This is Recycling

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

By now, you might have gleaned from the blog that we’re really into recycling. We are either a miserable bunch of tight-wads who don’t enjoy spending money, or we just have a really healthy repair-and-reuse ethic. In my case, I would hope that it’s the latter. I think my wife might disagree…

Anyway, to my delight, I found a couple of lengths of timber whist foraging about in a small wood. They had been there for ages because they were wet, mossy and supporting a whole colony of rather slimy slugs, snails, and god knows what else.

After a quick wipe-down, I took them home and fashioned them into a couple of benches, as you do when you have way too much time on your hands. The first bench went back into the small wood where I found the timber, and the second bench has sat in my garden for ages just waiting for a new home.

  • One of the two lengths of timber
  • The bench that I put back into the woods
  • The bench that’s been sitting in my garden for an eternity

I wanted to paint the bench in the rainbow colours or red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, but the cost of the seven pots of paint was utterly ridiculous, and then they would have sat in my garden shed for 20 years, never to be used again, so I have had to leave it our usual dull brown. The reason that I wanted to paint it in rainbow colours is because someone suggested that we are a group that is set up to attract just men. Bizarre!! We are a group that welcomes anybody and everybody, as long as you bring biscuits. I was actually accused of being a misogynist. Utter bovine excrement of the worst kind.

So we got the bench in, or rather, Marcus, David and Reece did, because I am pretty useless at doing the physical stuff. The one that I did ages ago was not parallel to the path, so we then had to bend the path to make it fit, so all I’m allowed to do nowadays is just hang around taking photos and drinking coffee… It’s a bit narrow on the top so slightly uncomfortable on the old buttocks. It’s designed for a quick perch rather than the luxurious comfort that your living-room settee might afford you. If I ever come across a wider bit of abandoned wood, maybe I will nail it to the top.

Let’s hope the mob of angry squirrels don’t have one of their hedonistic parties, or the angry person who thinks I’m a misogynist doesn’t call in the misogyny police, and our bench remains intact for all to enjoy. The views are rather nice (even better when the farmer cuts the hedge) so I think it’s a bit of a keeper.

We had our little helpers again today, due to the never-ending school summer holidays. I really don’t know how a lot of people cope with tying to balance childcare, relationships, full-time jobs, and just eeking out a bit of time for themselves. Little wonder that mental wellbeing is under the cosh all the time.

Lastly, we enjoyed coffee and macaroons in our World Famous, or should that be Universe Famous, all-terrain-mugs. I really should order some more, but they are pretty useless to use anywhere but outside. The heat of the coffee transfers through the metal instantly so you end up with burnt palms or ruined furniture. But we love them, regardless.

In other news, our quest for World Domination has taken a rather bizarre twist.

These are the stats for a day, that day being Saturday 5th August. You can see the blog traffic visitor numbers and country locations, for the day so far, which is pretty normal. We have a new county tuning in, Namibia in Southern Africa (hello Namibian person), which is great, but we also have something called “Unknown Region”…

Now I’m not wrong when I say that there is not an inch of this world that is unknown. So who, or what, has been looking at the blog from somewhere not on this planet? Is there life on Mars, or on one of the moons of Mars? This is very very weird and unexpected!!

Lastly, a bit of new graffiti on the underpass.

Maybe the Klingons want to start a revolution in the underpass. Possibly suggest that you work out how our letters work, first. Or go to Russia where everything seems a bit backwards!!

Until next week!

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Aerial View of the Greenway

Posted on August 3, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I’ve been on holiday so there was no normal Wednesday morning workday this week. We went to Lanzarote and enjoyed a week of wall-to-wall sunshine. It was divine. We hired bikes to get about so the kids were not constantly complaining about having to walk everywhere. It worked very well.

In my absence, I found a couple of YouTube vids of the path.

Before anyone starts to write in, leave comments, or get into a froth, I do not know who did these drone videos, I don’t know if they have all the licences and permissions, I don’t know nothing…

What I do know, though, is that these videos are the dog’s goolies…

Enjoy!!

