Oct 172013
 

Aberdeen forwardAberdeen Forward invite you to learn how to save money by reducing your food waste.

‘Tis the Season to Waste Not-Want Not.

Food waste minimisation sessions are being held at Torry St Fitticks Church in Aberdeen this Saturday morning, and on Tuesday afternoon.

We‘re looking for 30 households in Torry to participate! You could be one of those households!

If you are interested in taking part or finding out more, just stop by Torry St. Fittick’s Parish Church on the day

The sessions will take place on Saturday 19 October, from 10am-12 noon, and on Tuesday 22 October, from 12 noon-2pm.

For more information contact:

Karen Wood or Gillian Marr
Zero Waste Scotland Coordinators
Aberdeen Forward
2 Poynernook Road
Aberdeen AB11 5RW
Phone 01224-560360
Email kwood@aberdeenforward.org
or gillian@aberdeenforward.org

Torry St. Fittick’s Parish Church
Walker Road,
Aberdeen
AB11 8DL

Oct 142013
 

WOSWBanner2With thanks to Keith Byres .

For one weekend only, artists at Langstane Place will open their doors and showcase a wide variety of work including:  drawing, painting, photography, textiles, glass and installation.

Wasps Studios provide studio space for artists and makers across Scotland.

During the month of October 2013 we will be opening our studio spaces to the public and inviting you to come inside, meet artists in their working spaces and talk to them directly about their work.

Wasps Studios are at 36-48 Langstane Place, Aberdeen  AB11 6FB.

For more information about participating artists, venues and additional activities, please visit waspsstudios.org.uk

Oct 112013
 

By Steve Cameron.
GBHall1

The parish of Glenbuchat lies north west from the River Don, between Glenkindie and Strathdon. In the 19th century its population peaked at around 570 people who had ‘a strong sense of identity and fostered a powerful social spirit’.

Community activities included an annual highland games and picnic, St Peters Fair, a Literary Society, a Mutual Improvement Society, and Glenbucket Male and Female Friendly Society providing support for members falling on hard times.

At some point in the last 200 years the name started to appear in records as Glenbuchat. The Glen was proud of its tradition of ballads and violin and pipe music.

Towards the end of the 19th century, by which time the parish population had fallen to around 400, the people of the glen felt a need for a building in which to hold meetings and social events. Raising funds was not easy, but eventually the hall was built by public subscription, with donations received from the Laird, who also donated the land, and the shooting tenant.

The opening bazaar took place in September 1899. From that time until the First World War the hall was used regularly for a range of educational, training and social activities and events.

During and following the war, activities and fundraising dropped dramatically, and the building showed signs of wear and tear. Thanks to donations from the Women’s Rural Institute the hall was repaired and refurbished in 1924. It is likely that activities continued as before, but no record survives from this period.

Glenbuchat2At the end of the Second World War fresh efforts were made to put the hall back into use and to carry out necessary works. However, it took nine years to raise sufficient funds to add lavatories to the building. From 1946 to 1962 there were regular activities, with many fundraisers for various good causes.

The latter part of the 20th century saw the population dwindle to fewer than 100, and activities in the hall diminish as social change saw less demand for the activities on offer.

By the end of the century, the building once again looked shabby.

Fortunately, a small group continued managing the hall and the Millenium ‘stirred old feelings of public responsibility for the hall …for community activity’

In 2005, the Glenbuchat Hall Community Association was formed to support the hall and activities.  The Objects of the Association were to

  • secure the establishment, maintenance and management of the Hall.
  • promote and maintain the traditions and culture of the Glen.
  • benefit the inhabitants of Glenbuchat and surrounding district.
  • associate with inhabitants, local authorities and voluntary organisations in a common effort to advance education and leisure with the purpose of improving the lives of the said inhabitants.
  • act as a focal point for environmental matters concerning the Glen

In 2007, around thirty residents gathered for two working weekends to undertake refurbishment and temporary repairs. In the last decade, the programme of social events throughout the year has grown, with current annual footfall estimated as more than 2500.

In 2010, the Association undertook a public consultation, which identified an aspiration to sustain the hall for future use, including adult education, a focus on environmental issues, wider access to the surrounding environment, increased arts and recreation facilities, development of a heritage group, and increased availability of the hall to other organisations. From this the Glenbuchat Hall Community Hub project developed.

HallCraigton1Thanks to considerable local fundraising, and generous grants from a number of bodies, the Association has installed air-to-air heat exchanger heating and has refurbished the hall with new toilets, disabled access and a kitchen.

