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the Issue 29 ... December 2007

Strathblane, Blanefield, Mugdock, Carbeth & Auchineden (circulation 1000) thethethethethebbbbblane@strlane@strlane@strlane@strlane@straaaaathbthbthbthbthblaneflaneflaneflaneflanefield.orield.orield.orield.orield.orggggg.uk.uk.uk.uk.uk

Inside

• Railway puzzle answer

• Special constables needed

• Fisherman’s tale

• Football 125 years ago

• Into the heart of Africa

• Special Olympics success

• Bowling President’s review

• The crow family

• Tale of the Bubble car

The next issue will be in March 2008Deadline for articles 20th February

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We welcome comments onanything that appears in thenewsletter. Please write to theEditor, Mike Fischbacher, at:

4 Southview Road, StrathblaneG63 9JQor e-mail:theblane@strathblanefield.org.uk

01360 770716

Murray O’Donnell

The village has lost one of its ownwith the passing of DanMacDonald. He was born on 12

April 1928.Although Dan lived all his life in

Strathblane, it may surprise many toknow that he was actually born in Keltyin Fife. He said that this was because in"The olden days you went back hometo have your baby."

Because his father originallyworked at the distillery, Dan's first localhome was up by the distillery itself, atEasterton. His father took barrels ofwhisky by horse and cart to the train atDumgoyne and brought back malt andcoal. When Dan's father moved his jobto be an estate worker at Duntreath, thefamily moved to Burnside Row (nowBlane Place.)

When his father became a foresteron the estate, the family moved toLunchikin Lodge and the young boylearned to find his way about DuntreathCastle where his mother worked as acook for Sir Charles Edmonstone.

Dan left school at 14 and went towork a seven year apprenticeship as aplumber, working with McAdam inStation Road Blanefield, then Gardner's

DAN MACDONALD of Milngavie. He didn't escape hisstudies though as he had to attendnight school at Stow College for

two nights a week. He enjoyed boththe plumbing and working with hissix fellow apprentices.

When he was a little older,Dan was remarkably unconcernedabout “not having a motor”. Thatmay have been, of course, becausehe had met his future wife, Martha,who was a bus conductress on theBalfron to Glasgow run! Dan andMartha lived all 51 years of theirmarried life at Mid-Ballewan, andthere they had a daughter, Diane.He enjoyed Scottish dance music andwas an enthusiastic member of theForth and Endrick footballcommittee.

Football was an abidingpassion in his life. Firstly he playedfor the Youth Club Team. Someyears ago, in an interview withLynne James and me, he said, “Wehad a good team then.” From 1947onwards, Dan had an associationwith Blanefield Thistle as a foundermember, as a player, and then, to hisgreat delight, as chairman. He nearlyended his football career very early whenhe had an accident on his BSA motorbikein which he broke his leg, but, thanks tothe skill of the surgeons at KillearnHospital, his leg healed well enough to

allow him to continue playing. He saidof this club, “I enjoyed every minute ofbeing with it”.

A large number of family, friendsand representatives of various footballclubs, attended his funeral at Clydebank.The sympathy of the community isextended to Martha and Diane.

Martha and Dan MacDonald

Archie McCallum, Canada

Your correspondent in the Blane,Mr. Bob Sharp, asked about therailway and its grades prior to the

removal of the track.

This extract from O.S.mapStirlingshire XXV11-1860 might answerhis question. This portion of the mapshows the plan of the line from theGlasgow Corporation’s aquaduct westto Blanefield station. There is a side hillcut west of the aqueduct grade crossingleading to a short length of track at gradefollowed by an embankment giving anoverpass for, I presume, farm use. Afterthis overpass, there is a downgrade to

Blanefield station. This requiresan embankment of decreasingheight as shown on the plan. A

reasonable guess would be that theoverpass would be some 10ft. clear. Thiswould give an embankment of about thesame height.

As I presume all traces of the

embankment have been removed thedifficulty in assessing the original layoutand design is understandable. As the planI have does not show elevations, it ispossible the embankment was higherthan I note due to low ground near thefarm underpass and the need to maintaina grade compatible with the power ofthe engine and the design haul load. Therailway authority would choose tobalance the cut and fill, amongst otherconsiderations such as grade, to keepconstruction and operating costs to aminimum.

RAILWAY PUZZLE

Alastair Smith is going potty, but youprobably knew that already and did

not need me to point it out. He hasprovided the Blane with photographs ofchimney pots around the village and theyare scattered throughout the newsletter.

Give him his due, he has alertedus to the fact that there is not a standardkind of pot in the village. Maybe youfeel that you have managed to live thislong without that particular piece ofinformation. However, we feel that,culturally, you will be enriched byobserving the variety of chimneys andnoting their whereabouts. We have givenyou a general guide to these on page14. We thought that the owners mightnot be amused if we directed you to theexact locations. More in the next issue.

In the interests of politicalcorrectness (which is generally contraryto Blane policy but, in this case, we donot want to be sued by your relatives)we ask you to take care not to cross anybusy roads while gazing at the skyline.

EDITORIAL

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Bob Flashman

The trafficm a n a g e m e n tsteering group

(SG) met on the 29thOctober and were joinedlater by Alistair Dawson from StirlingCouncil. The SG was aware that budgetswere limited and however much it mightidentify Station Road/A81 junction aspriority number 1, difficult geometryand resulting high costs made alterationhighly unlikely. Therefore a pragmaticapproach was taken in that if a schemecould be designed that would slow downthe traffic before it reached StationRoad, a dangerous element of theprocess could be significantly reduced.

The SG has therefore proposedthat a traffic slowing scheme involvingroad marking that artificially narrowsthe carriageway together with 2 or 3traffic islands be adopted. This wouldcover the Blanefield entrance to thevillage until the Kirkhouse Roadjunction. (For those familiar withBuchclyvie, the scheme would be similarto their road marking and islands).

As funds have been allocated it isreasonable to expect the project to becompleted within the next 12 months.

A81 TRAFFICMANAGEMENT

JOHN BOYLE hasreceived aprestigious awardfrom the Institute ofRoad TransportEngineers. He is theengineer of the yearin Scotland and weoffer him ourcongratulations.

On a different subject, John wroteseveral articles for the Blane on the

subject of home made wine. Quite anumber of people have started makingtheir own wine as a result and John isoften asked questions when he is goingabout the village. He has offered to havehis phone number available if any wishto ask his advice. He is always happy totalk about wine. His number is 771027.

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONStoo to Simon Allanwho has won theFastway CourierFranchisee of theYear award. Simongave up a job inbanking to run hasown business. He isdescribed by

Fastway as “always helpful, friendly,reliable and committed to providing (hiscustomers) with the very best service”.The business is a pick and delivery parcelservice mainly for small and mediumsized companies.

With the award goes a two weektrip for Simon and his wife Stephanie toAustralia.

S trathblane man, BlairArmstrong, is workingcollaboratively with Prof Alan

Ervine of the Dept of CivilEngineering at Glasgow University todesign and construct a small waterreservoir at a location about a hundredmiles south of the Ethiopian capitalof Addis Ababa.