If you look closely, you can see our picnic benches. Aren’t they absolutely gorgeous!!

Which leads me nicely onto the news that we have been given a grant from Warwickshire County Council for two round picnic benches on the northern part of the path, plus concrete bases and secure fixings.

This means that the people who live more towards Bilton, rather than Cawston, can enjoy a picnic and green-time, rather than sitting at home with just screen-time.

This is a great opportunity for a local business to come and do some green-volunteering with your staff.

First come – first served!! It will be a lot of fun and extremely satisfying.

Back on it next Wednesday.

Until then,

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Hawthorn Trail

Posted on July 26, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

You may have noticed a new tab above called “Hawthorn Trail”. This is the 220 metre secondary path that we created that stops that kinda walking out and then back again, along the same path. I don’t know about you, but I hate having to walk back the same way that I came. A circular walk is, in my mind, a much better option.

However, a circular walk on a linear disused railway-path is obviously a little bit of a challenge. So last year we rolled-up our sleeves and created the Hawthorn Trail to create an incredibly elongated, but nonetheless, circular bit.

Sustrans, the land-owners, are really into hedges and wildflowers. What we have here is a path along a rough edge, that we can slowly turn into a hedge, that will support a huge number of birds, small mammals and insects, which is next to a wildflower meadow that is absolutely buzzing with bees, hoverflies, butterflies and any other insect-life that you care to think of.

Today we decided to give it a bit of a trim and work out what we might like to do with it over the winter. I created a YouTube of it so you can get an idea of where we are at.

And before anyone starts worrying about disturbing the existing wildlife, there was nothing here apart from a thick canopy of trees that were all the same age and type, that being Hawthorn, and just gloomy darkness underneath.

We had a mob of angry squirrels attack one of our little benches this week. Obviously a case of too much fighting-juice, again, so we did a quick repair.

We have our little helpers, due to the never-ending school summer holidays!

Halfway through the repairs and snipping back, we enjoyed a coffee and macaroon. We thought about doing a litter-pick but there wasn’t any, which is pretty amazing.

And here are a couple of photos of the wildflower meadow that we are next to. I really want to get away from the green tunnel feel that we always seem to end up with at this time of the year, and bring in more light, decent views, make it more airy so people feel safer and the more open it is, hopefully the less vandalism we will get.

It’s gone a little bit over, now, but who on earth would not want to walk next to a proper wildflower meadow with a decent hedge. The wildlife is incredible and the urban backdrop is fine. We have arable crop fields galore on the other side, so it creates a lot of diversity. We might knock together an owl box in our workshop and pop it up somewhere. It will need to be 4-plus metres high, so that might present a challenge, but you know us lot, we love a challenge.

You may recall me wittering on about the flooding at the culvert at the other end, back towards the end of last month. Well England being England and summer being, well, a bit of a wash-out, I took the opportunity to see what was happening with the culvert whist the monsoon came down last Sunday.

The run-off from the new housing estate is immense and the culvert is probably blocked a bit, looking at the measly dribble coming out of the other end. What to do? I really don’t know. The thought of getting on my hands and knees to look down the pipe fills me with absolute horror!!

A YouTube of the volume of water.

I’m sure we will work something out, somehow.

For my fellow geeks, here is an updated world map with the countries that tune in, shaded in pink. A bit better that last time I looked, which was about 6 weeks ago.

We really need to nail Greenland. It’s just screaming out to go pink!!

That’s it for this week.

Until next time!

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Who or what is CHAD???

Posted on July 19, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A Chad has appeared on the inside of our bridge…

But who, or indeed, what, does it mean?

After many hours of pouring over the internet and extensive research, I have come up with four possible answers.

Is it Saint Chad, Patron Saint of Spring Water? We have loads of water when it rains, but all in the wrong place!! And I don’t think rain water can be classed as spring water. I think we might get into a bit of hot water with Trade Descriptions.

Could it be Chad who looks over a wall? I have a hazy memory of every school exercise book having a Chad drawn on the front, overlooking the box where you write your name and class number.