The Association is developing an outbuilding as an additional smaller meeting room or entertainment space. When completed, it will be made available to selected organisations as a base for accessing the locality.

In 2013, the Association has hosted a community hall re-opening party, a film night and music events including the Cairngorm Ceilidh Trail where young musicians can develop and perform. There’s been a wedding reception, a private party, and the hall has acted as a major venue for North East Open Studios (NEOS) arts fortnight. It’s also the focal point of the community for Hogmanay celebrations and has been used for Burns suppers in the past. A Sound Festival collaborative project Framed Against the Sky used the hall as one of its venues.

Currently the Association has appointed installation artist Gill Russell as artist-in-residence for three months. We have had some fantastic musicians on our stage including Catford, As The Crow Flies and recently Son Al Son, an exciting collaboration between Cuban and Scottish musicians making fantastic salsa music.

Current plans include developing the programme of music events, including touring traditional music acts and contemporary music. Plans are afoot for a festival to celebrate the fiddle music of Alexander Walker 150 years after its original publication.

Future visiting acts will include The Locust Honey String Band on 4 Nov and an exciting trio comprising  Leah Abramson, Rayna Gelert and, from Petunia and the Vipers, Patrick Metzger, on 17 March.

Glenbuchat1Fresh from outstanding reviews at last year’s Celtic Connections The Dardanelles will be appearing on 23 April.On 16 May we have one of the finest American roots music acts around with Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, reviewed twice previously in Aberdeen Voice.

Although building works ruled out a spring fair this year, this very popular event will no doubt return in 2014.  The Heritage Society is formed and is planning a range of activities, and the Association hopes to follow the current artist in residence programme with further residencies.

All of this demonstrates how we are attempting to reach out to the wider community.

Community halls throughout the country face difficult times but in rural locations they are a precious resource. In Glenbuchat we are fortunate to have the hall as a focal point for community activity and  hope we can continue to engage both the local and wider community. That ‘strong sense of identity and powerful social spirit’ described in the opening paragraph lives on in Glenbuchat!

Associated Links:

Sep 192013
 

NutshellPic170With thanks to Liz Smith.

Thread by acclaimed Scots writer Jules Horne.
This darkly funny play explores friendship, the choices we make and who we become when our memories start to fade.

Thread is the second play in Nutshell’s Still Points in a Turning World trilogy and will be touring this October as part of the Scotland wide Luminate Festival.

Come roll your dice at the Burntisland beetle drive and share Joan, William and Izzy’s tangled lives.

Friends since primary school and closer-than-close ever since, identities stitched together as intricately as their homemade party clothes.

Living in the secure but suffocating embrace of a 1950s Scottish seaside community, who gets to become the person they want to be?

Nutshell director Kate Nelson founded the Edinburgh-based company in 2000 with the aim of making intelligent, entertaining theatre through great writing, direct storytelling and unconventional venues

TOUR DATES

September

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh
Wednesday 25, 7.30pm
0131 665 2240
www.bruntontheatre.co.uk

Church Hall, Wigtown Book Festival, Wigtown
Saturday 28, 12noon
01988 403222
www.wigtownbookfestival.com

 October

New Pitsligo Hall, New Pitsligo
Tuesday 8, 7.30pm
www.neatshows.org.uk

Stracathro Hall, by Brechin
Friday 11 7.30pm
01674 850842
www.neatshows.org.uk & www.angusarts.org.uk

Crathes Hall, Crathes, nr Banchory
Saturday 12, 7.30pm
www.neatshows.org.uk

Sep 192013
 

By Duncan Harley.

Crovie Boilerhead 170In Crovie, the fisher folk were quite used to the effects of the sea. They had, for generations, lived with the seasons, and felt that they knew how to survive the furies of the winter storms. These were hardy folk indeed.
In February 1906 they had risked life and limb to rescue the crew of the SS Vigilant when, after engine failure it was driven ashore onto the Rotten Beach just down from the village.

A joint effort with the folk of nearby Gardenstown enabled the rescue of all six crew, despite the terrible conditions during a severe winter storm.

The boiler from the stricken vessel lay in Crovie Bay as a landmark for over 90 years, before being removed by the local council after a storm washed it onto the shore.

There is a memorial to the event on the coastal path between Crovie and Gardenstown.

Then there were those German spies.