The project, which is thebrainchild of an organisation calledService in Mission (SIM) will providemuch needed drinking and irrigationwater for an Ethiopian communitywho live in that area. The project willallow the community to develop andbe self supporting especially duringtimes of drought.

The scheme will include theinstallation of a small power generatorwhose turbine will be driven by theflow of water stored in the reservoirwhich will provide much neededelectrical power to the village.

Blair, whose currentinvolvement is with the EuropeanMarine Energy Centre (EMEC) atOrkney where they are testing thelatest wave and tidal marine energydevices says “the Ethiopian schemeis somewhat smaller than the Orkneyproject, however it will be nice not tohave to do battle with the wind andwaves off Stromness just to produceelectricity”

The Ethiopian project ispredicted to cost $ 193,000 USDollars of which $51,000 has alreadybeen raised. A project manager hasbeen allocated by SIM and the firstphase of work has just started.

The Kirk Session at StrathblaneParish has generously agreed todonate the money given at this year’sChristmas Watchnight service to theEthiopian Tufa Appeal (Tufa is thename of the village benefiting fromthe project)

DESIGNED IN STRATHBLANE...BUILT IN ETHIOPIA

We have a problem and wewould like to ask if you canhelp to solve it. The

equipment that we use to produce theBlane is grinding to a halt. Thecomputer itself needs to be replacedvery soon – the monitor packed up afew weeks ago and a new one had tobe found in order to put this issuetogether. The scanner, now overten years old, is causingproblems as is the laserprinter which is even older.The software that we usealso needs to be upgradedfor any new system.

It is not only the Blanethat is produced, but wehave a project that we areundertaking in the new yearto scan and store villagearchives and photographsthat they may be preserved for andmade available to the community. Wehave already stored quite a bit ofmaterial including the photographsthat are now available for viewing onthe community website.

Added to that, we are concernedabout the long term future of thenewsletter. The editor is the only onewho can produce the Blane at thispoint and, should he, for any reason,be unable at any time temporarily or

permanently to do this work, there willbe no newsletter. Two people haveoffered to learn how to use thesoftware and to train to put it together.In order to do that, we need to buyextra licences for the software,something that is very expensive.

We could apply for grants butthere is a problem in that, as a

community, we are applying tofunders for money for otherprojects, such as the play park. Anapplication by the Blane couldjeopardise these as funders oftenlimit the number of applicationsthat can be made by a communityin any time period, usually ayear.

We do not believe that itis right to use the funds that aredonated for the production ofthe quarterly newsletter as they

have not been given for capitalequipment, nor do we wish to stemthe flow of support for that objective.What we need, and fairly urgently, isto find someone or a few people inthe community who would be willingto contribute to the purchase of theequipment and software. If you wouldlike to do that, we would be mostgrateful if you would contact us at theBlane. Our accounts are auditedand available for anyone to view.

CAN YOU HELP THE BLANE?

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44444

Stirling Council, Viewforth,Stirling FK8 2ET

Visit Viewforth and local officesMon-Fri 9am-5pm

0845 277 7000Mon-Fri 8am-8pm Saturday

10am-4pm Emergencies 24 hourinfo@stirling.gov.ukwww.stirling.org.uk

CONTACTING STIRLING COUNCIL

PC Paul Barr

The long dark nights of winter arenow with us and it is a good timeof the year to check that the lights

around the outside of your house are inworking order. Lights have been shownto be an effective tool in deterringcriminals from targeting your house andI recommend the types that either havea dusk to dawn sensor or an infra-red sensor that detects movement.The police will be placing leafletsthrough the doors of houses that arefound to be in darkness in theevenings. These leaflets containinformation about the steps that can betaken to reduce the likelihood ofbecoming a victim of crime. Residentsshould not be alarmed by these andBlanefield is still a low crime area.

This time of the year historicallysees an increase inhousebreakings in the area. Anumber of police operations are beingplanned to target travelling criminals, butthere are a number of measures that youcan take to make your home lesstempting to a burglar. These include:

• DO use good quality external doors

with 5 lever locks and deadbolts.• DO close windows and consider useof window locks.• DO use timers to activate lights andradios when you are out to create anillusion that the house is occupied.• DON’T leave garden tools lyingaround the garden thatmight be of use to a thief.• DON’T leave keys on

the inside of a lockand don’t leave carkeys on hall tablesetc. near toletterboxes.• DO report any

suspicious persons or vehicles to thepolice immediately. Write downdescriptions and registration numbersfor future reference. Don’t commit thisto memory alone.

If any reader would like furtherinformation regarding this subject I can

supply leaflets.

The school is now well into thenew term after the long summer break.The weather in the winter can posedangers in relation to road safety. Iwould urge drivers to be aware of the

extra hazards present on roads aroundthe primary school and to comply withthe parking restrictions.

Please stick to the 20mph speedlimit and ensure that you and yourchildren are wearing appropriate seatbelts.

Also remember that using a hand-held mobile phone when driving nowresults in a £60 fine and 3 penalty points

if you are caught. I havereceived reports thatparents have been seenusing mobile telephoneswhilst dropping children offat school. This type of actis unacceptable and personscaught doing so will bedealt with.

A number of vehicles haverecently been broken into at Station Loftsand also at car parks around MugdockCountry Park. I would urge readers notto leave bags or other valuable itemswithin vehicles and to set car alarmswhere fitted.

Please contact me at BlanefieldPolice Office on 01360 770224 or viathe Central Scotland Police website at:www.centralscotland.police.uk/l o c a l p o l i c i n g /stirling_dunblane_blanefield.php

VIEW FROM THE POLICE OFFICE

I have received reportsthat parents have been

seen using mobiletelephones whilstdropping children

off at school

Kevin Findlater, Chief Inspector

Central Scotland Police is alwayson the lookout for SpecialConstables to boost our numbers.

We are especially keen to recruit officersto work in the area covered by BalfronPolice Office - Balfron, Killearn, Fintry,Kippen, Buchlyvie, Drymen andBlanefield. Special Constables are a vitalpart of the effort to increase ourpartnership with the community. Sincethe 19th century they’ve been voluntarilyassisting regular officers, initiallyproviding support in times ofemergency. We have special constablesregularly working a minimum of fourhours per week and hours can bearranged to suit the individual's lifestyle.

WHERE YOU FIT INJoin and become part of the team

and you will gain on-the-job experience.You will patrol with a regular officer,have the same powers, and be calledupon to assist in all aspects of policework. The recruitment process is similarto that of the regular Force and isdesigned to be thorough but fair - onlythe best applicants will be successful.The communities we serve demand, andare entitled to, the highest possiblestandard of service from CentralScotland Police.

In most areas you will be trainedat your local police station. This is an

ongoing process, with theoreticaltraining sessions held regularlyduring the winter months. You

will learn about the police service, itsorganisation, the duties of a policeofficer, powers of arrest, criminal andlicensing laws, court procedures and thegiving of evidence.

