Events Calendar

Thursday 8th May: VE Day Afternoon Tea 3 – 5pm in the McLean Hall. On 8 May 1945, the nation united to celebrate the end of World War Two in Europe.  

To celebrate VE Day eighty years later, the FVA will be serving tea and home baking in the Hall. The tea is free and all we ask is that you make a donation to our collection for Help for Heroes. Do join us for the celebration and a little nostalgia.

The War Memorial is to be decorated for the occasion, thanks to Cath, so do come and see the Memorial in all its splendour, and then drop in for for tea in the Hall.

(Please note that the VE Tea replaces the Pop-Up cafe that was planned for the 13th May.)

Mclean Hall Thrift Shop 11th – 17th May – if you have anything to donate, including plants and cakes (Friday only), please bring them to the Thrift Shop during the week, or contact Linda on 07729300708. Funds raised will go towards the continuing upkeep of the hall.

Saturday 12th July: Strawberry Tea 3 – 5 pm in the Hall. The return of an old favourite   – a delicious afternoon tea, featuring Scottish Strawberries – and lots of them.

It’s strawberries every which way – from strawberry sandwiches to strawberry cakes and tray bakes, bowls of strawberries and cream, strawberry meringues, chocolate dipped strawberries and much more.

Recent Events

The talents of some of Fearnan’s many excellent bakers were on display at the Easter Tea and visitors were able to tuck into a wonderful selection of savouries, sandwiches and cakes.

It was lovely to see so many turn out for what was a well-attended and enjoyable event, and a relaxed opportunity to catch up and share news.

Our next event is the Strawberry Tea on Saturday 12th July.

Bollo and Naboo

Last November, two new residents moved into the village and although you may not have seen them (depending on where abouts you live in the village), occasionally you may have heard their distinctive voices.  Bollo (brown) and Naboo (grey) are rescue donkeys, being fostered by Moira.

Sadly, they have not experienced much human kindness in their lives, and if they now feel like they must have died and gone to Heaven, then it is understandable. When they first arrived, Naboo was so fearful of people that he wouldn’t even accept food from the hand and, for whatever reason, they are both terrified of Hi-Viz clothing. Their distrust of humans makes them difficult to catch and sudden hand movements make them blink rapidly with fear.

Distrust apart, both Bollo and Naboo showed signs of neglect when they arrived. Their feet were dreadfully overgrown (see picture on left). Donkeys’ hooves need regular trimming to keep them healthy and functioning well).

The remedial care they are now getting from the equine podiatrist has to be done slowly, so they have been on a 4-weekly trim cycle since November. Their hooves are much better than they were, but there is still a long way to go.

Normally, the hooves would have been x-rayed before the podiatrist began to rehab such severely overgrown feet, as this would reveal the changes that have occurred within the hoof capsule and help inform treatment. With the donkeys being so fearful when they began their treatment, it was decided x-rays would be impossible, but it has meant the podiatrist has had to work very conservatively and treat them little and often.

When their teeth were checked by an equine dentist, it was found that Naboo has too many teeth in his head, so some are crooked, and one is damaged and will need removed in the near future.

So, there will be more visits from the dentist and remedial work to be done.

Picture on right of teeth cleaning in progress.

Bollo had been allowed to get overweight through lack of exercise and as he had been eating the wrong things for a donkey.  Donkeys originated in desert areas and are not designed to eat good grazing – poor conditions suit them much better, and straw forms an important part of their diet. Moira has installed a track grazing system to encourage the right kind of grazing and eating behaviours. Instead of a traditional square paddock that does not encourage a horse or donkey to move, a track system creates a track running around the perimeter of the field. For donkeys, eating and moving should go hand in hand. In the wild, they would travel considerable distances every day to find grazing and water.

Donkeys first came to Britain with the Romans and would have arrived in Scotland around the same time. Although many of them live here quite happily, they do need attentive care as, in addition to their dietary requirements, unlike horses, their coats are not waterproof – which is probably bad news for Perthshire based donkeys – and they do need shelter to be provided.

Slowly, slowly, Bollo and Naboo are settling in and Moira is beginning to gain their confidence, and as their fear subsides, their characters are beginning to emerge – Naboo, who was very timid is now starting to become quite cheeky, and Bollo who showed signs of ‘learned helplessness’ (a stress reaction causing him to shut down when things got too stressful) is now more engaged.

Moira hopes to adopt these lovely boys, and make sure they enjoy life from now on but first their equine passports (which have been lost) need to be found or re-issued.  All horses, ponies and donkeys need a livestock passport – even if they never leave their field. Both Bollo and Naboo will need ongoing care and financial commitment to address their health problems. As the fostering has been arranged on a personal basis, rather than through a charity, there are no grants available for managing and resolving their health issues and getting them back into good condition.

On top of their routine care and feeding, a visit from the podiatrist costs £45 for each donkey and if sedation is required, it costs a further £45 for a veterinary prescription that treats them both. A visit from the vet to sedate them and rasp their teeth costs £100 each. Teeth usually need this done once a year, but more often if they are older or have the sort of issues highlighted above.

This being the case, Bollo and Naboo, realising the extent of their on-going needs, have decided to undertake a little fundraising and have set up a Gofund.me page.

Message from Bollo and Naboo: if you would like to help us, please click this link to see our gofund.me page:

https://gofund.me/92ff6586

Thank you!

If you would like to meet the boys, please get in touch with Moira, who will be delighted to introduce you. We will provide regular updates on the Blog about their progress.

Fearnan Book Club Review

Linda writes:

Our recent book club read was The Women at Hitler’s Table by Rosella Postorino.

This historical novel was inspired by the true story of Margot Wolk who was a food taster for Hitler. It was set in the closing years of WW2 and gives us an insight from the German perspective. 10 reluctant local women are selected to eat the food prepared for a paranoid Hitler to ensure that it was not poisoned. The book is about those women, their families and relationships. The heart-breaking story is from the perspective of Rosa, a glamorous Berliner who went to live in the countryside with her in-laws while her husband was missing at war. As an outsider in a small rural community, she finds it hard to be accepted.

Although interested in the historical context, some of the group struggled to get into the story. We felt it was not well written, but this may have been due to the translation from Italian.

We generally felt that the characters were well drawn, but we didn’t necessarily identify with or like them. We agreed that the women were in a very difficult situation but were surprised that as a group of women they didn’t bond well with each other. Their back stories were interesting. Although we sympathised with them, we did feel that they were a lot better off than most as they ate good food three times a day and far worse things were happening to many others in the country.

A few aspects of the story we found hard to imagine or comprehend e.g. Rosa’s unlikely, clandestine relationship with an SS officer and her brief friendship with Maria, a local aristocrat.

Some felt that it was very slow moving and there was a big jump from the first two thirds of the book to the ending where Rosa was an old lady and dying. We felt the ending wrapped things up and offered explanations regarding the return of her husband and her post war life etc. We could see that she had been scarred by the experience, as an old lady, she still sat for an hour after eating her meal as she had done as a taster.

Our next book is “Lola in the Mirror” by Trent Dalton an Australian author whose earlier book we have read and discussed as a group.

It has been described as bighearted, gritty, magical and moving. Will the book club agree?

Please note that the copyright of all photos in the article above is held by the person who took them, and the copyright of the text is held by the person who wrote it.