Welcome to the 9th edition of the new CHEQS Magazine! Your community magazine – supported by representatives of the five village communities, Coln St Aldwyns, Hatherop, Quenington, Eastleach and Southrop.
Hello from…… Ruth Garner
I had the good fortune to be born and bred in these villages and grew up being an avid CHEQS Magazine reader. I lived with my parents, Margaret and Norman Tarrant (who some of you may remember) in Quenington until I was seven, then we moved to Hatherop. I had a very happy childhood, roaming round the villages on foot and by bike.
I left in 1987 to get a degree and eventually became a soil surveyor at the Ministry of Agriculture. I met my husband in that first job and one of my aims in life was to live back in these villages. We achieved that in 2015 when we moved to Quenington with our two daughters then aged seven and eight.
In my youth one of the things children did was join Brownies/Guides if you were a girl, or cubs/Scouts if you were a boy. I enjoyed this so much that as a teenager I helped form a Quenington Beaver pack and volunteered at Cub camps – it would be good for my degree applications, they said!
Over thirty years on and I’m now leader of Fairford Scouts. Scouting has changed and is now open to both boys and girls, yet the founding ideas of friendship, responsibility and a love of the outdoors remain the same. Scouting aims to give children skills for life and challenges them to do their best. If you have a child aged between 6 and 14 years old, who’s looking for adventure, then why not come along and see what we offer. Email fairfordscouts@outlook.com and I’ll pass your enquiry on to the relevant section.
For those who are too old for Scouting, don’t forget to take the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors on your doorstep. My other passions include exploring landscape archaeology (the patterns of hedges and lanes, humps and bumps in the ground) and wild swimming in the River Thames and its tributaries. Since lockdown my family and I have got in the habit of taking an evening walk together. I have achieved 10,000 steps every day since June and can vouch that a simple walk can do you the power of good!
Margaret Stranks – Editor
Click Here to read this months magazine, online
CHEQS Archive can be found here.
