Guiding this week

 

I have written a bit around scouting and being a an eternal Brownie as a sissy gurl on here before but just what do I do?

Well, weather this weekend was really quite good so exploring was very much on the agenda here as I followed the canal towpaths taking my time to take in the countryside tucked beyond the built up area.

Sections have rough and ready pathways affording the ability to get close to trees providing much needed shade this week and identify their species before making ones way towards the next lock moving along.

 Inspiration can come from many places and sometimes where you may not expect such as comics where a few did try to do for them what the popular "Why Don't You..." television series on the BBC did and use their medium to encourage children to put down what they were doing and do something like go outside instead.

The girls comic Tammy did a fair bit about being fit and going out exploring the countryside  not just in the regular comics but also in their annuals.

Here from an page in the 1970's they are looking at the things you need on and with you and the things you might do along the way like identify trees, flowers, birds and so on which isn't a million miles removed from what you'd do in Scouts and Girl Guiding but with the advantage anyone anywhere can just do it where there can be waiting lists and in a few places the lack of age appropriate unit for you.

Weekly update

 It's another Wednesday after the warm weekend so it is time for a blog and not just ice cream.

Seeing we are in a new month a few days ago a new copy of Monster Fun arrived, the first issue since the announcement a few months back the comic was going to a monthly cycle on the back of great sales and this months theme, as there is always a theme for all the comic strip series is things connected to the Age of the Dinosaur.

There will be some new comic strips too coming which will be appreciated by the children who do read it being a old-new comic for children rather than a retro comic for adults judging by the many letters on the letters page by that audience who love the ghoulish humour.

Friday's Blue Peter was all about sports and how to gain the Sports Badge with an excellent demonstration of Wheelchair Basketball which was something I did play as well as BMX biking which was beyond me.

I found my Book Number 5 published 1968, really the 1969 annual that survived three house moves and almost as much a comfort thing as any teddy bear as read this when I was very young, in bed with severe migraines which were very frequent then.

Originally it was my older brothers but was gifted to me few years after publication as I was watching the show back then.

Sissy may be going to the ball after all as a kind offer has come up to remedy being in effect locked out of a littles get together as those attending arrange next times while you who only missed one for being seriously ill can never get back in.

Time to root out all the frillies and the little girl socks me thinks.

Something I have been working on is storage of records which as part of my collection are not a massive part, present their own challenges as 14 x14 inch when in their jackets take more space than cds or tapes and are a bit fussier as they are prone to warping if near heat or if not stored straight and this can include damage to the covers too.

Currently I'm laying tracks of storage units which involves typically moving everything around them and not just the records, putting the unit in and filling it in the slots which does also making finding individual discs easier.

Just a lot of initial effort.

Summer holiday time edition

 As I'm typing this I'm on the umpteenth glass of pop trying to stay both cool and hydrated this warm weekend.

 Naturally school is off even if sadly it was only half on at best since Spring as I struggle to recall anything like this from my own childhood as more or less everything isn't what it was since the word Covid-19 entered the daily news reports.

It's really rather more the outdoors that I've clung onto, watching birds and insects going about their business, enjoying the tree blossoms and flowers growing  and even looking after this.

 I've also been reading a fair bit from comics and comic annuals to the books I adored as a child probably cos in this messed up world I have the same needs for escaping what's around me.

These two books are quite intriguing not least The Mystery of the Co-ed School which is unusual as most fiction of this sort is normally set in all girl schools and that illustration is rather puzzling.

I mean just what is that boy doing sneaking around by that door as a girl is running away toward the school gate with him in pursuit pursued by a Headmaster?

 It seems the same needs for repetition, routines and security I had then apply now and in odd sense never really being fully adult seems to aid it as inevitably we have to try to work our way through this one day at a time.

Because this month I may not be away with friends due to you know what doesn't mean I cannot look back at those moments and some of the views I saw such as walking around this lake in East Anglia enjoying the tranquility of it all.

It's the memories we make that help us get through difficult times such as those we are all facing presently.

Things for a Summer Day

Summer always was magical but without the structures of school work it didn't take much to get bored especially if it was a rainy day which we sometimes get.

One staple was the Summer Special and this year I got the Dandy and Beano ones which I always read as a young child more or less until Mummy cut of the newsagents order and so would buy copies during works lunchbreak and the like.

I just found they keep me smiling as I recall what we did back then.

The good thing about annuals and books is if it is a rainy day you can start them and resume later on if it brightens up easily so I keep a good number around including a few past Summer Specials.

It was a lesson I learned in Juniors and as a little, I find it also helps now.

I'm not just a physically active little sissy gurl but have been known to colour so it's not all running around or playing ball games so I bought some new colour pencils to do a bit of suitably girlie colouring with.

