought for a damsel, not windmills, but a dragon, was St. George, the boyscouts' patron saint.

St George's is celebrated by scouts all over the world. In Sweden, where girls and boys have been joined in scouting since 1963, all celebrate St George, even if it originally is a Boy Scout celebration. How you choose to celebrate varies between the groups, and "which kind" of scout you are. Some groups have a church service, some only a parade, but most do something publicly, to show the spirit of scouting. In Sweden there are five different nationwide associations, where of The Swedish Guide and Scout Association, of which Falkenberg is part, is the most profane.

So, this year we tried something completely different: We made a Wild Book Release, the first ever in Falkenberg, and held a St George show in the centre of town!

All the cubs brought one or more books, that were taged and put in a plastic zip bag and then hung up in a tree. We played tag and in the water display, and then we put on a dressing up show starring mostly cubs in the roles of St George, the dragon and the princess. It was very silly and very noisy, but after all the frivolities we managed to get some serious words in at the end, about doing one's best, not expecting rewards. At the end all joined hands and sang the Scout song, that echoed against the brick walls of the houses around the square.

Some of the Cubs brought home as many books as they came with, and when the scouts had left we saw that people who walked by stopped and had a good look. Some even picked a wild book to take home, and this morning all the books were gone!

The activity was deemed a great success, and we might do it again.

The Stars are out!

This year's first sleep over and many of the Cubs' first visit to the group's second hut: Tranabo. Tranabo (Crane's nest) is a little, about 80-year-old, homestead in the middle of the woods about 30 km east of Falkenberg. To get there you have to drive, first on a reasonable single lane road, then on a tarmaced country lane, then on a gravel road and to finish you have to go up a bumpy dirt track. The group has had this little cottage for 40 years, and it has got a lot more comfortable during this time. In the olden days, (when I was a cub!) it only had two logfires for heating, a privy in the yard and you had to get drinkingwater from a well in a meadow a little way away. But today the Cubs come to a fairly modern place, with hot and cold running water, electric heating and a building in the yard, where the outhouse used to be, containing WCs, changing rooms, showers and a sauna! Aren't they spoilt!

38 of our Cubs had heeded the call to come. To our great joy also five parents and two young leaders came, so we were well staffed. When the Cubs and parents (almost all also for the first time) came, they sang the Cub Scout song, and had a guided-tour-on-the-line: All held on to a 10-meter rope, and got shown around the premises by the leaders, Cubs and adults alike.
We were very lucky with the weather, as the forcast had shown clouds and possible showers: The sun was shining, the birds singing their little hearts out, and it was also quite warm: 12 degrees Centigrades in the shadow!

The kids cooked on Trangias, under the supervision of the parent helpers. They made the standard beginner's Trangia meal: Hunter's hotpot, Jägargryta, with some modernization (i.e. pasta instead of potatoe)

Hunter's hotpot (Cub's version)
You need:

• Sausage
• Leek
• carrot (could be substituted, or added to, with other root veg.)
• sweet corn (tinned)
• stock cube (veal or vegetable)
• pasta
• tin of passata
• salt and black pepper

1. In the six, make sure everyone has washed their hands thoroughly.
2. Be careful, passing out the chopping boards and knives.
3. Boil some water in the little pot on the Trangia.
4. Chopp the sausage, carrots and leek. Put them in the big pot and start heating up when the water has boiled.
5. Pour some water into the big pot, add the stock cube and bring to the boil.
6. Add the pasta and boil for five minutes.
7. Add the passata.
8. Season and serve!

After lunch, the parents were put in nice, sunny clearings in the woods and the Cubs were sent out on a nice long walk, where they got to practise some skills: At one stop they practised doing a reef knot, in another they played Kim's game, and they did the old life-line throwing.

The spring weather encouraged water-play. In the spring, there is a little stream running just below the yard, from the hill into the little lake. The Cubs really enjoyed playing in it, making dams and getting muddy and wet. Some played hide and seek in the forrest and made themselves aquainted with the surroundings for the spring camp, the May Day weekend.

