And all the best for 2012! From Sue, Peter, Julia, Laurie, Neil and Fiona.
A few weeks ago, there was an article on the FVA web site about how Sheena Stanbridge and her bone-marrow donor, Mark, planned to walk the 50 miles from their respective homes and meet at the Wallace Monument in Stirling, to raise money for the Anthony Nolan charity. And to do it in 3 days, from the 29th – 31st October!
Ian Marshall had helped Sheena and her sister to prepare and he accompanied them as guide and Sherpa on what was a challenging but ultimately very successful walk from Boltachan over the hills via Ardtalnaig, Comrie and Doune. Hill fog was a bit of a problem for them, but fortunately they had crossed all the major burns on the Friday before torrential rain on the Saturday! Mark walked with 3 of his brothers from Newmilns in Ayrshire.
The meeting at the Wallace Monument with Sheena’s donor and his family was, understandably, a very emotional occasion. Sheena raised more than £2,000 for the Anthony Nolan Trust with more monies still to come.
Sheena is hoping to raise £2,500, so if you were planning to make a donation but haven’t done so yet, why not click through to http://www.justgiving.com/sheena-stanbridge where you can make an online donation on this secure site.
The Last Coffee Morning of 2011
Last Tuesday saw the last coffee morning of the year and, as usual we had a good turnout and ‘buzz’ about the place. We had a first attendance – Fearnan’s youngest resident – born only days before, while Jane’s Lemon Drizzle Cake made a second appearance, by popular demand!
A big thank you to all those who have baked, prepared the teas and coffees, and helped set the hall up for the coffee mornings throughout the year. And an even bigger thank you to those who stay behind to help clear up afterwards!
The next important date for your diary is February 11th 2012 when Fearnan’s Legendary Pudding Night will take place.
Tuesday’s Coffee Morning was a very sociable affair,
and over 20 villagers gathered to enjoy some delicious home baking, tasty savouries and friendly chat.
The Fearnan calendars have nearly sold out, so be quick if you haven’t yet got yours. 
The next Coffee Morning is on Tuesday 15th November and, after that, there’s a break during December and January. 
The Pudding Night is on Sat 11th February and the first Coffee Morning of the new year is on Tuesday 21st Feb.
Many of you will know Sheena Stanbridge, who was very ill with Leukaemia five years ago. She was lucky enough to be given a life-saving bone-marrow transplant through Anthony Nolan, a hard-working and effective charity that saves the lives of many people who have blood cancer or who need a blood stem cell or bone-marrow transplant.
This year Sheena met her donor Mark Quinn for the first time and together they have decided to raise money for Anthony Nolan by walking towards each other from their respective homes, each doing a 50-mile distance over three days, from 29th-3lst October, finally meeting up at the Wallace Monument in Stirling.
Sheena and her sister are going from Boltachan over the hills via Ardtalnaig, Comrie and Doune in 3 days, regardless of weather conditions, with Ian Marshall as organiser, sherpa and native guide. If you look at the route on an OS map, you will see it’s quite a challenge!
Ian has been her walking ‘mentor’ for the past 2 years to improve her health both physically and mentally. They started with a walk round Taymouth Castle, which completely exhausted her, but she has now graduated to the Ptarmigan Ridge!
Those of you who know Sheena will be aware how fortunate she was in finding a donor and also in making such a remarkable recovery. Please give your support and help save more lives through Anthony Nolan. To sponsor Sheena online, just click here http://www.justgiving.com/sheena-stanbridge
The work of the Anthony Nolan charity is very important in saving the lives of cancer sufferers so please sponsor Sheena if you can – and if you are between the ages of 18-40 then join the Anthony Nolan register. A simple saliva test is all that is needed!
Neil Ballantyne writes:
The Coffee Mornings resumed on Tuesday morning after a break over the summer, with a well-attended and lively event. 
We were pleased to welcome some new faces to this regular get-together and, 
as ever, there was a fantastic spread of goodies to suit all tastes.
Sue and Julia are the excellent bakers-in-chief.
