The remembrance parade

 It's a time of year I associate with both Bonfires which we used to have with elaborate displays and communal catering and also Remembrance Day parades which I attended going up and down tree lined country roads.

Around this time of the year I think about Remembrance Day and those days in my past parading with cubs, brownies, scouts, guides and the British Legion, paying our respects.

I also had to change the clocks around too as we went off Daylight saving yesterday.

Next weeks blog may be delayed as I'll be away at the weekend and probably too shattered to post anything.

Bye for now.

Getting that Cubby feeling II

This week as we're well into Autumn I was outside exploring Brownie style in grey shorts and socks taking a few pictures.

The local trees are a little late changing colour this year but this group looked just great having spotted one of few dry moments  with sunshine to capture them.

At ground level  good number of leaves have already fallen and in with them were bits of branches and pine cones.

I took back in the coat pocket of my red cagoule this Horse Chestnut aka a Conker, one a a good number and the least damaged of them which we played Conkers with when I was younger.

Berries are out and these were in a hedgerow nearby where I did spot a few finches scuttling about.

These leaves bring back a lot of memories as they were near my first school, the building still surviving but repurposed for light engineering as even then I always followed the seasons.

This was always what I loved.

October reflections

 

Everything starts from somewhere and that somewhere included little rituals like reading comics such as the Beano every Wednesday and in a sea of changes that has seen many comics go and changed reading habits that's still a constant.

Most of us could relate to the world of the Bash Street Kids even if mirroring real life over the decades that's changed too and I adored Minnie The Minx.

We formed bonds too with our closest friends hanging out with them by choice for ages, we helped each other out in both practical ways and also by just talking about what was on our minds.

We bear hugged each other.

We looked after younger children ourselves caring for them as older people cared for us.

As boys and girls, we do actually care.

Emotions

 

Honestly my emotions get the worst of me at times add sensory overload to it  and I need to have someone I can talk about them to like a daddy.

Children's Magazines

Although the weather has been lousy for most of the week I do get out rather than living life behind a screen, interacting with people and that means at the very least I get to go to the general store and newsagent quite a bit.

I had been looking for a while at comics and magazines aimed for children are both displayed and also the kinds of content because in the time I've been on this planet things have changed, something prompted a little by last weeks post.

 This kind of display should be familiar to most Britains, usually a few levels high with the children's magazines toward the bottom in a dedicated sub section, titles battle it out for supremacy especially as when here one or more is stack just above the other, limiting exposure of the cover.

One of the first things you'll notice is the cover mounted usually plastic gifts and because of the whole comic or magazine is then covered in plastic.

The first thing to say is those mounts make the display harder fit in the racks and this makes it harder to be seen by children who contrary to popular opinion aren't super tall.

The other is the return rates for most as they're sold on "sale or return" is quite high no less than 35% and often higher then them means the plastic gifts need to be recycled or otherwise disposed of as ultimately at children's homes they also do so it isn't really helping the environment.

 Often publishers have a different idea of the age range they are catering for and for example when I scanned through Nat Geographic Kids this Saturday, there wasn't anything that would really appeal to a child of nine or older - the last years of Junior School to thirteen plus as while animals featured it was more quiz and simple fact centred as if they expected that age group to pay for and read the 'adult' National Geographic magazine.

As with some other magazines around say Soccer there wasn't a lot that might stretch a child's reading ability and vocabulary in the that in the past adventure comics would promoting understanding of ideas and rules.

It just seems to me there doesn't appear to anything that filled the void left by the celebratory and Tv centred Look In of the nineteen-seventies and eighties where intelligent well written pieces around topics can be found mixed in with fun for those over eight but not wanting an adult publication.