A special constable has to becommitted, flexible and have a realistic

and positive attitude to life. You willneed to be interested in police work andbe at least 18 years of age, of Britishnationality and physically fit. Educatedto a reasonable standard, you will havea mature outlook, the ability to thinkclearly in difficult situations and havegood interpersonal skills. It’s important

that you have no conflicts of interest.For example, members of the fire serviceare regularly called to workunexpectedly. Employees of securityorganisations, private investigators,managers or employees of licensedpremises or betting offices, or servingmembers of HM forces are alsoconsidered unsuitable for the role ofspecial constable.

WHAT YOU GET OUT OF ITBecoming a special constable brings thegreatest reward of all, the opportunityto make a personal and positivecontribution towards a safer community.A free uniform and reasonable out-of-pocket expenses come as standard. Butthe work is voluntary, so your ownpersonal gain is dependent on youroutlook. You would gain a chance to doyour bit for a safer community. Varietyis another benefit but at all times the roleis demanding. You could be doinganything from policing a football matchto assisting at a road accident. Followthis link for more information and anapplication form:http://www.centralscotland.police.uk/careers/special_constables.php

SPECIAL CONSTABLES NEEDED FOR THIS AREA

Special Police Officers

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The Club meets every Mondayevening - 6.30 for 7.00 in theBlack Bull in Killearn. If you areinterested in finding out moreabout the Rotary Club ofStrathendrick, please contactRobin Taylor on 770207.

Mike Menzies

ROTARY is anorganisation ofbusiness andprofessional men

and women whoprovide humanitarian

service, encourage high ethicalstandards, and help to build good willand peace in the world. Members carryout this work in their community andinternationally by giving of their timeand expertise. A Rotary Club is open tomen and women who are in business,professional or community leaders whowant to use their experience for thebenefit of others. Paul Harris formed thefirst Rotary Club in Chicago in February1905. The name Rotary is derived fromthe early practice of rotating meetingsamong members’ offices. Today thereare 1.2 million Rotary club members ofmore than 30,000 clubs in more than200 countries or geographical areas.

The local club of Strathendrickwas chartered in 1977 and has just overforty members including four ladies. Itdraws its membership from theStrathendrick area and has membersfrom Killearn, Gartmore, Fintry andStrathblane. The highest proportioncomes from Killearn and Balfron so thatnew members especially from Drymenand Strathblane would give a much widergeographical spread.

STRATHENDRICK ROTARY CLUBFOCUS ON STRATHENDRICK ROTARY

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The members are from all differentprofessional backgrounds and becausethe club can draw on this fund of variedexperience, it isable to organiseevents orrespond tospecific needswithin the localcommunity oron aninternat ionallevel.

T h eformat for theevening is anevening mealfollowed by abrief businessmeeting and anentertaining speaker talking about sometopical subject with questions afterwards.Subjects can range from Antique GolfClubs, Tilting Trains, Classic Car Trips,Scottish Railway Preservation Society,and The Waverley Paddle Steamer tomention a few. Great emphasis is placedon fellowship, and by meeting in theevening, the Club is not restricted to thevery tight schedules of a lunch timemeeting.

Money making activities by theClub have included Bridge Nights,Spring Fairs, The Great StrathendrickDuck Race and the 150 Club. The twomain money raising events are the ever

popular Am-Am Golf competition heldat the Shian Golf Course, home to theBalfron Golf Society, in August and theClassic Car Run held for the first timein April 2007 and which was sponsoredby Arnold Clark. The Am-Am has raisedover £50,000 for Rotary supported

charities over thelast twelve years andthe Classic Car Runmade a very healthycontribution in itsfirst year. Both thesepopular events willtake place again in2008.

Communi typrojects include carruns and shelteredshopping for seniorcitizens, policeconcerts, inter-primary schoolquizzes, and mock

interviews at Balfron High School.As you can see the activities of The

Rotary Club of Strathendrick are manyand varied and their priorities are withinthe local community. The motto of theorganisation is “ Service above Self”.

Line up for the classic car rally

Regarding Neil Davies’ interesting article aboutStrathblane in the last issue. Manx was (like Gaelic)Q-Celtic, not P-Celtic, though first the document was

put into English phonetics by a Welsh Bishop. SeeEncyclopedia Britannica. Cf. general interest in Watson, TheCeltic Placenames of Scotland, Birlinn 1993 et ante.

Strathblane (not Ystrad Blane as it would be in Welsh)was very much borderland between Brythonic (‘Welsh’) andDalriadic (Gaelic-speaking) and Pictish territories. Cf. thestream at Campsie Glen, Allt Easan (stream of waterfalls),yielding present slightly different spelling for the café there.Very clearly Gaelic. Normal Welsh for stream is Nant. Seeany good map. But Welsh ‘allt’ means ‘cliff or hillside - nottoo far apart in environmental sense! The Gaelic may have aPictish origin here according to MacBain.

Postscript: ‘Mill’ in Gaelic is muileann. Welsh melin.Both related to Latin molina (cf. Molindinar Burn in Glasgow)

- JCGG

The Trading Standards Office are making people awareof the following scam:A card is posted through your door from a company

called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they wereunable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact themon 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT callthis number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recordedmessage you will already have been billed £15 for the phonecall. If you do receive a card with these details, then pleasecontact Royal Mail Fraud on 02072396655 or ICSTIS (thepremium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

POSTAL SCAM

ANNUAL BURNS SUPPER

PRESIDENT:John Donohoe01360 770741

SECRETARY:Michael O’Neill01360 770108

TREASURER:Alastair Smith01360 770120

The Blane Valley Burns Club aredelighted to announce that their

annual Burns Supper will be held on

SATURDAY 26TH JANUARY, 2008

It is hoped, as usual, that the evening will beheld in the salubrious surroundings of

STRATHBLANE PRIMARY SCHOOL

and this will be confirmed nearer the time.As ever the evening will be a feast, (both

literally and literary) and we have an excitinglist of speakers to entertain and educate.

Please contact any of the under noted or anyother member of the committee known to you,for ticket bookings for what is the highlight ofthe BVBC Calendar and what proves year on

year to be a very popular event.

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LETTER FROM AMERICA

Tricia Rae

We meet on alternate Monday eveningsat 7.30pm. All are welcome.

We started off the session on 1stOctober with a very lively evening withthe Anderson Singers. This was followedon the 15th by Alison Twaddle, the Guildgeneral secretary, who gave a veryinteresting resume of her travels withthe Moderator in India earlier this year.On 29th we had Mrs Anne Kinghornfrom YMCA, who explained about thework that they now do. She is involvedwith asylum seekers and refugees. It was

a very interesting evening.Hope to see you all at our

future meetings.

THE GUILD

Eleanor Friel

We have just celebrated our first year hereon the 30th October. The time haspassed so quickly. The winter was very

cold and snowy while the summer was delightful.They had the driest summer since records beganwith lots of sunshine and not too much humidity.We did not cultivate our garden in the spring butrelied on patio planters for colour and interest.Begonias seem to be the hardiest of all thebedding plants and can survive for long periodsof drought. Our garden backs on to woods and,as we have a strange variety of animals visiting,we decided that growing vegetables would besomewhat of a challenge. One day a veryunpleasant creature waddled across the backgrass and disappeared under the deck. Wequickly consulted the internet and discovered itwas an opossum – the only North Americanmarsupial. It is a large rat-like animal with a long snout.Neighbours advised us that they were not pleasant to havenear the house and we should try and discourage it from makinga nest under the deck. As luck would have it, our neighbour’sLabrador chased it and we have not seen it since.