Ian McGregor took the opportunity to tell us about his plan to augment the Fearnan photograph archive with a photo-board of past Chairmen of the Village Hall Committee. He would be pleased to hear from anyone who can help him track down photographs.
The calendars are proving popular and are selling fast.
Many thanks to those who helped stage the Coffee Morning, and particularly to Fraser and Peter for doing the washing up once again.
The next Coffee Morning is Tuesday 25th October.
This month’s recipe is for Chocolate & Banana Cake.
Ingredients:
100ml sunflower oil 175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour ½ teasp bicarb of soda
4 tbsp cocoa powder 100g chocolate chips
175g ripe bananas 3 eggs, 2 separated
50ml milk
For the icing:
100g milk choc, 100ml soured cream, dried banana chips roughly chopped.
Heat oven to 160C/140Cfan/gas 3. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment (allow to come 2cm above top of tin). Mix sugar, flour, bicarb, cocoa and chocolate in large bowl.
Mash bananas in a bowl and stir in the whole egg plus 2 yolks, followed by the oil and milk. Beat egg whites till stiff. Quickly stir the wet banana mixture into the dry ingredients, stir in a quarter of the egg whites to loosen the mixture, and then gently fold in the rest. Gently scrape into the tin and bake for 1 hr. 10-15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin on a wire rack.
To make the icing, melt chocolate and soured cream together in a bowl over pan of simmering water. Chill in fridge until spreadable, swirl over cake and scatter with banana chips.
Saturday 5th November 10.00am – 4.30pm The Big Shed, Tombreck
Baking for Christmas: You will be taken through the steps of making a Christmas Pudding and Christmas Cake, Stollen, Ginger Bread and Mince Pies (all for you to take home), with organic baker, Justin Tunstall. The maximum class size is 8 ensuring that individual attention is given to each student. The cost is £95 and includes all ingredients and materials, recipe pack and an organic lunch.
Saturday 19th November 10.00am – 4.30pm The Big Shed, Tombreck
Beginners’ Baking: A day of bread making for the beginner or the experienced home baker. A practical hands-on class with organic baker, Justin Tunstall. You’ll make a selection of breads (for you to take home), using 2 different methods: Yeast and Sourdough. You’ll be taken through the whole process of kneading, mixing, scaling and shaping of the dough. The maximum class size is 8 ensuring that individual attention is given to each student. The cost is £75 and includes all ingredients and materials, recipe pack and an organic lunch.
To book a course visit http://www.gaelic-bread.com, or phone Justin on 0773 667 0033
Thursday 20th October – “Staring Down on Stars”, 7.30pm The Big Shed, Tombreck
A presentation of a personal account of the ascent of Everest by James Ogilvie. Tickets £8.00 (07766 566935)
Here are some important dates, some of which you can write into your new 2012 FVA calendar!
Coffee Morning dates going forward are (all at 10.30am):
2011: September 20th, October 25th, November 15th
2012: February 21st
The Pudding Night will be on Saturday 11th Feb 2012 at 6.30pm, and the FVA AGM will be held on the 3rd March at 7pm.
It’s also time to get your dancing shoes out, as the Fearnan Scottish Country Dancing starts again on 7th Oct at 7.30pm in the village hall. Everyone is welcome and, as all the dances are walked through, there is no need to have previous experience. It is a fun and sociable evening, and the cost is £2.00 per person.
The Fearnan Village Association Calendar is here and available to buy! The Fearnan Four Seasons Calendar depicts 12 stunning images of the loch, the landscape and wildlife from around the village.
Meall Greigh from Meall Garbh
The photographs in the Calendar were chosen from the 60 that were entered in the village Photo Competition. The selection of winners was made at the BBQ at the end of July.
Cherry Blossom, Kenmore.
The Calendars cost £10 each and can be purchased at the FVA Coffee Mornings on the 20thSeptember, 25th October and 15th November – but only while stocks last!
