Thursday, May 27, 2010

21st century boy




I am like a number 11 bus - nothing for ages, then two at once.

However, I did want to share;

Master Beehive the elder has been on a nature camp for the last few weeks after school. He's been learning to recognise plants, particularly edible ones and learning basic survival skills. It's been a dirty but fun experience as they've foraged in the rain, stalked in the wind and learned to light fires in the blazing heat - yes, come to Scotland - the weather is screwed!

He's about to go off on scout camp and is desperate to put these newly learned skills to good use, sadly, if he'd gone to scout camp when I did twenty odd years ago, he probably could have learned to dig a moat around his tent to prevent it floating away in the rain and learn to lash together a tripod to hold up his wash bowl or a shoe rack or even a small wardrobe - yeah Ikea, your flat pack is nothing to us old school girl guides, we laugh mwahahaha, in the face of challenge!

So...I digress, the activity list came through and he has to indicate whether he wants to abseil, do archery, go on the challenge course etc over the weekend. Archery is his number one choice because, as he told his younger brother in the car back from swimming yesterday evening:

"Archery is a very important skill to have."

Yeah - if you're wanting fresh venison for dinner


or are intending to take out your neighbour from the turret of your castle!


Or, if you happen to be a woodland elf!


I suppose the scout motto is "Be Prepared" and Lord Baden Powell never actually specified exactly how prepared one needed to be so...


Be afraid, be very afraid!

1 comment:

pansy said...

You must blog more often. Even your mother enjoys reading them! However, I will give away a secret - if only your readers knew how I struggled to teach you to knit twenty 'odd' + years ago! Now you beat your own mother at the art. Oh well, what goes around comes around. Love xx