Forthcoming Events

Open Gate Festival: Clach an Tuirc 6^th September 1pm – 4pm: Healthiest Town’s Open Gate Festival will run from 29 August to 7 September with lots of open gardens and farms, workshops, talks and events running throughout the festival period.  The festival aims to connect people to locally produced nutritious food and to encourage people to consider the impact the way our food is grown, produced and processed has on our health and the planet’s health.

Clach an Tuirc here in Fearnan will be open on Saturday, September 6, and Jenny, who has recently developed herorganic veggie and berry gardening, will show you round her first year’s effort.

Tea and cake on offer. Free entry, and donations welcomed for The Woodland Trust. No booking required

MacMillan Coffee Morning: This year the annual Fearnan MacMillan Coffee Morning is on Saturday 20th September. This popular event will be held in the McLean Hall Fearnan from 10.30 -12.00.

Join us for tea/coffee, delicious home baking, games and a raffle. Come and help Fearnan contribute to this fundraiser which will help those living with cancer.

Halloween Pop Up: Tuesday 28th October 11.00 – 13.00. Spooky cakes and other frights as All Hallows Eve approaches

News Updates

VJ Day

Once again, the war memorial was beautifully ‘dressed’ by Cath to mark the 80^th anniversary of VJ Day and to remember the members of the armed forces whose war did not end with Victory in Europe but continued until Japan surrendered bringing WWII finally to an end.

Linda, Alistair and Anita from Invertay helped Cath set up the display.

Bollo and Naboo

Back in April we covered the story of Bollo and Naboo, Moira’s two rescue donkeys whose life experiences had left them not only very fearful of humans, but also with a number of health problems, including severely overgrown feet.

We are delighted to bring you this very positive update from Moira about the progress the two boys have made over the last few months:

Moira writes:

Over the summer we have seen some fabulous improvements with the boys. Bollo (brown) can now be groomed and touched all over. He is now having his feet trimmed “at liberty”…..meaning he has his headcollar on but doesn’t need holding, he just calmly allows Regina (the donkey podiatrist) to deal with his feet (donkey biscuits are liberally dispensed throughout). He is currently at the stage where Regina is now beginning the slow process of lowering his heels to the height at which they should be.

(Before and after photos below show how much work has been done and how their feet have improved.)

Naboo (grey) is also improving, but more slowly, as we expected given how fearful he was. He is still having sedation for his foot trims but is less stressed about being ‘captured’. During his most recent session he allowed all 4 feet to be trimmed without any kicking out and panics (first time for this!) and also, he is now not only accepting treats (we call them donkey biscuits but they are small pony nuts made from compressed hay), but is actively seeking out the next one. This for him is a HUGE step!!…..Remember he was so fearful when he arrived, he wouldn’t take food from our hands.

All in all, they are now very happy healthy wee donkeys that are getting the “species appropriate” care that they need.

Moira would like to say a huge thank you to all Bollo and Naboo’s fans for helping with this and to thank all those who contributed to their Gofundme page, which is still open https://gofund.me/92ff6586

Fearnan Resource Hut

Just a reminder that you can now recycle old pairs of specs and sun specs in the Resource Hut but that medicine blister packs can no longer be accepted.  These need to be recycled at pharmacies, such as Boots and Superdrug, that have collecting boxes for the foils, or at the Aberfeldy veterinary practice. Only contact lens blister packs can be recycled in the Resource Hut.

The Resource Hut signs up to recycling schemes run by manufacturers, and these schemes specify the brands or products that are accepted for recycling. For example, all brands of disposable gloves can be accepted but only Marigold rubber gloves can be recycled in the rubber glove bin.

Fearnan Book Club Reviews

Club Members write:

At our August meeting we reviewed a book recommended to us by Jo Miller who sadly died earlier this year. Jo was an enthusiastic member of the book club and one of the founder members. She enjoyed book club meals and celebrating the club’s 10^th anniversary in January this year. She attended meetings for as long as her health permitted.

At our most recent meeting, where Jo’s book recommendation was reviewed, the group toasted her with prosecco and Frances had made some of Jo’s infamous sardine dip.

The book was Still Life by Sarah Winman. It was a tale of sweeping proportions covering many decades and countries following an eclectic group of characters and their adventures.

All commented on the richness of the characters with a special mention for Claude the speaking parrot! There was consensus that there was little in the way of a plot with an unsatisfactory ending. Many disliked the lack of punctuation for dialogue (of which there was much) although the fast pace of the dialogue was enjoyed. All appreciated the comical moments in the book and agreed that this book reflected much of what Jo was about – art, travel, enjoyment of life and love.

Another recent Book Club read was The Housemaid a psychological thriller by Freida McFadden who is a controversial but popular American author. The book has now been made into a film to be released later this year.

 Millie, the protagonist, is a complex character with a troubled past who goes to work for a rich family, but all is not as it seems. There were various plot twists, which some of the group guessed and abusive behaviour by characters of both sexes, which was not comfortable reading. The author took a unique approach and created a book with the desired effect. One of the group felt the serious themes could have been handled with greater sensitivity.

Many of the group found it compelling reading, easy to read at speed and were keen to see how it would end. All agreed that it was unbelievable as a plot and was described by one as a “good tale of ridiculousness.”

Without giving away any spoilers, there were revealing secrets, behaviour switches, numerous twists, unexpected relationships and an ending that cleverly took the reader into the next book in the series The Housemaid’s Secret. This book continues the story of Millie and features key characters from the first book.