House & Garden Plus: A Girl Guide Captain & Chicken Recipes

Only one mother

Many things in life
Come in multiples
But each one of us
Has only
One mother

Robyn

Receiving

It was not in “giving”, but rather it was in “receiving”

That the mother knew a deep satisfaction.

She happily received little arms that caressed her neck.

Robyn

Memoirs from my mother Brenda as a Girl Guide Captain

I became a Girl Guide captain by accident. After we moved from Queensland to South Australia, my two older girls went to guides, but would come home in tears because it wasn’t like the company they used to belong to. It was run by a little lady who didn’t know how to be a guide captain. After my girls came home in tears, I went down to the guide hut and I offered to help. On the night I started as a “helper”, the Guide Captain didn’t turn up! She didn’t ever turn up! It wasn’t funny at the time, because I just had to do what I could! I had to learn to be a Girl Guide, and had to do my First Class test just like the guides. I made a scrap-book about guiding as part of that test, which I later donated to the Elizabeth West company.

Here is one funny story from when I was a guide captain at the Elizabeth West company. Most of the girls were little pommy kids from

England

. We were going to have a supper one evening, and I told them, “Don’t forget to bring a plate!” Most of the girls brought a plate with nothing on it, as they didn’t know that in

Australia

, when you bring a plate, you bring a plate of food to share.

Brenda took her Girl Guides camping

I would take the guides hiking and camping in tents. Our first camp was in an orange grove on the Little Para River in Salisbury, in South Australia.

My two older girls belonged to different companies - they weren't in the company where I was a captain. They became Queen’s Guides and I was very proud of them. It was a big achievement.