Hookery goes camping

This all sounds a bit like Herbie goes to Holywood!  Well, we were very nearly in Holywood, but not quite in the Los Angeles area of the old U.S. of A. but our very own Holywood, County Down.

Our favourite Brownie pack went camping at the weekend to Lorne and two Hookits were asked to accompany them.  Quel honneur!  Not primarily for entertainment and crafting purposes, but as responsible adult leaders.  Now where they got the idea that we are responsible from is anybody's guess!

The old house sits on a very large estate on the shores of Belfast Lough and was built in Scottish-baronial style in 1875 by Henry Campbell, a local business man.  The tweeting birds at 7.30am were just wonderful to listen to, with no other outside 21st century noises to disrupt the calm.  Bliss whilst sitting outside drinking a cup of coffee.

Day 1 - 7am

Day 2 - the evening sun

Lots of lovely little places

As you can see, a little hookery went too

And there was food of the outdoor kind, something which the Hookits may aim towards if our summer turns out to be amazingly hot and sunny.  Mags was very in charge of the BBQ when she wasn't marking exam papers in a shady corner.

The BBQ is nearly ready

Food all gone

And some crafting

This is a space ship - apparently!

But mainly we had a fantastic time with a really great group of young girls.  And what glorious weather we had.

Day 1

Day 2

Hostess Hookits

Now you all know how we Hookits just loooove our food and sweet treats - you may have seen just a few small photos of us with food!

1st Jordanstown Brownies meet in the same halls complex as us on Wednesday evenings in St Patrick's. Well, a few weeks ago we were asked by Brown Owl to be testers for the Brownies' Hostess Badge.  Now you can imagine just how excited and delighted we all were about that - lovely savouries and sweet treats with lashings of tea.  How could we possibly refuse?  We decided to don our frocks and pearls for the occasion and make a special effort to match that made by the girls when preparing for their presentations.

In honour of the occasion, perhaps in an attempt to summon real ones, Mags prepared some crochet cupcakes especially for the evening as a thank you to the Brownies she was testing.

Each Brownie had to decide on and then write out their menu, prepare the food and then serve it with tea on a tray which also had to have a decoration on it.  And here we have a photograph of each Brownie's tray.  There were 24 girls ranging from age 7 to 10. Following the repast each girl had to 'entertain' us for a few minutes; we had Irish Dancing, clarinet, violin, keyboard, tin whistle, recorder & poetry recitals, singing with signing, holiday reminiscences, riddle and joke telling - what an accomplished bunch!

And didn't they do well?  Congratulations girls.  We're looking forward to the same treat next year ......