Travelling onward

There's other things on my mind right now and today's been a bit of rollercoaster but if there's anything I've learned it's that change is never permanent and digging out those things you loved the most help you though things.

For me just getting away from whatever  that is, going for a walk, watching the world go by maybe taking the odd picture or two helps.

This picture was taken on a camera I've had for getting on for 19 years, when I first realized I wanted to take good pictures and what I had was getting in the way of that.

In that time I've gotten better lenses for it, learned along the way more about how to to take the pictures I had in my mind, trying different films and getting  used to the different ways lighting alters the scene.

And in some ways at least it's the same sort of thing when it comes to adapting to life, trying and reviewing different strategies to make the best of the situation as is and it's all coming together. 

Return trip to Liverpool

On Saturday I went to this famous city and seaport in the North-west of England for the day by coach from our town along the motorway network with Daddy, to which I don't enjoy the best of relationships with although today did prove to be pretty good on that front.

When we set out from our town in the North-west Midlands, it has raining quite hard continuing in a rainbelt from West Bromwich  in the south of Staffordshire to the outskirts of Newton Le Willows, Lancashire.

I won two prizes on the coach raffle!

Strangle enough as we got toward the turnings for Prescot and Liverpool it got suddenly very sunny as it was also on the North wales coast.

That picture is of the Three Graces , taken from the Albert Dock on the banks of the river Mersey which means I was in.....Liverpool! Yay!!!

 Above are a couple of pictures of the vessel Glaciere built in 1899

 I noticed today was a really good day for observing reflections  and this picture summed up just how much they really help make a picture.

I spend most of the day inside the Merseyside Maritime  Museum seeing the exhibits on the RMS Lusitania that was sunk during the First World War and RMS Titanic than sunk memorably on April 12, 1912 which is something Daddy is interested in heaps.

I was more interested in the exhibits that looked at Slavery, which as port, Liverpool like Bristol was involved in heavily until its abolition and using an interactive display I discovered how many of Liverpool's famous streets and building were built very much on the profits from that trade.

As well, there was a series of exhibits looking at racism and racist attitudes over the centuries  both in the UK and across the Americas. I shuddered when I encountered a  KKK robe and conical hat.

There also was a moving set of exhibits about migration to Canada as well as Australia of British school-age children from the cities and the appalling treatment some received and how immigration has changed the UK over the centuries.

I visited the HMV store in L1, the newish shopping precinct and bought two lps as I had some prepaid cards for the store and coming back saw several of these Swan vessels some rowed, with children making traversing the Mersey.

I had an enjoyable time out.

My trip to Whitby

A few days ago , I was out on a trip out as in a hundred odd miles out and also out as with my blue t shirt , black shorts and grey socks with naturally a travel bag.   
In my world I'm always out as me.

We were going some 312 Miles round trip from where I live to Whitby in North Yorkshire, England  which is a old Port and seaside resort although you have a long walk to get to the beach. Our route involved travelling along the M6, changing to the M62 Trans-Pennine motorway and then getting on the A64 in North Yorkshire a little South of York.

The traffic was really bad travelling along the A64 just south of York along the Scarborough road for miles.

The scenery along stretches of this route took us over Saddleworth Moors in Lancashire, a very hilly area with sheep farms even though it's near to the Towns of Oldham and Rochdale and also well into the North Yorks National Park where much purple Heather and horses was spotted. They were beautiful at this time of year.

Because we were really late arriving the first step had to be fix food fast as I was starting to space out -the perils of running short on spoons - so I called in at Trenchers fish and  chip restaurant on New Quay Road, Whitby for fried plaice, English chips and several drinks of tea with brown sugar while I took some tablets.

It won awards in 2011 and 12 and upon tasting my late lunch, it is not hard to see why for the fish caught on the day  by fishing line was most tasty and the chips had a good not greasy taste to them.

Time was running short as because of drive hours issue with the driver we needed to be back at bus for 17:00 hrs I only had the chance to look at a couple of charity stores briefly before getting something to eat as we wouldn't be stopping off on the return trip.

That's the Bridge that links the harbour to the old town where many of the shops are  to be found in small streets, some cobbled. As befits a Port, there were places selling fresh fish!

Whitby Harbour. As you can see it was  very sunny day with quite as number of boats moored.

I had to use the 105mm moderate telephoto of this camera to capture this and carefully crop it later. Thankfully the more megapixels your image has, the better the result even if you use only a small proportion of the original image.

Kerrera caught my attention  while moored with its bold colours and flags

Finally an overview of the harbour.

It was a interesting day out even though it had taken rather a lot out of me physically as I hadn't been in the North East of England ever. One just wishes to had the time to see more of Whitby.

Tammy steps out!

