Fun with THURCASTON

Year to Date Report:

We began the New Year with a Resolution to earn the Zero Waste badge by learning about the 4 R’s - Repair, Recycle, Reuse and Reduce. A natural recycling example that we studied was the action of worms in processing dead leaves and returning nutrients to the soil. We reused clear plastic bottles and put some leaves and layered compost, sand and wood shavings inside them before adding some worms - we learnt that worms are hermaphrodite, (having both male and female parts) and with this the Brownies enjoyed coming up with names for the worms which could be both boy’s and girl’s names, such as Robin and Frankie - we then covered the outside of the bottles with black plastic to simulate the darkness of soil and left these cultivated wormeries for several weeks before removing the coverings to find that the worms had brilliantly mixed the differing layers as part of its task to recycle the dead leaf litter.

Onwards from here we set up our own Repair Shop, concentrating at first on sewing, glueing and stapling, before progressing to using saws, screwdrivers, hammer and nails. Vicki, our Commissioner visited to present Snowy Owl (me) with a thirty years service badge and was thenon hand to help when we were a leader short (Covid) for our ‘Reuse’ session. Barn Owl showed us how to cut pretty pictures from old birthday cards and magazines and stick them on white, plastic bottles to make lovely containers for pencils etc,

We all needed to learn about Reduce, and so we focused on reducing the amount of water we use and indeed waste and to be aware of what we can and cannot put down the drains, for example wet wipes are a definite no. We learned a lot about cleaning our water when Brown Owl brought in fake pooh which is really Weetabix and gravy powder baked into the appropriate shape!

February 22nd for the Guide and Scout movement is “Thinking Day” - the joint birthday of Lord and Lady Baden Powell. This date fell in half term but we celebrated with our candle ceremony on March 1st, St David’s Day, so we also included a Welsh theme and heard how Lloyd-George persuaded the Welsh to change the emblem for Wales.

On International Women’s Day we heard about the teenager Malala Yousafzai, killed by the Taliban for campaigning for girl’s education; the environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, also strongly featured in our work.

For Mother’s day the Brownies made a plaque and painted bees and flowers made by Pat from modelling clay. More art work was produced as the Brownies coloured in the patterns on printed Easter Eggs whilst Katelynn, our D of E volunteer, helped us put together an Easter display for the church.

For our final meeting we kept our fingers crossed for good weather as we climbed up to Old John. The week before we had wrapped hard boiled eggs and now it was time to roll them down the hill and hope they did not crack. Prizes for the winners were on offer, alongside a small chocolate egg for everyone.

Snowy Owl.

We meet from 6pm-7.15pm on Wednesday evenings during term time at All Saints Church (the Harrison room) on Anstey Lane, Thurcaston. Girls must be age 7 to start. Details available from Brown Owl (07711 422350 but please avoid work hours).