Speaking of wild life, have I told you about our ‘greeter’on the front porch of our house? We purchased him lastChristmas in a large local store. He is a four foot high blackbear leaning on a sledge with a plaid scarf and hat. On thesledge is inscribed the word ‘Welcome!’ Naturally we called

Hamish McBear

him Hamish McBear. However, his welcome wasn’t so warmafter we returned from a brief visit to Glasgow in October.

On opening our front door, after 48 hoursof travelling, we were met with a flood disasterto our house. During our absence of 15 dayswater had leaked from an en suite bathroom allthe way down to the basement ruining everythingon the way down. Carpets, kitchen cabinets,walls, books etc. A professional flood restorationcompany came in and took over. The Managerwas a former marine and he ran the processlike a military operation. Firstly, he explainedthat we were in a “black water” situation whichwas dangerous as bacteria could develop so wehad better move out. He described the processas ‘Tear out, dry out and put back!’, a veryaccurate and efficient use of language. His gang‘tore out’ all the sodden carpets, kitchen cabinetsand kitchen ceiling and walls. We stayed in ahotel for a week when the drying process began.The big driers and de -humidifiers then did theirwork. As a result, the temperature in the houseat one time registered 101o F! Since we moved

back in we have been camping in one corner of the diningarea and cooking on an electric frying pan and a microwave.The excellent eating establishments of Lewiston have comeinto their own once more.

After tortuous bureaucracy we are now at the ‘put back’stage. We are confident that we will be restored in time forChristmas. In the meantime our good neighbours have invitedus to join them for Thanksgiving later this week. We willlook forward to that and we wish you all the compliments ofthe season.

Sylvia Armstrong

There is no food in the shops andbasic services have broken down.It is hard for us to imagine how

we would cope with life under thesecircumstances, but in Zimbabwe noimagination is necessary – it’s a reality.About 4 million Zimbabweans will needemergency food aid to escape the threatof starvation. That is why two separateevents held in the Kirk Rooms duringone week in November both decided,independently, to give all of the moneythey raised to the Tearfund emergencyappeal for Zimbabwe. On Sunday 18thNovember £171 was given in donationswhen Strathblane Church Guild hosted

a lunch in the Kirk Rooms, as part ofthe annual ‘Guild Week’ special events.Strathblane Parish Church congregationstayed on after the morning service toenjoy home made soup and sandwiches,followed by coffee and cake and Isabel’sfamous fruit dumpling. The next daythere was a coffee evening organised byLynne James, ably assisted by her teamfrom Strathblane Primary School, whoefficiently manned the Tearcraft, homebaking and Fair Trade stalls and servedcoffee and biscuits. On this occasion£100 for the Zimbabwe appeal wasraised from donations and the bakingstall and, in addition, £300 of Tearcraftand Fair Trade goods were sold. Thanksto the hard work and generosity of allwho organised and supported theseevents, £271 will go to the Zimbabweappeal - enough money to make asignificant difference to the lives of anumber of families in Zimbabwe. £20

GUILD DATESDec 10 Christmas CelebrationJan 14 Rev A Green andMrs L. James speaking abouttheir visits to Japan.Jan 28 Mrs Pauline DabydeenAdventures in Nursing.Feb 11 Dr Anne Pollock - What is‘old’ anymore?Feb 25 Mrs Judy Stewart - TheKing’s TheatreMar 10 Mr John Coutts - A box ofsurprisesMar 31 AGM

is enough to provide vitamin enrichedcereal for 5 children for 6 months,protecting them from malnourishment,while £50 could provide a family with 3goats to help them earn their ownlivelihood and provide nutritious milkfor the children. The world has becomea global village and Strathblane takesseriously its responsibility to care for itsneighbours.

SUPERMARKET SHELVES EMPTY

ADVANCE NOTICEAN EVENING WITH

BRIAN SOUTER

Brian Souter of Stagecoach Grouphas kindly agreed to a request

from the Church to give an after-dinner talk to an open audience fromthe village.

Mr Souter is a well-knownChristian businessman, much indemand as a public speaker,considered controversial by some, butgenerally known for his plainspeaking, strong convictions andability to defend them in open debate.

An evening meal has beenarranged for Thursday, 6 March 2008in Strathblane Country House. Thecost is £17.50. For information ortickets please contact:

Nancy Sharp 770149Shirley Findlay 770154Richard Graham 770432Rhona McColl craigmccoll@btinternet.com

77777

R & A DICKSON CARSPrivate Car Hire for every Occasion

2 x 5 door Hatchbacks6 Seater Galaxy - with Trailer

mob: 07801 372735 or 01360 770040

George Thom, Chairperson

You will no doubt have beenwondering what we have beenup to over the last couple of

months since the public meeting whichappointed the Board for the CommunityDevelopment Trust. We promised tokeep the villages informed aboutprogress, so here goes.

We have had a number of meetingsas a Board, getting organised andthinking about the priorities. We areaware that we need to do our best toreflect the feelings in the villageabout the issues that areimportant and combine thatwith a business-like approachto income and viability. TheTrust is a business withcharitable status.

Good news! We recently receivedapproval from the Charities RegulatoryBoard, which is another bureaucraticstep completed.

At our Board meeting in Octoberwe had a brain-storming session togenerate ideas for income, projects anda business plan for the coming year. Wealso incorporated those suggestionsalready made by those who attended thetwo public meetings. Some of the ideas

raised were:·Develop a handy-person servicefor those less able

·The village centre idea·A gala day·Property and land ownership·Income generation and donations·Networking·Allocation of roles for directors·The need for an additionaldirector on the Board who canhelp us with our communications.

It is safe to say that the process isstill in progress: we hope to produce a

business plan in the New Year.Working groupsMost of the Trust’s work

will be undertaken by thevarious working groups which

are all busy at present:Greenheart, planning a new play

facility and seeking funding;Blane Valley Carbon Neutral

Group, public meeting held in Octoberwith a good turnout, 25 people attended.An outline application to the LotteryFund for a free home energy audit foreveryone in the area was unsuccessful.Solar water heating project bulk purchasescheme underway.

Property Development Group,engaging with the planners about the

shortage of housing for older folk,seeking ways and means of replacing theold bus shelter which used to sit on theother side of the road from the KirkhouseInn.

We would like to register ourthanks to Stirling Council for our start-up grant, which will be put to good usewith the inevitable administration costs.Also our thanks to the CommunityCouncil for nominating Bob Flashmanas its representative on the Trust. Wewill keep you informed of progress inthe next issue of the Blane. Anycontributions, ideas or commentswelcomed. Send them by email tocdt@strathblanefield.org.uk

DEVELOPMENT TRUST

Mary Brailey

I’ve just discovered that our powersupplier, Scottish Power, now has

data (and graphs) about our electricityand gas consumption in our online ‘myaccount’ area (under ‘bills andconsumption history’).