When it got darker, the Cubs came inside to play games and colour in pictures of star constallations. The parents served out a "African Mince", spicy minced beef with a creamy sauce, served with rice and corn crisps, and then we all went out for a camp fire. Marie and Eva sang lots of songs, some old and some new, most in Swedish, but some in English, and I did "Cecil is a Caterpillar" (in Swedish). Then it was time for bed.
Outhouse and wood shed in the snow
We woke at approx. six o'clock. To our surprise it was snowing! We had sandwiches and oat porridge for breakfast, made some badges and started packing up. It took the kids some time to find all their odd, wet socks, sleeping bag bags, rubberbands, towels etc. By the time we got all the equipment outside and started hiking down to the pickup point (the dirt track is too bad for too many cars) it had started raining. We tried to match found items up with found Cubs, but still we had a whole bag of left-over stuff after the last Cub had been picked up.

Very muddy Cub and Marie at Pick-up point

Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves, particularly the parent helpers.

No meeting this comming week as we have a Fix-it day at Tranabo next weekend, for all the group-parents and scouts alike.

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).

Misc. meeting

This week has been the winter sports holiday for the schools in the district. We don't usually have meetings on school holidays. But last week we had a bit of a "leftovers meeting" where we did some activities that we haven't had time for before this year.
After playing a little game we sent the sixes in different directions:
In the kitchen Ida and Rasmus, our helpers, did reef knots and others, Eva were talking about star constallations in the Brownie room and in the big all the Cubs and I practised flag break.
Then we played rag hockey, a fast game where you have to use a broom handle to get a rag into your oponent's goal.
I really got to get better at taking pictures....
On Thursday the meeting was very much the same, except for that the sixes also got to try throwing a lifeline at targets.

Wet, wet, wet

This week's meeting was held at the local pool, Klitterbadet. Both groups were invited, but unfortunatlely the flu is raging at the moment and only 22 children were there. We were very happy about having so many parent helpers for the evening and put them to work at once.

The children were given a laminated list of tasks, numbered 1 to 5 in varying order. The tasks were:

• Retrieving Treasure: Diving down under water to gather up coins to make up a certain amount.
  
• Pearl Fishing: By cooperating and using a hook fastened to several strings the children had to fish a sealed bucket up, which contained glass marbles. The marbles were to be handed to the adult manning the next station on the list.


• A Secret Message: Letters were put on the bottom of the pool to be fished up and read out to people on the side of the pool, who were to pick out the same letters from a school scattered by the poolside. Then the letters were to be rearranged into a specific word, in this case "droppe", droplet.


• Remember?: What do you have to do to get a certain swimming badge? The kids had to find the requirements on a noticboard and then remember them and report them back to an adult.


• Lifewest swimming: The whole six had to put lifewests on correctly and swim 25 meters together and return the lifejackets in an orderly fashion afterwards.
  
• After finishing the tasks the children got to play in the pool and the ones who hadn't yet done their swimming badge (50 m in a lifejacket and 100 m without) did that.

After an hour we gathered the children (and parents) with an indian howl and made sure that everyone got ticked off the list and sent them into the changing rooms and we were ALMOST in time for 7.15. Well, at least some of us.

On the way out we recruited a new cub; a girl who had noticed us (wonder why?) by the poolside and shyly came up with her mum to ask if she could come and join. And of course she could!

Gone for inspiration

We were four Cub scout leaders who went to the Swedish Scout Federations own seat of learning for a weekend of inspiration. The "Akelas", Marie and myself, Eva and our young assistant leader Rasmus. We were picked up in a minibus, by our district comissioner. It was a long ride (500 km) and we picked up a few people on the way. It was late and dark when we arrived at Kjesäters Folkhögskola, but we managed to come in time for the evening sandwich and tea.

We checked in and got allocated matresses in the Stables, the school's arts studios. While us ladies felt slightly tired after the long journey, Rasmus got adopted into a group of keen Geocacheing people, who went out into the dark, slightly wet and cold winter night to try and find "treasure". They came back a couple of hours later, about 1 in the morning, all enthusiastic and glowing. One would have thought that they'd managed to shoot a deer or something!




We got a little bit of a taste for the Geocaching phenomena in the morning, when Links took us on a little hunt before breakfast, as he had located a cache very close to our quaters. And it was great fun, looking around for what turned out to be a Tuppaware box containing little trinklets and a "guestbook" where all of us from Falkenberg signed our name. We also added a card with the adress and phone number for our local book shop. Who knows, it might come in handy for someone.