Might it be CHAD in the slang for young urban man getting loads of sex!! Yes, you read that right. According to Men’s Health magazine – In its simplest form, a “Chad” is a sexually active “alpha male,” according to The Cut. The term originated within the horrendously backward incel (involuntary celibate) culture, and is often used to denote the opposite of an incel. Whereas an incel sees himself as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one—and therefore ends up demonizing women—a “Chad” gets all the women because of his superior appearance, confidence, and physical prowess.

Or maybe it’s Chad the country in the middle of Africa? I have tried over and over to get someone to view the blog from Chad the country, but I don’t think they have the internet there. A blogger friend has been trying to get a Chad person to read his blog for 15 years and still no luck!! The closest I have got is next-door in Sudan to the east, next-door in Nigeria to the west, and next-door in Cameroon to the south!!

But enough of all things Chad, today we had work to do. After receiving many complaints about the brambles growing into the path, we set about having a mass chop back. Starting at the Potford Dam clearing, the four of us split into two groups. One group headed northwards with a person on either side of the path, and the second group headed southwards in a similar formation.

The brambles were soon gone and it was time for coffee in our world-famous (more of that in a minute) all-terrain-mugs, and a coconut macaroon. I wonder if a macaroon comes from Cameroon?? Gosh, I am such a blithering nerd to even have thought such a thing!! And no, I haven’t googled it, yet!!

It’s still a bit tight at this bit, but I really don’t want to start upsetting the wildlife in the grass. We will knock it back to the tree-line in the winter and keep it wider next summer.

A few photos of the wildflower glade.

It’s all looking incredibly colourful and is buzzing with bees, hoverflies and butterflies.

So, back to that “world-famous” claim… Whilst I have been desperately trawling the internet for absolutely anyone who lives in Chad, the country in Africa, who might have the slightest passing interest in our little railway path, someone from Kazakhstan has been looking.

Thank you Kazakhstan person. That takes our number of countries who have viewed the thing to 97, which is half the countries in the whole world. And we all know who comes from Kazakhstan don’t we?

You’ll either get it right away, or not at all.

Until next time!

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

Bilton Grange Takeover III

Posted on July 12, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

The Year Seven crew from Bilton Grange School have done their thing to our badly graffitied bridge. It looks blooming marvellous. Thank you, guys.

Bilton Grange Preparatory School is a private school in Dunchurch, formed in 1887 and is mainly a feeder school for Rugby School, which is actually in the town of Rugby. However 50% of pupils do go to other schools such as Eton, Winchester and Harrow. So, guys, when you are all rich and famous, remember little old me and the greenway. All you have to do is click on the “buy me a coffee” link and buy me a few thousand coffees, each!!

Bilton Grange School

Rugby School is of course famous for the game of rugby, when William Webb Ellis picked up a football and ran with it in 1823, thus a new sport was born.

Rugby School

Founded in 1567, the school is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. So there you are, me rubbing shoulders with the posh folk.

On the other side of our bridge, the naughty mob of angry squirrels decided to throw mud at the cow with two heads. We have been praying for horizontal rain for weeks now, to wash it all off, but sadly, the rain has remained decidedly vertical.

David set about giving the two-headed cow a good scrub behind the ears. Ah, yes, that’s better!

Next, it was my job, armed with my trusty garden strimmer, to trim all the grass and nettles growing around and under the benches from here, southwards, to the end.

The last thing anybody wants is to be sitting at a bench, relaxing and enjoying a coffee or picnic, and getting stung on the buttocks by a cheeky stinging nettle creeping through the seat slats.

We then chopped back any annoying bramble trying to grow into the path, whilst doing a litter-pick at the same time, again working southwards. It’s getting incredibly tight in places so maybe we need to rethink the path width in the winter and try to maintain the width in the summer. It’s just no fun having to brush past nettles all the time, although I did remember to wear my long trousers today, rather than my usual summer shorts.

We were incredibly happy to see a Bloody Nosed Beetle on the path. A little bit of an endangered species here in Warwickshire.