Osprey chick in its eyrie, overlooking Loch Tay
You can also buy them from Keith at his Gallery, from Andy at the Pottery or from Sue at Cala Sona (01887 830493).
The Gallop, Taymouth Estate
This page has just a small selection of the photographs, but they show the quality that has been achieved. Congratulations to all the photographers involved and many thanks to Sue, Peter and Keith for overseeing the printing and production of the calendar.
Although that fantastic spell of sunny weather had broken by Monday evening, the rain at least held off for the start of the Fearnan BBQ.
The cooks (Gordon from Tombreck, Laurie and Neil) 
got the BBQs going around 6pm and started to prepare a 
delicious selection of beef and lamb burgers, salmon, tandoori chicken, stuffed peppers and sausages.
Meanwhile, everyone else was concentrating on choosing photos for the 2012 Fearnan Calendar. 
Not that it was an easy job – 60 photographs were entered in the competition, covering landscapes, 
wildlife and flowers, and displayed according to the season they were taken.
The quality of the photos was exceptionally high and there was enough material for not one, but two – or even three calendars. There are some talented photographers in Fearnan.
Then the food was served. Everyone had a chance to tuck in, to enjoy the company of 
friends, 
and listen to the live music provided by Katie McLeod and Andrew Warwick.
By 7.30, the cooks had cooked everything there was to cook and were looking pretty pleased with themselves!
And then the pudding was served……….
….and quickly disappeared!
After that, all that remained was for the votes for the photo competition to be counted by Sue and Jane Watt …..
……and the winning photographs selected. There was a prize for each season, and the winners were Ken Lindsay (Spring), Keith Brockie (Summer), and Peter McKenzie (Autumn and Winter). Well done to them.
The 2012 calendar is in production at this very moment and will be on sale first at the Fortingall Fair on 14th August. There will be other opportunities to purchase copies in the coming weeks and it would make a great Christmas present! We’ll let you know when and where they’re available.
Many thanks to all who helped with the organisation of, and preparation for, the BBQ and to those who lent equipment. Many thanks also to those who helped clear up – it was much appreciated!
So, that’s it until next year, but there’s another chance to get together at the September Coffee Morning on the 20th September.
The Big Shed at Tombreck is a new local facility and it is now officially up and running!
It’s aim to provide a much needed community hub, serving many of the same functions as a traditional town hall or inner city community centre at the same time as providing an affordable resource for locally run businesses that are too small to afford premises of their own.
It is a publicly owned building especially, but not exclusively, for the residents of Loch Tay and Glen Lyon, managed by the volunteer board and single staff member of the LTCIC: a ‘not-for -profit’ company with sustainable rural development and community empowerment at its heart. The vision of the Big Shed attracted funding from several grant schemes, after the land was generously gifted by the private landowner of Tombreck farm.
The Big Shed celebrated it’s opening with a hugely successful launch party at the beginning of July, attended by over 200 people. There was something for everyone, from guided talks about the development, music to suit all tastes from pop to classical in the main hall, cookery demonstrations in the commercial kitchen, hands on craft activities in the large workshop area, and displays of Forest School work from Killin Primary.
Outside the building, many enjoyed the sunshine and took advantage of an all day barbeque manned by Julia and Laurie Lane from Fearnan. There was archery, singing, face painting, a bouncy castle, story telling in the yurt and a demonstration of circus skills.
As the afternoon progressed into the evening and more people arrived, a fantastic buffet, conjured up in The Big Shed commercial kitchen, was laid out in the main hall for all to enjoy. The Loch Tay Steamers then took their musical instruments outside and an informal ceilidh continued far into the evening.
The Big Shed is now available for bookings, so please contact Jane Watts to arrange a visit if you missed the launch and call to make a reservation or discuss ideas you may have. The building is here for you all to use and is very affordable. The building has been booked for classes, talks and workshops, including Perthshire Open Studios in September. The kitchen proved particularly popular with local groups.
Jane Watts, Project Development Officer: 07766566935, or jane@bigshed.org.uk or visit http://thebigshed.info/
Fearnan Village Association 