I had chosen three theoretical classes on the Saturday. First we had a two hour lecture on 'reflective conversation', to be able to better sum up the scout activities at the end of the meetings. My friends were to a workshop in 'knife and axe safety' and 'risk evaluation'. After lunch I went to a lecture on 'visionary leadership' and got thouroughly depressed, as I recognised lots of destructive patterns from my workplace. Some of the others were making lovely jewelery from silver wire, something that they continued after supper, into the night.


I was so filled up with impressions and new knowledge that I had to withdraw. I intended to write in this blog, but I couldn't get into the school's wireless network and then went to sleep. My friends dropped back about half one in the morning from having, respectively, been geocaching and campfire (without the fire) singing.

On the Sunday morning the air was crisp and clear. Snow had fallen during the night and the stars were still out when we went for a brisk morning walk at 7.15. It was absolutely lovely! Marie and Eva made snow angels.
After breakfast we were all booked for a two-hour 'baking outdoors' workshop. Oh, such fun! I got put in a six together with 5 men of varying age. Oh, the banter! I got as good as I gave, and we laughed so hard we could hardly roll out the puff pastry. (It was slighly difficult, as it was frozen, and it was still -1, so we had to try and soften it up by the fire)

We made danish style puff pastry, filled with chopped up dried fruit mixed with runny honey and baked them in reflector owens by the fire. The other groups made Pain au Chocolate on 'Murrikka' and apple pie on Trangias. Then we had coffee, first with the cakes we'd made, and then again in the canteen, to warm ourselves up, before the last workshop that for us was 'Scout methodology in practise'.

We got to 'borrow' som Cubs from the nearest town, Vingåker, that took us on a Pirate treasure hunt around the school grounds. On the way we had to walk the plank through treacherous marsh lands, pick up treasure in the middle of a pool of quicksand and answer terribly difficult pirate trivia, before we could combine all the collected treasure and bake some lovely fruit scones on frying pans over open fire. And then lunch. Oh, my poor tum!


In the car on the way back, we were jolly happy, reeking of log fire smoke and thouroughly inspired. The trip home seemed shorter, or perhaps it was because I nodded off, inspite of the loud singing from the driver's seat. Of course, we all decided on the spot that we had to go again next year!

Chinese sticks and sixes

The meetings on 21st and 22nd of January were dedicated to working together and forming new sixes. We brought in the old bamboo canes and rubber bands, an exercise I learnt in 22nd Oxford Sea Scouts.
The cubs were instructed to make a bridge, after their own fashion, that could take the weight of our pack's ring folder. The bridge should also be high enough for the folder to pass underneath. They were also given the clue "Triangles are good".
The Cubs worked relentlessly and were very concentrated on their task. With just a little bit of coaching all the bridges were able to carry the folder and the sixes proudly presented their work and told the others about the process.

New semester, new life!

We leaders started last Sunday, by planning the new semester together with the rest of the Group. We decided to adopt the international theme of water, and also to go canoeing to finish of the spring semester on the first of June.

As we have two packs of Cubs (yipee) for the first time in many years, we try and sync the activities and also try and do some activities together. It sometimes is a strain to have all 45 kids running around your feet, but they do enjoy and benefit from seeing that there is a lot of them that share the same interest, and also it is important for them to see and enjoy the company of the older scouts, Venture and Rovers. In Sweden Cubs are divided into to seperate age groups: 8-9 and 10-11; miniors and juniors. The first meeting was dedicated to Code Breaking, and after playing HotDog Tag, the warm and sweaty Cubs thoroughly enjoyed decifering the secret messages and doing the tasks.

Then the Cubs reflected about how the group work had been going and as preparation for making the new sixes they got to make wishes about who they liked to work with, one girl and one boy. Then it was time to gather together and sing the Scout song, and then they all scrambled out into the dark winter's evening to the waiting parents, clutching their code sheets and the new program.

Hot Dog Tag: One Cub is it and tries to catch as many others as possible. When caught the Hot Dogs stand still and straight (and quiet) and it is up to the others to be observant and spot the Hot Dogs predicament and together with a friend form a "bun" around the Hot Dog, who is then released after the count of three. The game is over when there isn't anyone left to save the Hot Dogs or when people need a break.

See link list for Cipher Fonts