We then broke off for a quick cuppa with our all-terrain mugs and hunger-quenching coconut macaroons, whilst chatting about man-stuff like tanks, Land Rovers, and Jeremy Clarkson’s son who went to Rugby School, and the fact that I spotted JC in a local pub with said son, but didn’t ask for a selfie or nothing coz he looked like he would’ve punched me in the mouth if approached!!

And so we ambled along to the Potford Dam wildflower mini-glade. It’s looking good, but I’m really torn with the wildflowers that are not native to the UK. I’m kinda thinking along the lines of, well it’s nectar and the bees ain’t fussy, with the other part of me thinking, it just don’t look right!!

Our YouTube of the same clearing…

Probably let it be until the more native wildflowers get established and then weed the non-native stuff out??

And lastly, our quest for World Domination took yet another step forwards this week. We had a person from Iceland view the blog. How exciting…

That’s god-knows how many people, or is it just one person who travels around a lot, from a total of 96 different countries!!! Pretty amazing and thank you, person from Iceland.

Well that’s about it for this week. Join in, or pop along and say hello, bring biscuits and we will love you forever!!

Until next week!

Posted in Newsreel | 2 Comments

Mick’s Sunset Bench

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Some knew him as Mick, some as Mike and some as Michael. I think he started with us as Michael but made us change it to Mick later on, so I’m sticking with Mick, if that’s OK with everyone else.

Mick would wander down to a favourite spot of his, on many an evening, and watch the sunset, whilst chatting to whoever might have been walking past.

What we have done, is put a bench in this spot, as a memory to him.

When the farmer cuts the hedge, the view will stretch across the fields.

We made the bench out of a spare top, a spare leg, and a leg made from the smashed up seats of the recycled bench (last week’s blog). The reason that we have done this is twofold. Firstly, we are in this constant cycle of buying timber for benches and always having a spare bit left over, so we buy more timber to use up the spare bit, and then have another spare bit, and on, and on.. as we try to use up the spare bits to get our money’s worth… And now with the timber sawing/cutting costing more that the actual timber, we had to stop this never-ending cycle. Secondly, Mick led an incredibly frugal life where everything was used until it could no longer be. We could have bought new bits and made a lovely new bench, but we wanted to make something out of the scraps and leftovers, as a sort of tribute to Mick, by getting the absolute most out of what we have. I really don’t know if that makes sense, but it comes from our hearts, and I guess that is all that matters at the end of the day.

Today we had some extra help due to the school teachers going on strike. Something about wanting more holidays and a shorter working day, so I heard. But for heaven’s sake don’t quote me or I’ll get lynched on the school-run tomorrow.

We set about clearing a small area, after checking for any nesting birds, and cobbled together our random bits of wood.

We love it!! I’m sure it’s going to get loads of use and we will stencil some nice words on it, when we get to grips with our stencil-set

We have a few more wildflowers, some of which are not typical of what we normally see.

  • Viper’s Bugloss
  • Garland Daisy
  • Creeping Cinquefoil
  • Nettle-leaved Bellflower
  • Scarlet Flax

Not sure if the angry mob of squirrels are doing a bit of guerrilla gardening and I’m not sure if we should pull the interlopers up, or just go with it and let nature sort out what she wants? Hmm, quandary…

In other exciting news, we have had people from two new countries visit the blog. Israel and Sudan. I would like to write something in Hebrew and Sudanese Arabic, but sadly it’s way beyond my geekiness to even attempt it (after wasting an hour of my life on Google Translator). But hi and thank you.

So there it is. Our quest for World Domination continues with 95 countries in total viewing the blog!

Next week we are at the bridleway bridge brushing the mud off the cow with two heads and blogging the work done by the Bilton Grange Year Seven. Intrigued? Tune-in next week and all will be revealed.

Thanks for reading,

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Woodworking Workshop No. 2

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well I suppose this week we have to mostly talk about the new-old recycled-bench that took one for the team.