It’s interesting to look at, and inparticular will be interesting tocompare in the future as and when‘steps are taken’ to save energy in theThom/Brailey household. If anyoneelse is with Scottish Power and hasn’tseen this already, it’s worth a look.

POWER WATCH

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1

Mary Brailey

The house on Old Mugdock Road,standing prominent above themain road into Milngavie, has

been a hive of activity. What on earthhas been going on?

Ever since he used to cyclethrough Strathblane as aboy, Bill Cullenshankered after a househere. Two years ago,finally, he moved intoMoor House on OldMugdock Road, alongwith Janice and thefamily. Since then,neighbours and passers-by have looked on – notwithout some initialsuspicion; Bill is in theproperty business afterall – as the house andgrounds have undergonea transformation.

Bill thought heknew what he was takingon. The house wasdamp, a victim of poormoorland drainage and atall encircling ring of gloomy pines. Theold mill dam, which used to serve DaviesMill in Milndavie Road, was rank andsmelly. The stream leading the waterfrom the dam under the road to thePunchbowl dam was choked andovergrown. Much of the land betweenthe house and the stream was boggy

moorland.Ever one to

relish a challenge, Billset to with enthusiasm. The

offending pines – 45 of them – werefelled. Some of the trunks were slicedinto rough planks to form the walls ofthe handsome new log store, some werechopped into logs, and the rest wereshipped to China, where there is a timbershortage. With the pines away, the newlyextended house (a major project in itself)

offered fine views acrossthe dam and thesurrounding moorland,and a sun-filled gardenbegan to feel like arealistic prospect.

But there were afew surprises along theway. Below the surfaceof the ground lay solidrock. Undaunted, Billand his landscapersbrought in rock-breakingequipment to excavateand scrape off to a depthof eight feet. The rockthat was removed wasused to provide adrainage layer in otherareas of the garden. Some600 tons of topsoil wenton top of it. Where last

year we would have sunk up to ourknees, now we were able to walk acrossfresh shoots of newly seeded grass.

The next major problem was thedam. The water was polluted withsewage, the effluent from unsuspectedproblems with septic tanks in Moorhouseand several neighbouring houses. These

MOORHOUSE EMERGESFROM THE SHADE

Bill and his faithful gardeningcompanion Lady take a breakfrom weeding

problems took quite some sorting out.Throughout the entire project,neighbours and adjoining landownershave been co-operative. Then the damwas partially emptied to allow somerestructuring of the banks, removal ofvegetation, and clearing of the culvertunder the road. The result: a tranquil –and unsmelly – pond which was onceagain home to a family of swans thissummer, and also boasts moorhens anda heron. The cleared stream tumblingover rocks is a pleasure to see from theroad, and its banks have been plantedwith primroses and bulbs which we canall look forward to in the spring. Evennow in November, unseasonally, thereis a blue poppy in flower.

The woman behind the planningof the garden is Fiona Robertson, alandscape architect based in Blanefield,who drew up the design and plantingplan. A local dry-stane dyker rebuilt thefront wall further off the road, and theroad itself has been widened to allowcars to pass each other without risk towing mirrors and paintwork. And Billhas been able to use his wide circle ofacquaintances to source exactly the rightmaterials. But he has carried out a lot ofthe work himself, mucking in withbuilders and landscape contractors. Thisis not a man who likes to sit still. Is Janiceanxious about what will happen now thatthe project is almost complete? Sheneedn’t worry just yet: those trees havestill to go in, and some morerhododendrons. The pond could bestocked with fish. And then there is talkof a summer house down by the stream.Perhaps a vegetable patch. And maybea greenhouse ...

Douglas Flynn, Ranger

A little bit of rain did not stopStirling Council’s CountrysideRangers from wading along the

old railway path on Strathblane’s third‘Community Action Day’. It was a verywet Sunday, 16 September and rangersPaula Bell and I - assisted by volunteerranger Scott Ferguson - were joined at10 in the morning by a local lass (Laura,I think!), keen to lend a hand. Theoriginal intention of our local volunteerwas to work for a couple of hours, butpredictably she had so much fun that shestayed for longer than intended andproduced some fine work.

The constant rain did,understandably, keep other potentialvolunteers away from our Action Day,but the rain also turned out to be a bit ofblessing. We could see as we walked tothe worksite that we would need a rethinkregarding the day’s planned work as,running along the length of the path wasa small stream, which would have to bediverted. The team (of 4) busied

themselves with two water bars,coupled with drainage letts toallow the water to flow off the

path. This did the trick and the effectwas swift and impressive.

From there, we proceeded to thesite of our previous Action Day, at thebottom of the steps. Here we workedon the maintenance of the drains inconjunction with a bit of scraping andresurfacing. Soon we had to say goodbyeto our local lass, but almost immediatelywe were joined by Sergei, a Russianvolunteer who fortunately lived locally.Sergei seemed not to mind the rain onelittle bit and got stuck into the drainagework, followed by a bit of tree pruningto finish off the day. Alas, our ActionDay had come to anend and as the sunfinally began tobreak throughwe packed upour tools, saidour good-byesand hoped wewould meetagain on then e x t‘CommunityAction Day’.See you there.

COMMUNITY ACTION DAY

Rachel Drake BA(Hons)

Village ClubThursdays

hand embroidery

Mondaysmachine embroidery

12 week coursestarting January 2008

All levels welcome frombeginners to those with

previous embroideryexperience.

Contact Rachel on01360 770601 or email

info@theartoftextiles.com

Embroidery Classes

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Mary Brailey

For the fifth year running, the nameof Strathblane resident BillFarquhar will be inscribed on the

Phoenix Angling Club trophy as thechampionship winner, a title he has wonsix times in all. The 4lb 6oz rainbowtrout he caught in the Lake of Menteithalso won him the president’s reel for theheaviest fish. Next year it will be hisown turn to put up the prizes, becausehe will be president of the club, wherehe has been a member for twenty-twoyears and is proving to be a tough act tobeat. ‘Not bad,’ he says, surprisinghimself with the thought, ‘for a man of79!’

His proudest achievement waswhen he was part of the ScottishInternational Angling Team that won thegold medal at Loch Leven in 2003 andhe got a ‘carry forward’ to the nextinternational in Ireland in 2004 forhaving the second heaviest catch forScotland and fifth heaviest overall.

Looking back over seventy years

REEL-LY WELLDONE, BILL

of fishing, Bill remembersgoing out fly fishing inArgyll with his uncle andcousin from the age of eight.In those days the casts(leaders) were made of catgut, which had to be soakedin water for half an hourbefore they could be tied. Sowoe betide the youngsterwho tangled the line ...

During the war, Billrecalls that there seemed tobe endless salmon, becausethe German U-boatsprevented the trawlersfishing the Arctic. No-onehad fridges, so it was a caseof giving away most of the catch so itcould be eaten fresh.

