Last night’s program was a hit. We were in luck, the speaker was informative, enthusiastic and engaging. Ironically he is from Blandford, he moved here in 1978 and I have never seen the man before last night. I was very happy to meet him, his name is Bob and he had been with the Boy Scouts association for 60 years. His position is one of volunteer, both his time and his services in the legal capacity. I wasn’t the only one who had never met Bob, the only one who knew Bob was his childhood friend who lives on his road, Chips, who also serves as a director in the Historical Society so that is how we came about the program. Chips is wonderful when it comes to getting his old friends and colleagues donate their time and expertise for our entertainment.
I learned so much about the Boy Scouts. I had no idea that the Boy Scouts were started in Great Britain by a famous military hero Baron Robert Baden-Powell who after his military exploits wrote a book on military scouting that was adopted by young Englishmen in their boarding schools and taken into the field.
Bob spoke so eloquently of Baron Robert Baden-Powell, he really brought him to life. He spoke of his adventures in killing the pig with a short pointy stick, receiving India’s highest honor after killing the pig with his short stick and writing a book about it. In all seriousness, Baden-Powell with his colleagues were wild boar hunting without any weapons other than short swords, that was a sign of a real hunter, wild boars are very feral and fearless, so the physical risk to themselves and their horse was great. Baden-Powell won the highest award as the premier wild pig killer because after his horse was gored by the wild boar, he bravely put the boar down. His exploits in India led him to many promotions and then off to South Africa. All of this was in the late 1800’s and very early 1900. Somewhere in old British Rhodesia, Baden-Powell successfully held his city in a 200 plus day siege against enemy forces three times the size of his force. He went home to Great Britain after this, a national hero. His fans were the young men who read his book on military scouting and they aspired to be scouts.
My caneles were a huge hit and I am so happy that I made them because no one else brought anything else. It was my goodies and that was it. They threw themselves on my little caneles and kept saying “who made these?” “What is this?” These are so good” I was so happy. I love baking. A very pleasant evening.