The seats were always a little bit of an invitation for a bit of mischief, due them being a bit springy. I remember standing in Wickes DIY shop with a length of timber in each hand. In one hand was the timber that we used and the other hand was the timber that we have replaced the seats with. I really should’ve followed my head and not my heart. The original seat width was slightly wider so I was thinking of the comfort of your bottoms, at the time. Ooh, that sounds slightly weird…

The good news is, we have used the broken bits on another project, and saved ourselves a small fortune. More of this next week.

So we gathered at the crime scene and started to build.

Behold, our smashed up picnic bench is all new again and enjoying its 5th or 6th incarnation. Is it six or only five? To tell you the truth, in all the excitement I kinda lost track myself…

Let’s hope we get a little more use out of it before it needs any more attention. It’s in a great spot and saves people having to walk a bit to enjoy a picnic.

In other news, we have had a person from a new country visit the blog. They are in Liechtenstein.

Hallo, vielen Dank für das Lesen des Blogs. Ich hoffe, es hat euch gefallen.

Quick facts

Liechtenstein is a German-speaking, 25km-long principality between Austria and Switzerland. It’s known for its medieval castles, alpine landscapes and villages linked by a network of trails. The capital, Vaduz, a cultural and financial centre, is home to Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, with galleries of modern and contemporary art. The Postmuseum displays Liechtenstein’s postage stamps.

And so our quest for “World Domination” inches endlessly forward, with the blog being viewed from 93 different countries by god-knows how many people… Or is it just one person who travels around a lot? We will never know!!

Work on Charlie’s Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award wildflower clearing, at the weekend, was a hard two-hours of weeding. But the good news is, we are starting to see some colour.

What a relief!! I was starting to get a bit worried about this one!!

Lastly, after we all admired our new-old recycled-picnic-bench, we broke off for a coffee break with our world-famous (you knew it was coming) all-terrain-mugs.

To let this bench go would be an awful waste. It’s just so convenient and gets so much use. But the A-frames are warped and it cannot take too many more rebuilds, so if you want to kick something in, maybe give this one a miss.

An exciting blog next week – Bilton Grange Prep School are doing their thing and loads more!!

See you there (and buy me a blooming coffee – link top right!!)…

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

How to Add Biodiversity

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Quite a few times we have felt like calling in the USAF to napalm the whole path and give us a blank canvas to start again and do it our way, however, we have to work with what we have and try to make the best of it.

We used to burn off the brash (brash is a posh word for cuttings) by building enormous bonfires. We had a lady called Margaret who learnt the craft of bonfire starting and keeping it going, which is the hardest bit, from Mick. Sadly, we received a savage tongue-lashing from the Sustrans Higher Command, who are the land owners, about the bonfires so we had to stop. Apparently, if someone doesn’t notice the roaring flames and white-hot heat, they might wander into it and burn themselves, and then someone else will be liable for compensation. Plus I was getting a bit tired of going home smelling like an oak-smoked kipper.

So Sustrans Higher Command told us to build habitat piles with the brash. They said to build them on the edge of the path, but when the edge is 40 foot up a slippery bank, we crumbled and built them all over the place, except on the edges, because it’s winter when we do the cutting back, and we don’t want to slip and injure ourselves and then have the hassle of trying to find someone else, who is liable for our compensation.

So anyway, to make sure we were on the right path, I consulted The Wildlife Trust, YouTube and Google.

What came back was this rather simple five-point guide to help the biodiversity along. It’s so simple, that even a blithering idiot like me can follow it…

Decay – Logs, compost heaps, piles of logs with lots of nooks and crannies for creatures to crawl about in, burrow in and lay eggs in.

Shrubs & Trees – birds love tree and shrub cover, so as much as possible.

Insect Hotels – solitary bees, wasps and beetles will lay eggs into these. Lots and lots of different sized holes that are all south facing.

Water – a lot of flying insects start their life at the larval stage, in water, so lots of it.

Sunshine – lots of sunshine to make plants grow, nectar to form and insects to thrive.

Simple, innit!!