For many years, Bill and his wifeNorma, an artist, had a holiday homelooking onto the Broch of Birsay onOrkney. Bill spent many happy daysfishing the lochs there for wild browntrout while Norma painted Orkneylandscapes in the studio they hadinstalled.

Continuing success with the roddepends on keeping fit, nowadays bydoing a substantial walk several times aweek. But physical fitness has always

figured large in his life. Even his nationalservice took the form of sports officerat RAF Boscombe Down. Bill trainedas a teacher and taught PE for manyyears before becoming Adviser forOutdoor Education for Glasgow.Describing this as a ‘marvellous job’,Bill tells how he was responsible for thesafety codes for all schools in Glasgowand Strathclyde and the training ofteachers for all the outdoor activitiesundertaken by Glasgow schools –walking, sailing , skiing, orienteering,canoeing and so on: activities sadly lessavailable to school kids now.

After council funding cuts severelylimited that job, Bill accepted an offerto act as a consultant to a travel companythat ran activity holidays. He had theonerous task of visiting forty ski centresthroughout Europe, with Norma, andproducing reports on them which wouldhelp customers to choose the right gradeof activity. He still goes skiing, andskidooing, mainly when they visit theirson, daughter and grandchildren inCanada.

But it is fishing that remains hispassion, ‘an inspiration’. I can’t see therod being hung up for some time yet.

Lynn Wishart

At the first weekend in September,12 of our guides took part in acamp at Catterburn to experience

another side of camping. Not for us themodern pop-up tents we usually use atcamps – Oh no, at this camp we had theold style ridge tents in a lovely palegreeny blue with no built in groundsheets or double lining to add extrawarmth or protection. Did our guidesmind? Not in the slightest; they had agreat time and really enjoyed themselves.Now, if we can just train the girls totake one bag of gear instead of a suitcasewe will have really mastered thiscamping lark!

A warm welcome to the girls whohave joined us from the Brownies. Wehope you have a great time and meetnew friends and tackle new challenges.As before we are continuing with ourBadge Work and Craft Activities. Wehave had “parties” organised by the girlsthemselves which have been great funand at present our senior guides are busyorganising our very own Olympic Gamesto be held in January.

Many thanks to the Friends of theGuides for all their hard work organisingthe Autumn Sale and raising the muchneeded funds for our hall costs etc. Tothe people that turn up year after yearand offer their help, a huge thank youfor your support.

Well, that’s it for now, but if youare a young lady aged between 10 and14 and would like to try something new,give us a try and you might just surpriseyourself and find you enjoy the guides.

HELLO FROM THEGUIDES Avril Sandilands

Beavers, Cubs and Scouts are goingfrom strength to strength at themoment. Numbers currently stand

at Beavers (18), Cubs (28) and Scouts(10).

On a Monday night between6.30pm and 7.30pm our current 18‘beavers’ can be heard playing games,attempting craftwork, having lots of funand making friends in the Scout Hall.After all our motto is ‘Fun and Friends’!If you are aged between 6 and 8 whynot come along and join us - new“beavers” are always welcome.

It’s a Wednesday night between7.00pm and 8.30pm when theundeniable sound of 28 cubs playinggames and doing badgework can beheard, or if it’s silent, they’re out andabout the village or up at Mugdock(exploring!). This is also the night thatthe scouts will be busy having fun whilstlearning “scouting stuff”.

NEWSAfter several years Jim Kennedy

has decided to hand in his woggle andresign as Scout Leader. He has nowhanded the reigns over to Paul Brogan.The leaders and boys wish to say thanksto Jim for his time over the years and towish him well in the future. We wouldalso like to say good luck to Paul.

The Remembrance Parade wasagain attended by the Beavers, Brownies,Cubs, Scouts and Guides. A big thankyou goes to them all for their attendance,marching and brilliant behaviour duringthe service. Your leaders were proud ofyou.

FUN AND FRIENDS

Wendy Hamilton

The Rainbow Guides returned withenthusiasm, and in full voice, lastSeptember. We began work on

Rainbow Roundabouts straightaway,with the girls choosing a skippingchallenge and a streamer-making task.We have learned new games and songsso far this term - the Bumble Bee songremains the all-time favourite! OurChristmas party will be a Cool,Christmas Camp-in, so Rainbows bringyour torches!

We recently enrolled four newrecruits - Cosima, Roz, Eilidh and Nuala- and will say goodbye to Katy, Jennyand Iona in December, as they maketheir way ‘over the rainbow’ toBrownies. Our annual trip to the villagePanto will be in January, to theTHURSDAY night performance. It willcost £4 per girl and all money must bepaid to me before Christmas.

Merry Christmas andHappy New Year from all at 1stStrathblane Rainbow Guides.

RAINBOWS

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Forrest Robertson

To catch just a glimpse of 19th Cfootball in Stirlingshire, I’ve hada peek at an old Scottish Football

Association Annual, picking out themembership pages for the area in 1880-81 and reproducing them belowverbatim. Back then, there was nodistinction between seniors and juniorsor juveniles; you paid your SFAsubscription and you could play in theCup as an equal with the mighty –Queen’s Park, Dumbarton, Vale ofLeven & the 3rd Lanark.

BRIDGE of ALLAN: Formed 1878– 40 members. Grounds private,Westerton Park, 10 minutes fromstation & 5 minutes from car terminus,Dressing room, Westerton ArmsHotel. Colours navy blue jerseys,white knickers & navy blue stockings.Last year played matches 10 – won 3,lost 6, drawn 1. Wm.Henderson jnr.,Keirfield Cottage, Bridge of Allan,Hon.Secy.

CAMPSIE ATHLETIC: Formed in1880. 30 members. Grounds private,Lennox Park, south side, 10 minuteswalk from Lennoxtown station.Dressing room, Main Street,Lennoxtown. Colours red & whitejerseys, white knickers, red hose.Thomas Rodger, Crosshill Street,Lennoxtown, hon.secy. DavidWatson, Crosshill Street,Lennoxtown, match secy.

CENTRAL: Formed in November1879. 30 members. Grounds private,Slatefield Park, centre of Campsieabout 250 yards from station. Dressingroom Commercial Hotel near park.Colours blue & white. StephenO‘Hagan, Main Street, Lennoxtown,hon secy. Patrick Boyle, East End,Lennoxtwon, match secy.

FALKIRK: Founded In 1877. 50members. Grounds private,Blinkbonny Grounds, 15 minutes drivefrom station. Dressing room, CrownHotel. Colours blue & white. Last yearplayed 26 matches – won 13, lost 7,drawn 6: obtained 38 goals, lost 25goals. George Richardson, MarineCottage, Falkirk, hon & match secy.

GRASSHOPPERS: Formed 1875. 30members. Grounds, private,Bonnyside, Bonnybridge, 15 minuteswalk from Greenhill Station, NBR.Dressing room at grounds. Colours,red jerseys & stockings, whiteknickers. Last year played 11 matches– won 4, lost 4 & drawn 3: obtainedgoals 22, lost goals 25. William Reid,care of Singer Manufacturing Coy.,Bonnybridge, by Denny, hon & match

secy.

KING’S PARK: Formed 1877.

28 members.G r o u n d s ,King’s Park,Stirling, halfmile from

station. Dressing room, Sun Inn, KingStreet. Colours, dark blue jersey &knickers with red stripe on knickers& red hose. Last year played 16matches – won 9, lost 4 & drawn 3:obtained goals 34, lost goals 17.Mathew Paton, 12, Main Street,St.Ninians by Stirling, hon secy.James Christie, 55, Cowan Street,Stirling, match secy.

LENZIE: Formed 1875. 30 members.Grounds private, Lenzie FootballField, five minutes walk from railwaystation. Dressing room on ground.Colours, white jersey with badge,

white knickers & navy blue hose. Lastyear played 19 matches – won 7, lost8, drawn 4; obtained 38 goals, lost 42goals. Patrick Cree, Inglefield House,Lenzie, hon. secy.

MILTON of CAMPSIE: Formed1874. 30 members. Ground, private,Glazert Bank Park, Milton, 5 minuteswalk from station. Dressing room,Mrs.Whitehead’s Inn. Colours, blue.Last year played 17 matches – won 9,lost 5, drawn 3; goals obtained 29,goals lost 12. A.G.Baird, Kincaid,Milton of Campsie, hon. & matchsecy.

STRATHBLANE: Formed 1876. 35members. Grounds, private, CuiltPark, west end of village, 100 yardsfrom Blanefield Station. Dressingroom, pavilion on grounds. Colours,black & white striped jerseys, whiteknickers. Last season played 13matches – won 9, lost 4; obtaining 26goals, losing 20 goals. ThomasThorpe, Blanefield, Strathblane, hon& match secy.

Glancing through each club‘sdetails, they all seem to have privategrounds and some, including StrathblaneFC, have changing facilities next to thepitch (the reference to Bridge of Allan’sground being “5 minutes from the carterminus” suggests the town had a horse

drawn tram service 125 years ago). Theprivacy question is moot and should betaken to mean they rented the pitchesexclusively. Reference to “knickers”might raise a snigger today but “athleticknickers” was the common phrase for“shorts” which is still a misnomerbecause they generally reached down tomid shin. Everyone – players andofficials - was amateur and most werein their teens or early 20s. Up to thelate 1890s, it was common for thePresident of the SFA to referee the CupFinal. Imagine that today! The seasonran from September to April and gameswere almost exclusively played on aSaturday afternoon, hence the relativelylow number of matches recorded. Localrivalry was intense and a StirlingshireFA was started in 1883 with a countyCup competition which, believe it or not,

was dominated forquite a few years byEast Stirlingshire!

ALL THESE CLUBSentered that season’sScottish Cup. In thoseearly days, the firstfew rounds wereplayed on a regionalbasis; in the 1st Round,Central beat Bridge ofAllan 2-0, King’s Parkbeat Strathblane 1-0,Milton of Campsiebeat Grasshoppers 2-1,while Lenzie had awalk over, as didFalkirk, whenCampsie Athleticscratched. In the 2ndRound, Falkirk

overcame King’s Park 2-1 and Central& Milton of Campsie drew 5-5 beforeCentral progressed 3-1 in the replay.Lenzie had a bye into the 3rd Roundwhere they held Central to a goallessdraw; Central crushed them 6-0 in thereplay to join the big guns in the nationaldraw 4th Round. Here they avoided themajor clubs and squeezed a 1-0 win overthe students of Edinburgh University.With 11 clubs qualifying for the 5thRound, Central were the lucky recipientsof the bye, but the Quarter Final drawcouldn‘t have been more unkind. Itdecreed a trip to Hampden Park to facethe greatest club in the country – Queen’sPark! The Spiders had already won theCup 4 times in its seven year historyand the country lads from theStirlingshire vale weren’t going to getin their way of another trophy; Centralsubsided to a10-0 beatingand Queen‘smarched onto defeatDumbarton inthe Final – the“Old Firm”domination ofour nationalgame wasnearly 20years in thefuture.

Not quite 125 years ago, this was theteam in 1907

2

STIRLINGSHIRE FOOTBALL125 YEARS AGO

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We are lucky that Ivan Hendersonand his band are playinganother gig in the village at the

start of the new year. They are playingin the Edmonstone Hall on Saturday 5thJanuary with the doorsopening at 7.30pm.

The tickets arepriced at £10 and areavailable from Laurain the Chemists asbefore. It is always agreat night, combiningthe toe-tapping musicof the band withdancing and chatter with friends. Ticketsgo fast, so get in early.

JAZZ NIGHT

John Boyle

There is currently a great spirit atStrathendrick Rugby Club:

enthusiasm has been fired by the recentWorld Cup, playing conditions aregood, skills and performances areimproving at all levels as a result ofregular training and practice.

After a slow start, complicatedby injuries, the 1st and 2nd XV seniorteams are now stringing together goodresults in their respective leagues andin the Scottish Hydro Electric NationalCup

The Midis are operating teams atUnder 16/17 and S1/2 with training onWednesdays, and matches, practice orfestivals on Sundays. Like the nationalteam, they are young and enthusiasticand are learning fast. The under 16 teamhave had an exciting first half seasonwhich started with some difficulty but isnow well under control, and the boysare playing some fantastic rugby and arenow top of the 2nd division league withonly a few games to play. The Minis

STRATHENDRICKRUGBYUPDATE

Graeme Ross

It all goes a bitquieter at the clubin the winter. We

are involved in theindoor leaguethrough until March,but we only provideone mixed teamevery two weeks orso for this one. It isreally nice however, to be playingindoors at the time of year when theweather is likely to be at it's most tennisun-friendly outside. We play at thefacility at Stirling University, so it is abit of a trek, but we are used to it becauseof our location at the most westerly pointof the district.

The club activities continue asnormal at this time with adult playsessions on Monday and Thursdayevenings, and also Saturday afternoons.We play in all conditions and even adusting of snow can be swept away inorder that some sort of game is played.Maybe this is testimony to the hardyScottish sporting spirit, or maybe thetelly is just rubbish! Anyway, it shouldensure we emerge in the Spring in fineshape and with bulging forearms fromhitting soaking balls that are akin tohitting a small boulder at times.

We have submitted our grant aidforms to various funding bodies now andwe are waiting with baited breath for

TENNIS NEWS any positive replies. Our resurfacingproject depends on getting some helpeither from these bodies or from anylocal wealthy individual who has takentheir money out of Northern Rock andis wondering what to do with it now.Investing in sport is probably not toogood for the bank balance, but wouldbe great for the soul. A top notch tennisfacility here in the village could alsoform an important part of the Strathblanebid for the 2018 CommonwealthGames!!

Our coaching sessions will startagain just after the school Easterholidays. They have been gettingincreasingly popular, so make sure youthink about it early so that either you oryour children can secure a place. Phone771571.

have teams at all ages from P4 to P7with a full programme of taster sessions,practices, festivals and tournaments - allon Sundays.

Players, social members andsupporters are welcome at all levels. Forfurther information on Mini rugby,contact Iain Somerville on 550842; forMidi Rugby contact John Boyle on771027 and for further information onSeniors’ and Youth activities, contactNick Hawkins on 550576.

