Deliveries and Collections

Thyme at Errichel have started delivering a range of deli produce to your door, including, and fruit and veg boxes, dairy produce and their free-range pork. Call 01887 820850 or email enquiries@errichel.co.uk for the price list and order form. Order by Wednesday for Friday delivery.

The Crieff Food Company, who ran the Aberfeldy deli, will be doing deliveries locally on Tuesdays starting soon www.thecriefffoodco.co.uk

Ben Lawers Hotel will be in the Hall carpark again on Wednesday (Chip Night), Friday (Pizzas) and Sunday (Roasts) with ready meals to enjoy.  Phone 01567 820436 to order.

Clapping for Carers

There was lots of noise being made in tribute to carers last week – pots, pans, whistles, and a condor*, as well as hands.  The photos were taken in Creagach and also in Dalchiaran where there are two frontline workers – Claire, who is the Manager at Abbeyfield and is photographed with her family, and Kate who is working night shifts at Pitlochry Community Hospital.

*The instrument Bob is playing is a condor – it is made of wood and is a memento of a holiday he and Jean had in Santa Fe. The instruments, which vary in size, are typically called after birds of prey.

Cath McG sewed the Thank You banner, which she attached at the bottom of her drive.

Many thanks to Fran and Graham taking for the photos.

Life Under Lockdown

Like many other employees, Graham and Jason have been furloughed from their jobs at the Crannog.  This means that they cannot do any actual work for their employer but can undertake personal and skills development. For Jason, this has meant continuing with his Japanese studies while Graham has been researching local stories and folklore, and is looking forward to taking part in a virtual storytelling workshop with the Scottish Storytelling Centre this week.

A previous article on this Blog (https://fearnanvillageassociation.com/2020/01/12/study-trip-to-cyprus/) talked about how, at the Crannog, Jason has been trying to recreate the textile making skills and techniques that would have been used by Iron Age people, along with the dyes that would have been available to them from local plants and berries. One of the Lockdown tasks has been making balls from some of the wool that Jason dyed last year using plant-based dyes and the picture on the left shows the range and intensity of colour that can be achieved. Untangling the one on the middle might need more than a seven week Lockdown!

Skye is pictured in her favourite position and is enjoying her runs in the field at Fearnan but, like Graham and Jason, misses going into work at the Crannog.  (Keep an eye out for some great events that will be happening at the Crannog when it’s able to re-open, and make up for lost time!)

Elsewhere in Fearnan, it’s good to know that standards are not slipping during Lockdown, with Fran and Elaine deciding to partake of a posh Afternoon Tea in the garden. Fran explains:

“We’ve been trying hard to avoid wasting food so when the milk was slightly off, Elaine decided to make some scones to use it up. The freshly made raspberry jam went perfectly with them.

“By the time we found the posh china and set it all up, it was really time for gin and tonic, but we decided we could probably manage both!“

Joe and Elaine are well but missing the family and hoping that the restrictions will ease up in time for June, when a grandchild is due in Edinburgh. There’s also another one expected in Toronto in November.

Elaine says: “We’re spending most of our time working in the garden so hopefully we will have a thriving veggie garden (see below – still a work in progress), and a garden to rival Monty Don’s when this is all over!

It’s so very quiet around here with virtually no traffic and thankfully very few motorbikes passing below – it’s going to be very strange when the traffic starts to flow again – it’ll sound like the M1!

Lots of animals and birds around. The pine marten is making daily visits to our deck and driving the dogs mad! We’ve also had more varieties of birds than normal which is lovely. Bullfinches, goldfinches, cuckoos, woodpeckers to name but a few.”

Cath McG has been spending Lockdown walking up mountains, starting with Scafell Pike, followed by Snowden, Ben Nevis, Mont Blanc, Kilimanjaro and finally Mount Everest………..

……. and she did them all without breaking the Lockdown rules.

Cath and her sister have been doing the Virtual Mountain Challenge as a means of getting some exercise. (Crickey! Drummond Hill would be enough for some of us.) The challenge sets out the number of steps or flights of stairs that equate to each mountain, so Scarfell Pike is 6,180 steps or 412 flights of stairs and Everest is 58,070 steps or 3,871 flights of stairs.

Cath’s sister lives up three flights of stairs and has been walking up North Berwick Law and other places in her area as well. Cath has been walking up and down her drive and the flight of stairs in the house. She says it sounds like a lot but when you do it every day it soon mounts up.

Having ‘bagged’ Everest, they have now moved on to the world’s second largest mountain, K2 (8,611 metres above sea level). “At the moment”, says Cath, “we are just in the car park at the bottom wondering if this is a good idea….. or should we go for the Hula Hoop challenge??  Only a lockdown could bring this on!”

Indeed!  What has Lockdown brought on for you? Do you have a Lockdown Moment to share?  Let us know what you are up to by contacting fiona@fearnanvillag@fearnanvillageassociation

Please note that all photographs on this website are copyright to the person who took them, and all text is copyright to the person who wrote it.