Which brings us nicely to today. Our drain has overflowed again, so we have lots and lots of water, but unfortunately all in the wrong place.

We need to work out how to get the water to flow across the path, rather than down it. A job for the winter when we can chop everything back and have a proper look.

We ambled northwards from the Underpass, chatting away and snipping back bramble runners.

When news came through on the jungle-drums that the new-old recycled picnic bench had been set-upon by a mob of angry squirrels, after too much fighting juice.

I best charge-up the electric power-tools ready for next week. It’s gonna be a manly woodworking-workshop. You cannot imagine how excited we are…

After that we poured ourselves a cuppa in our all-terrain-mugs and chatted about god-knows-what… Just man-stuff conversations. I vaguely remember Land Rovers, Range Rovers and Jeremy Clarkson, before looking at the time and somehow it was past 12 o’clock and time to pack up.

So there it is, another exciting week on the trail, loads of people passing by. Great for the soul and mental wellbeing.

Thanks for reading.

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

World Famous, You Say?

Posted on June 14, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

People are asking, with a raised eyebrow, why our round picnic benches and mugs are “world-famous” as mentioned in last week’s blog. Well, in my geeky little world of facts and figures, the blog stats tell me that no less than 184,179 people across 92 different countries have viewed the blog and checked us out. I go on a huge number of forums that focus on mental health, men finding friends, loneliness, finding purpose in one’s life, etc, etc, etc, and I show people what we have done to combat these areas, with a link to the blog. Little did I know that the thing has gone half-way around the blooming world!!!

Anything shaded pink or deeper shows where the blog has been viewed from. Disapointed that nobody in Greenland has bothered to look, based on the size of the place, and that bit just to the south of Russia. Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran to name but a few in that middle belt could do better. Sadly, Central African countries are really letting the team down. Work to do… hold my beer!

So the next time I use the term “world-famous” keep your eyebrows unraised.

Today began as an incredibly relaxed start at the Underpass. Until, that was, I noticed that someone unknown has put a wider seat on the Underpass bench to make it slightly higher and, more surface area to, err, spread one’s buttocks a little more comfortably…

Sadly, my OCD had me climbing the Underpass walls, so I had to change it slightly. Sorry, not sorry.

After I had finally stopped hyper-ventilating, we realised that the wildflower clearing was awash with Ox-eye Daisies. It looks superb and really put a smile on our faces.

So we then marched onwards, or rather southwards, snipping any bramble growing into the path. We made it to the Bethel bench where we enjoyed a cuppa in our world-famous (watch those eyebrows) all-terrain-mugs.

The view of Lawford Heath really is superb. We could’ve stayed here for ages chatting about random man-stuff, but there was work to do, so onwards we marched.

We got to Charlie’s wildflower clearing, the one that he created for his Duke of Edinburgh Silver award and good news!! Wildflowers have finally started popping up!

It’s called Buckwheat, but isn’t wheat at all, but we’ll take it. This is the start of something great.

We pushed on to the new old-recycled picnic bench, litter-picking, and that really was that. Another superb morning that flew-by so quickly.

Mick’s funeral was yesterday and was a lovely celebration of his life. A true inspiration who impacted so many people. His final resting place is at a natural burial ground in Temple Balsall and is so fitting for him.

We will dedicate a wildflower clearing to him, so his memory lives on with us.

Until next time!

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Cawston Guides Takeover

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Cawston Greenway Coronation Bench: Blog

New to the world of blogging, we weren’t sure where to begin with this… so let’s start with introductions.

Hello, we’re from 1st Cawston Guides and we’ve been active in Cawston since 2005 – perhaps you know a former member of Cawston Rainbows, Brownies or Guides and already know of us, or maybe Girlguiding is new to you.

As part of The Big Help Out for the Coronation, we contacted Paul at Cawston Greenway to volunteer our time to do something for the community.

What is Girlguiding?

Girlguiding (www.girlguiding.org.uk) is the UK’s largest youth organisation dedicated completely to girls. Whether they’re 4 or 18 or somewhere in between, we help girls know they can do anything.

