Tag Archives: D of E

Coldest day, (annual average)

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1°C, sunny, quite nice really.
Sent home. So unwell despite driving in to work. My tutor group is upstairs and the two flights emptied my energy. Nearly at the right room, I saw their previous Form Tutor and had to ask her to register them.
One of the managers could see the state I was in and ordered me home.

Home. Sleep.

Soup for lunch and noticed birds interested in the feeders I put out on Saturday. Four Coal Tits, 2 Blue Tits and a pair of blackbirds.
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Spring is coming. Feeling grotty again after the avian excitement, Plas-y-Brenin rang. About the query yesterday, this guy was more upbeat about my question: “How do I know whether I am ready for assessment?”.
Optimism shot up after his opinion. I’m going for the easter date. It only gives a week before the Silver and Gold training.
There, I have a plan:

Practise more micro-navigation,
Read up on legislation,
Practise timing against our route cards.

There are two more stages:
1 camp skills Module,
2 Mountain Leader Qualification.
3 feel a warm satisfied glow.

General summary.

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2 days of warm sun, and now- thunder.
First DofE trip camping trip of the year. Sun is strong, and pollen dense. Day two was remote supervision, and for a change, there was a lot to do.

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Worcestershire is a very attractive county. Britain is in full bloom so fields are blazing yellow with buttercups and all the rest.
Young cattle were pleased to have visitors to their fields. They all came in our direction. A herd must weigh in over 10 tonnes, I was nervous. I turned to face them, hands on hips and in unison- they all did a u-turn. This gave my group of teenagers time to clamber over the stile.

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Hard underfoot at Hulme End

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-5 to –3°C with snow

Hard ground, hard mud and hard cowpats is what we found in the White Peak area. The grass crunches and rock sold mud ridges jarr underfoot. The temperature has barely been over 0°C all week. I’ve been up there for a Duke Of Edinburgh Award related course which went well. We did a short walk which had a route that would prove tricky for the kids doing their expedition. At the half-way point, we stopped for sandwiches. This is when the snow started. Firstly light, but it fell on hard frozen ground and stuck immediately. Some of the flakes were visibly perfect little hexagonal starfish. We were all well wrapped, so no discomfort.
It’s like this kids; all the paths are marked white on the ground, so they’re dead easy to follow.

The drive home was a different matter. I had to drive at about 25mph after sliding about behind a lorry that was floundering sideways up the hill at Draycot. I’m not so worried about crashing and getting hurt, not at that speed anyway. I really don’t want to wreck my car, that’s all.

Anyway that’s enough for tonight- a lot more of the white stuff to come, we’re told.