During April 1941, two armed men landed at Crovie pier from a rubber dinghy. It was a time of distrust. Road signs in the North East had been removed and the Emergency Coastal Defences were in place. General Ironside’s Innes Links Coastal Battery was yet to fire a shot in anger, but the general mood was fear of invasion and distrust of foreigners.

It was just before 6 a.m. on April 8th 1941, and three hours earlier the two men had been dropped a few miles offshore by a German flying boat. When climbing into their rubber dinghy, they had lost their means of transport when the Luftwaffe aircrew panicked and threw their two bicycles into the North Sea, where no doubt they lie to this day.

As they watched the seaplane take off for the return trip to Norway, they must have wondered what had possessed them to volunteer as German spies and what fate would await them when they made landfall in the North East of Scotland.

The two men were in fact Norwegians who had been recruited by the German security services to report on the Moray coastal defences. It’s a well known story: they rowed ashore to Crovie pier and asked the man at number 27 how to get to Banff by bus.

It was April 1941. Very few locals spoke a foreign language despite the influx of Polish personnel into the Moray area.

Crovie Village Moray 170. Credit: Duncan Harley

The coastal village of Crovie, Moray.

Mr Reid at number 27 seemingly dialled 999 and reported the incident to the Banff Constabulary.

The rest is history.

Used as double agents, the two Norwegians fooled their German masters for a few months before being allowed, in one case, to join the Norwegian Army and in the case of the second agent, to live out the rest of the war in an internment camp.

They were nicknamed Mutt and Jeff after two cartoon characters of the time, whom they were thought to resemble.

Mutt and Jeff? Cockney rhyming slang for deaf perhaps, or a reference to a then popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about “two mismatched tinhorns.”

Both were lovable losers however, and the good folk of Crovie still remember them with relish.

Crovie is one of only two places in the world to be blessed with a North Pole.

Mind you, the Crovie North Pole is easier to reach. To get there simply walk to the far end of the village, to the drying green past the Mission Hall. A green metal clothes pole awaits, and visitors are advised that “if you don’t walk around the North Pole, then you haven’t done Crovie.”

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Sep 182013
 

How does a Friday night of wine, nibbles and vintage clothes swapping sound to you? Why not avoid the hustle and bustle of a weekend shopping trip and come along to Aberdeen Forward’s famous swish where your unused clothes can be swapped with like-minded swishers in a relaxing and informal setting.

colouredthreadspicIf you want to grab a unique item or 2 whilst helping divert landfill, this Friday’s Swish is for you!

Starting at 6pm and finishing at 8pm this Friday, the event will provide you with a chance to clear out items you’ve never worn whilst getting a hold of some new pieces for your wardrobe.

When deciding which of your items to bring in please remember the following:

– All items should be high quality-please don’t bring damaged or dirty items.
– Donated items should be clean and either unworn or just worn once or twice. You want to bring something others will want to take away, not throw away!
– No Casual T-shirts, Vests, Earrings, Underwear or Swimwear will be accepted.

If you would like to come, please give us a quick call on 01224 560360, email cwe@aberdeenforward.org

The event is held at the Aberdeen Forward HQ, 2 Poynernook Road, AB11 5RW. Please arrive promptly for 6pm with your unwanted clothes at the ready!

Entry is £5 which includes a glass of fizz, nibbles and access to the Swish’. Non-alcoholic refreshments are also available including tea, coffee and juice.

Sep 052013
 

AbForwardGiveawayAberdeen Forward, your local environmental charity, are once again holding the Very Big Giveaway Day on this Saturday, September the 7th!

As usual, individuals & schools can access FREE office furniture, stationery and arts and craft resources.

There will also be a book stand and various drop in craft stalls running throughout the day, including a handmade cosmetics stand, ‘Beadpop’ stand, an oil & glass stand and ‘Stencil’ handmade crafts!

There will also be a raffle (tickets £1 available now) with a range of excellent prizes from local businesses including a Meal for 4 at Nando’s, various Lush cosmetics gift sets, a round of golf at Murcar Links Golf Club, Coffee for 2 at Books and Beans, A glass fusing workshop with Oil & Glass Aberdeen and a FREE lampshade making course!

In addition, The Nappy Laundry will be running a pop-up nappy shop where you can get expert advice and access to a great range of real cloth nappies. Further to this, the Aberdeen Forward Baby Shop will be open, providing access to an excellent range of low-cost, high quality baby items from prams and nursery furniture to pushchairs and cots.

Entry to the Big Giveaway Day is £3.00 for adults, children under 16 are free. Any questions, queries or requests, get in touch with us by clicking here or calling 01224 560360.

Aug 302013
 
Stonehaven Harbour Festival Duncan Harley 115

The public turn out in record numbers for the Stonehaven Harbour Festival.

Over 2000 folk attended Sunday’s Stonehaven Harbour Festival and with sunny calm seas it looked to be a record day for the festival’s organisers, reports Duncan Harley.

Community groups and fundraisers, including Stonehaven Sea Cadets, RNLI, Newtonhill Pipe Band and HM Coastguard, had put together an exciting programme to help raise funds for a new Kidney Dialysis Unit at Kincardine Community Hospital.

The Bon Accord lifeboat was present and Mackie Academy FPs Rugby Club provided entertainment and laughs as both adults and children were encouraged to chuck some very wet sponges at the players.

The Festival’s organisers were Stonehaven and District Lions Club, the Rotary Club of Stonehaven and Stonehaven Round Table. The event was supported by several local sponsors including Survival Craft Inspectorate who recently took over the harbour’s MRI building and delivered advice and practical resources.

Despite some late afternoon fog, the day was a resounding success and the organisers intend to repeat it next year.

Following the disastrous flooding in the town in the recent past, the festival was intended as a means of celebrating what Stonehaven has to offer and as a tribute to the community effort which has put the town back on to its feet.

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Aug 232013
 

Dogstar Theatre’s new production, The Baroness,  starring Roberta Taylor and directed by Matthew Zajac, is opening on Stornoway at the end of the month. As part of the Scottish tour the production will be performing at Alford, Findhorn and Gordonstoun School. With thanks to Liz Smith.

Roberta Taylor as Karen Blixen in The Baroness.

Roberta Taylor as Karen Blixen in The Baroness.

Dogstar’s autumn production, the UK premiere of The Baroness by Thor Bjorn Krebs, translated by Kim Dambaek, opens at An Lanntair, Stornoway, on Saturday 31 August following a preview on Friday 30 August.

The tour finishes at the Traverse, Edinburgh, on Saturday 28 September.

Roberta Taylor, one of Britain’s most talented actresses plays The
Baroness, and is joined by Ewan Donald as Thorkild Bjørnvig and Romana  Abercromby as Benedicte Jensen.

The play is directed by Dogstar’s Co-Artistic Director Matthew Zajac with music composed by Aidan O’Rourke.

In 1948, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) the celebrated writer of Out of Africa, was 62 when she met the recently married and successful 29 year young poet and writer Thorkild Bjørnvig. The two shared a powerful and intimate friendship, their pact, which lasted 6 years, before falling apart.

The play charts the course of this relationship and also the relationship of a third character, Benedicte Jensen, to Bjornvig and Blixen.  Benedicte was the wife of Bjornvig’s patron and publisher.

The Baroness premiered to rave reviews at the Folketeatret in Copenhagen in 2011 and was nominated as play of the year in the 2012 Danish Theatre Awards. Full of tension and poetry, with three tremendous acting roles, the play is inspired by anecdotes, letters and books by and about both Blixen and Bjørnvig.

Roberta Taylor is best known for her long-running roles in Eastenders and The Bill.  She is also a best-selling author with her memoir, Too Many Mothers having sold over quarter of a million copies.  Roberta was a leading member of Glasgow Citizens Theatre for 20 years under Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald.

Aidan O’Rourke, is one of Scotland’s most exciting composers and musicians and a member of the amazing trio LAU, three times winner of the BBC2 Folk Awards Band of the Year. Recently Ewan Donald toured Scotland with Right Lines’ production of Be Silent or Be Killed.

The production has been designed by Catherine Deverell with lighting design by Kate Bonney. Supported by the Hugh Fraser Foundation www.dogstartheatre.co.uk

Listings Information

An Lanntair, Stornoway
Friday 30 & Saturday 31 August 8.00pm
Box Office 01851 708480 www.lanntair.com
Preview Friday 30 8.00pm

Strathpeffer Pavilion
Tuesday 3 September 8.00pm
Tickets WeGotTickets.com/strathpefferpavilion
TicketWeb.co.uk
June’s Card Shop Dingwall & Pavilion 01947 420124 & 0844 771000
www.strathpefferpavilion.org

Macphail Theatre, Mill Street. Ullapool
Wednesday 4 September 7.30pm
Box Office 01854 613336 www.macphailcentre.co.uk

Lyth Arts Centre
Thursday 5 September 8.00pm
Tickets: 01955 641434 www.lytharts.org.uk

Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute
Saturday 7 September 7.30pm
Doors open 7.00pm
Tickets 01700 503877 www.mountstuart.com

Tower Mill, Heart of Hawick
Tuesday 10 September 7.30pm
Box Office 01450 360688 www.heartofhawick.co.uk 

CatStrand, New Galloway
Wednesday 11 September 7.30pm
Box Office 01644 420374 www.catstrand.com 

The Buccleuch Centre, Langholm
Thursday 12 September 7.30pm
Box Office 013873 81196 www.buccleuchcentre.com

Birnam Arts
Friday 13 September 8.00pm
Box Office 01350 727674 www.birnamarts.com

Tullynessle & Forbes Hall by Alford
Saturday 14 September 7.30pm
Tickets: Alford Bistro 019755 63154 www.tullynessieandforbeshall.co.uk

Resolis Memorial Hall
Tuesday 17 September 8.00pm
Tickets 01381 610204 www.resoliscommunityarts.org.uk

Universal Hall, Findhorn
Wednesday 18 September 7.30pm
Tickets: Phoenix Stores 01309 690110 www.wegotickets.com/UniversalHall

Ogstoun Theatre, Gordonstoun School
Thursday 19 June 8.00pm

Eden Court, Inverness
Friday 20 & Saturday 21 September
Box Office 01463 234234 www.eden-court.co.uk

Druimfin, Tobermory, Isle of Mull
Tuesday 24 September 7.30pm
Box Office 01688 302828 www.mulltheatre.com

Craignish Village Hall, Ardfern
Wednesday 25 September 7.30pm
Tickets 01852 500746 www.craignishvillagehall.org.uk

Eastgate Theate, Peebles
Thursday 26 September 7.30pm
Box Office 01721 725777 www.eastgatearts.com

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Friday 27 & Saturday 28 September, 7.30pm
Cambridge Street, Edinburgh EH1 2ED
Box Office 0131 228 1404 www.traverse.co.uk

Aug 092013
 

Momentum is an organisation which helps people with brain injuries reach their full potential. Their third Top Hats & Tiaras Grand Ball takes place on 14 September this year at the Aberdeen Hilton Treetops Hotel.  Rhian Johns has benefitted from Momentum’s services, and tells Aberdeen Voice how Momentum helped.

Momentum is a voluntary organisation which offers rehabilitation and training services, empowering people with an acquired brain injury to gain the skills and confidence that they need to live independently and to fulfil their employment goals.

It is a charity close to my heart as in April 2006, at the age of 20, I suffered a brain haemorrhage followed by long-term ventilation and severe lung complications and now epilepsy.
I was in a coma for 5 weeks, Intensive Care for 2 ½ months and another 2 months in the Neurology ward.

Following various intensive therapy sessions to aid my physical recovery and to start learning to read and write again, I was well enough to be able to attend Momentum’s Pathway programme in April 2007, as part of my rehabilitation and recovery and with their incredible help and support I returned to Robert Gordon University in 2008, graduating in 2011 with a BA in Fashion Management.

Since coming out of hospital, it has been the hardest time of my life, but Momentum helped me to get my life back on track.

They helped me to realise and understand exactly what had happened to me and how to cope with it. I really appreciated meeting other people who had suffered brain injuries.  It is a big comfort knowing that there are people who understand what it’s like to have your life turned upside down. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Momentum’s help and support.

It is important to me to thank them by raising funds for their Grampian Brain Injury Centre, based in Aberdeen.

I couldn’t be happier to be holding our third Top Hats & Tiaras Grand Ball on 14 September this year at the Aberdeen Hilton Treetops Hotel in Springfield Road at 7.00pm.

The evening starts with a sparkling drinks reception, followed by a 3-course meal and coffee. Entertainment for the evening is the fantastic Burlesque, the band who aims to get everyone on the dance floor from the first song.  Our auctioneer for the evening is Highland League legend Ian Thain,  helped by our MC for the evening, Rebecca Curran of Northsound 1.

I would love for you all to join us.  More information and tickets can be obtained from Lucy on 07557 853500 or lucy.wilson@momentumfundraising.co.uk.

For information on how Momentum has helped people in the Grampian Brain Injury centre check out: http://momentumskills.org.uk/fundraising/eventsto-hats-tiaras-ball

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