They go to their first ever sleepover, canoe on rivers, learn about body confidence, and lead their own camp. Or sometimes they simply have fun and try new things with friends.

Girls take what they do in Girlguiding with them as they grow up. Everything from working in a team, to taking the lead, to speaking out on issues they care about. It helps them develop the skills and confidence to become the young women they want to be. And to make a difference to the world around them.

Girlguiding’s links with the Royal Family

From near its beginning in 1910 there’s been a member of the Royal family connected with the Girl Guide movement. First, the Princess Royal, Princess Mary became the President of The Girl Guide Association in 1920. Then Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II’s sister, until 2003. Now, we’re honoured to have Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, as our President; she takes a great interest in Girlguiding and has been an active leader in her local unit, as well as attending Girlguiding events in her role as President.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II also had a long association with Girlguiding throughout her life. She first joined Guides in 1937 at the age of 11, alongside her sister Princess Margaret, who joined Brownies. In 1953, the year after she succeeded to the throne, Her Majesty the Queen became Girlguiding’s Patron.

With this long history, it was only natural that we wanted to take part in The Big Help Out.

So, what did we do for the community?

On Thursday 18 May we gathered to meet Paul (your usual blog host) who we’d been in touch with about doing something community minded in Cawston.

We’d been talking about King Charles III’s Coronation and wanted to do something a little different to our usual community activities as part of The Big Help Out – something that would last for years to come and stand as a reminder of what we can achieve together.

Paul shared an idea of installing a bench next to the wildflower bank – an idea we loved. Now, if like us you’re not sure where this is, join the bridle path on Trussell Way between Stanford Way and Carroll Close, walk past the Cawston Rise play area on your left and onto the bridge over the greenway. Immediately after crossing the bridge, turn sharp right and head down onto the greenway. Then turn right and pass under the bridge. You’ll see the bench on the left and the wildflower bank opposite. It took us a little while to figure out where it was too!

With Paul’s excellent guidance, we carried the bench, kindly provided by Co-Op Helping Hearts in Bilton, tools, cement mix and a huge tub of water to the greenway (with some of us getting a little wet!), chose a site for the bench and dug the post holes. As you can imagine, not many of the girls had used a pickaxe before so that was an exciting new experience, and they were all keen to give it a try. They really worked up a sweat digging and getting the two post holes to the right depth.

As it turned out, digging, although the most physical, wasn’t the most difficult part, it was getting the bench level. Every time we thought we’d got it right, the spirit level showed that we were still out. We got there eventually, and Paul helped the Guides fill the post holes with cement and mix it with the water. The Guides enjoyed finding sticks to mix the water and cement powder and finding stones to mix in to make the cement even stronger.

With the cement only taking an hour to dry, we’re assured by Paul that the bench will stand the test of time and allow people to rest at that point on the greenway to enjoy the butterflies on the wildflower bank opposite. We’re told Comma, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies will all thrive on the wildflowers so there should be plenty of colour, from the flowers and the butterflies, come summer.

Once the bench was finished, we used the rest of our time to go on a nature hike along the greenway, collecting rubbish along the way, before enjoying a break in the play park and meeting back with parents.

Huge thanks to Paul for making this possible and for supporting us in installing the bench – it’s certainly something we’ll always remember, and I know a few of the Guides have proudly taken their families to see the results of their labour.

And finally, we’re looking for volunteers…

Girlguiding relies on volunteers to run local units in communities, specifically we need more volunteers in Cawston and Rugby.

Girlguiding volunteers help girls build their confidence, have adventures, learn new skills, give back to their communities and have loads of fun in the process – with volunteers experiencing the same benefits. Volunteering isn’t just about campfires and helping girls to get their next badge – although those are special moments, it’s about empowering girls and giving them new experiences. It’s being a role model and helping girls to realise their full potential.

If you’re interested in getting involved, register your interest on the website and someone will get in touch: www.girlguiding.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-volunteer/register-to-volunteer/

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments