Remember

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. John McCrae, May 1915

Porthill Scouts Killed in World War 1 and World War 2

William Edgar Wood, my Great Grandfather, killed in France 1918

Rowland Rowley, my Great Great Uncle, killed in France 1915

Spencer Rowley, my Great Great Uncle, killed in France 1917

We will remember them

Remember

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. John McCrae, May 1915

Porthill Scouts Killed in World War 1 and World War 2

William Edgar Wood, my Great Grandfather, killed in France 1918

Rowland Rowley, my Great Great Uncle, killed in France 1915

Spencer Rowley, my Great Great Uncle, killed in France 1917

We will remember them

Remember

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae, May 1915

 

Porthill Scouts Killed in World War 1 and World War 2

William Edgar Wood, my Great Grandfather, killed in France 1918

Rowland Rowley, my Great Great Uncle, killed in France 1915

Spencer Rowley, my Great Great Uncle, killed in France 1917

We will Remember them

Tigger Creates Art!

While on his trip to London last week, Tigger visited Tate Modern

He decided to recreate his art installation from 2008 called ‘Tigger sitting on a big crack in the floor of the turbine hall of Tate Modern. Apparently this is art!’

The new installation is called ‘Tigger sitting on a big crack in the floor of the turbine hall of Tate Modern which has now been filled in. Apparently this is still art!’

Happy Christmas

I’d like to wish everyone who visits my site, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Many thanks to those of you who have taken the time and effort to comment on my posts and I hope to see you all in 2011.

Alternatively, please have a Merry Non-Denominational Winter Festive Period 😉

500 Posts

In April 2006 I started this blog as a bit of an experiment to see what all this blogging stuff was about. Since then I have managed to write 500 posts which I’m quite impressed at!
Back then it was very general, but now it’s just about Scouting. I’m also quite pleased about the podcast I also put out, although I’ve not been doing them for a while as they are a bit time consuming and I now have a 5 month old daughter – something had to give!
Although 4 years and 500 posts have passed, it’s interesting to note that the first post was on my, sadly long gone, hand held IPaq pocket pc and I’m writing this on my new smart phone. Hopefully this will mean I can make some posts from our family camp this weekend.
Finally, thank you to everyone that reads and comments here!

Thank You All!

At some point on Monday, I recorded my 10,000th hit on my blog! This figure is based on the WordPress stats that have been recorded since January 2008, although my Feedproxy stats give a totally different figure!

Capture

So to everyone who has stopped by and read or listened to what I have to say – a huge thank you! I’m always impressed that anyone is interested in what I may have to say.

Again, thank you for all the comments and emails and all the new friends I’ve made through my little corner of the internet!

Happy Christmas to you all (and don’t forget to follow Santa on his travels on Christmas Eve).

1911 Census

The 1911 Census was made available online on Tuesday of this week and I’ve had some fun looking through it.

So far I’ve managed to find the details of my maternal Grandmother and her parents and my paternal Grandfather’s parents (he wasn’t born then), but the other two are alluding me for the moment. It’s interesting to read a form that they filled in nearly 100 years ago.

While I was looking, I thought I’d look up our Troop’s first Scoutmaster. Although he only lasted a few months, he was our first Scoutmaster and I think I now know why he didn’t stay with the Troop for very long. He moved to a town a couple of miles away to be a ‘lodgeman’ which judging by the number of lodgers he had in his house meant he ran a B&B.

I also looked up two of the Scouts who were killed in the Great War. Aly (Alfred) and Colin Jackson were 16 and 14 respectively and they both worked on a pot bank (a pottery factory). They lived at a different address then to the one recorded when they were both killed in WW1.

It’s all fascinating stuff and it make the names seem more ‘real’. I now know where these people lived, what their jobs were and more about their families. I’d like to find out more about the Scouts, but it is quite a time consuming and expensive business, so the family records come first! However, I will keep dipping in every now and again to this interesting resource.

NORAD Tracks Santa

I know this isn’t strictly anything to do with Scouting, but it is fun! If you know or have young(ish) kids of your own or you are a 37 year old big kid (for example!), you may like to visit the NORAD Tracks Santa web site on Christmas Eve.

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The North American Aerospace Defense Command track Santa’s location at midnight in most time zones on Christmas morning. It’s a lot of fun and something to get you in the mood for Christmas!

You can read a bit of the history here.