 

This wet look crocodile leather look one is from Asos and originally retailed for £30 but I was able to get it for £11. It's not that I'm cheap just I don't believe in paying top dollar for everything! Do you?

Anyways this is a closer look at the skirt, showing more of the pattern and pleats (gets all excited at the  word "Pleats").

The back zips up although again like the others the is a full waist band which I much prefer, and can be worn with a sweater and either socks or tights. It's also relatively thin that helps with the cool airy feel I like.

This was another I bought at the same time that fits me like a treat.

Junior maypole dancing

 

Seeing it's May I was starting to think about what kinds of things I used to do around this time of year and one of the things that stuck in my mind was school maypole dancing

While that  picture wasn't taken it my school, it was taken at a school in Gloucestershire of the Victorian type like ours, actually, how the Maypole is set out is very very similar to how we did it.

Those who had two left feet were selected as 'ballast' to hold the maypole down, the uniform was similar except the boys nearly always had shorts on and in alternate boy/girl pairings we'd dance weaving in and out creating the plait you can see from the top of the pole downward.

One difference is we have what in England you'd call 'Pumps'  a cotton with rubber soled gym type shoe that you had to clean and polish before the public performance with matching three-quarter length socks.

I use to take me ages to polish and whiten mine!

I was pretty good at it actually having a good ear for the tunes we danced to so we kept in time with the music as well as each other that does help.

Meadow time

It's Summer Time time to go out and explore which with me is more a  grey shorts and cute socks thing

Welcome to a bit of The Meadow where I live in a picture I took a short while back and for the photographically knowledgeable I made exposure corrections electronically to deal with the high contrast on the original.

I'm near woodland  and that was left as bowling green flat grass dead land where I walk often that was taken over by locals and made into a bit of roadside meadow.

If you look toward the bottom you'll see the Bluebells were out together with other vegetation because they made a space for them, tending to their needs.

There's a metaphor in that picture: You created a meadow to which I landed tendering to my needs so I grew and blossoming as the Little Gurl you know, gaining strength.

Like that Meadow you too can find all manner of things down in it, things you may have forgotten and much that you need to get by in this world.

A friend wrote elsewhere about how much she enjoyed the sense in which it's all about the experience of the innocent of the little child, how safe that environment felt compared to others and the positive nature of the experience.

I think she hit the proverbial nail on the head.

I always loved Beatrix Potter's world for its whimsical but not too soppy tail of rural life and not least Peter Rabbit.

It didn't matter that Benjamin Bunny got punished for breaking the rules. We all do.

  

Summertime

It's summer. The time I tend to visit the park to play or explore nearby meadowlands watching the butterflies while keeping out of the way of wasps.

I have a swing a home that I like to use a lot for an hour or so at a time cos it's so relaxing just swaying back and forth in the a breeze with your lemonade at arms reach.

The other thing about summer is Summer Specials of your comics and thankfully the Beano has gone back to issuing one rather than the mash up of comic and celebratory magazine that was BeanoMax a few years back.

It comes with stickers, pranks to pull  and of course summer stories featuring the likes of Dennis The Menace, The Bash Street Kids and Minnie The Minx.

It's a childhood ritual I always love.

The joys of the Summer

Summer is most definitely upon us although we didn't go away this year with the car being unwell and needing much work doing on it.

Recently I took this picture from my garden as I thought these flowers looked lovely.

Summer when I was younger meant time spent with my grandparents playing and planting things in their garden or going down to the park with it's big lake, gardens and bowling green all towered over by a massive clock.

Taking a walk on the wild side

When one thinks about this life it is not just a matter of just sticking on a dress but more how the whole you feels

Health does matter as does alertness.

I find walks in the countryside to keep myself fit of great benefit  as on your travels you see grey squirrels, wild flowers, butterflies and even whole families of ducks crossing pathways.  

Being out of doors places constraints on what you can wear with both terrain and the possibilities of getting tangled up in hedgerows or plants with sharp points on their stems so anything that my blow or get caught up doesn't work.

I usually try to ensure I have a gender neutral coat on and soft girls woollen gloves in the winter  months and ensure I am wearing the most feminine knickers I have and where possible cute socks  with shorts to make this as much a time for being feminine as I can.

I find it helps to integrate switching off from devices and situations with bringing out my more feminine boys side.

 It's a great relaxant.

My Summer Visitor

For the last few days it's been sunny and very warm - temperatures in the region of 24 degrees Celsius - so apart from making the most of the weather by being out of doors, I've had to have the windows open.

I was greeted tonight by a large spider - the span of a small hand - climbing up the net curtains. I carefully scooped him up in a glass, applied some paper to the top of the glass and released him back to the great outdoors.

It felt nice to help him back on his way.

The picture is of an arachnid spider.