Threatening

The forecast was rain all day so before it started, as soon as I'd done my physio exercises, I nipped out to Panshanger Park to look for some wood for whittling with scouts. Whilst there of course I took my blip opportunity for Wide Angle Wednesday. This is the view of the first lake, from the hide window which lent itself very nicely to a wide view. As there was no sun today I thought light and shadows would be impossible, but there's a lot going on in that threatening sky.

I was in luck as an ash had fallen. Ash is super for burning as it burns green as well as when seasoned. For whittling it should work well as its neither too fresh nor too old and dry. Ordinarily the scouts should find their own wood at camp but the forecast is terrible for this weekend so a stock of dry wood will be useful.

Later I spent a good while preparing a survival skills handout and learned quite a bit myself in the process :-) Did you know that you can make a kind of lens to intensify the sun's light and use it to start a fire, by making a water filled cling film ball? I'm sceptical but it's got to be tried.

My responsibility at this evening's meeting in preparation for the camp, was to teach knife safety. It's a bit of a dry topic when outside they were learning how to hang a hammock, construct a shelter, and use an axe... but it was surprisingly well received.