Jane McCallum

FOR this issue of the Blane, I asked theBrownies to tell us about their favouriteBrownie activities. Each of the 4 sixes –the Hedgehogs, Squirrels, Foxes andRabbits – have come up with their bestbits. The spelling is mainly their own!

RABBITSAt Brownies we play games like

Oli Oli Octopus, Knights and Kavileers.Other games are Time bomb. We goplaces like Mugdock and ten pinbowling. We also do arts and crafts. Wehave a lot of fun at Brownies. We alsosing songs. Izzi, Claire, Morven andAllulah-Beth

SQUIRRELSAt Brownies we play lots of fun

games like Olly Olly Octopus, Pirates,Corners, Taxi tig and Dark and stormynight.

We like all the games, these arerunning about games but now we willtell you some quite games: Chinesewhispers and time bomb. Connie,Lauren, Heather and Alice.

HEDGEHOGSAt Brownies we have been to

Mugdock park. We saw sines of springlike tadpoles. We have also been to thepantomime we saw James and the giantpeach.

One of our other favourite thingswas the litter pick up. We like thisbecause we could chat to are friends andlike picking up with litter pickes.

Our other favourite thing is ten pinbowling but first we went to McDonalds.

Niamh, Jamie, Grace, Jennniferand Rebecca.

FOXESOur favourite nights were:

1. Pancake night when we make lots ofpancakes and eat them (it is really fun);2. Pantomime - we watch one atChristmas (last year we saw James andthe giant peach); 3. Hearing dogs - alady called Evie came to speak to us andwe learned lots about hearing dogs forthe deaf and did plays about being deaf;4. Healthy eating – we got to try lots offruit and veg, cooked and raw. Some ofthe things we tried were mangos,butternut squash and peppers. We trieddragon fruit which looked nicer than ittasted and mini bananas called bananitos.Most of us hated the butternut squashand the celariake (celeriac) but we likedthe apples, mango and cumber(cucumber) the best. Anna, Abigayle,Holly, Erin and Christina.

If you can help at Brownies in anyway, or have a daughter aged 7 – 10who would like to come along, pleasecontact Claire (771816) or me(771281). We meet in the ScoutHall on Tuesdays from 7–8:15.

KNIGHTS ANDKAVILEERS

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Morag Roy

In June of this year, 8 pupils (5 girlsand 3 boys) and 2 teachers fromBalfron High School left Glasgow

and flew to Malawi to take part in aproject called “Working and LearningTogether”. Malawi is known as “TheHeart of Africa” although it is one ofthe poorest. Three weeks later, whenthis party was returning to Glasgow, anadditional 8 teachers from Balfron HighSchool, left for Malawi to take part inthe project.

These trips, organised by teacherMiss Jones (who had previously livedand taught in Malawi), took a numberof years to organise. All costs associatedwith the trip involving the pupils had tobe raised by themselves and this wasachieved through a number of fundraising activities. Some of the eventsincluded sales of home baking at theschool, car washing days, discos and asponsored climb of Ben Nevis. It alsoincluded persuading local gentlemen tohave their beards shaved in exchangefor donations to help fund thisworthwhile trip. An ambitious target of£15,000 had been set and at the end ofthe fund raising campaign the incredibletotal of £23,000 had been reached. Aremarkable achievement

The first group left Glasgow at 4p.m. on Sunday 10th and flew directlyto Nairobi where they boarded anotherplane for Lilongwe via Lusaka. AtLilongwe they were met by a teacherfrom the Malawi school and 2 mini busdrivers. It soon became clear why therewere 2 drivers as the school was in thevillage of Embangweni and still some 7hours away. The remainder of thejourney was not quite as comfortable asthe flights to Malawi, the last 2 hoursbeing along a dirt track. Added to this,the mini bus was rather old but theyfinally arrived safely at their destinationlate on Monday evening. The people ofEmbangweni were delighted to receivethem and they were made very welcome.The villagers belong to the TumbukaTribe and their natural language isChitumbuka. However as all childrenare taught English from the age of five,communication was not a problem. OneBalfron pupil, David, soon managed tospeak some Chitumbuka and the otherpupils picked up every-day phraseswhich was much appreciated by thevillagers.

The group were staying at apurpose built guest house where theymet two Medical Students fromBirmingham University who wereworking at the local hospital. The guesthouse was only 3 minutes walk fromthe school and every morning they could

hear the children singing on theirway to classes.

The school is called the

Robert Laws HighSchool and is a SeniorSchool for childrenfrom 11 years old. It isa boarding school andeach pupil must notonly pass entranceexams, but familiesmust be able to pay fortheir education. Thedormitories were invery poor condition and in somecases pupils had to sleep on thefloor due to insufficient numbersof beds. The local Primary School– Embangweni-Louden FullPrimary School - takes all childrenfrom 5 years old. This is not a feepaying school but progress to theSenior School requiresconsiderable financial support.Inevitably this means that manychildren, although clever enoughto pass the exams, cannot affordto attend the High School. The classesat the Primary School were packed withchildren of different ages all willing tolearn.

The theme of the project was“Working and Learning Together”

and the Balfron pupils were keen tobecome involved with the Malawichildren. There are 4 Grade Levels inRobert Laws School and each day thepupils from Balfron joined in the classesand activities. Despite having to sit onwooden benches, work at broken desks– or no desk at all, Robert Laws’ pupilsare extremely proud of their school andkeen to learn. This was obvious fromtheir attitude to learning and they couldbe seen studying at break-times, lunchtimes and after school. The method ofteaching is quite different from Scottishschools as the teacher stands at the frontof the class and writes everything on theboard for the pupils to copy into theirjotter. There are few text books to referto – their only schoolequipment being a pencil anda jotter.

The pupils from Balfronjoined in every activityoutwith the school wheneverpossible. This included sports,visiting local people in theirhomes, helping to cook thestaple diet which is N-sima(described as a “type ofporridge”), visiting thehospital and the Centre for thetreatment of Aids. They alsospent time at a school for thedeaf which they found

extremely moving.On the last day of the trip, the

Balfron pupils wore traditional Malawioutfits which were tailored especially forthem at the village. The staff of RobertLaws also arranged a leaving party anda special meal for the group.

The people of Embangweni weresad to see their new found friends fromScotland leave, but a bond exists whichit is hoped will continue for years tocome. All pupils have kept in touch withpen friends and plans are already underway to raise sufficient funds to pay thecosts of a visit of 6 Malawi children toScotland for 3 weeks in the near future.

The Balfron teachers found the tripa very rewarding experience, one whichthey are unlikely to forget. Despite thedifferent teaching methods, passing onknowledge to children is a very satisfyingachievement and the teachers weredelighted to have been part of thisproject.

ONE STOP CAR CARE

TRIP TO THE HEARTOF AFRICA

Top: Jenny Wilson fromBlanefield (top left)with fellow pupils andteacher. Bottom: schooldorm

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Sylvia Armstrong

As people stood in the autumnsunshine at the war memorialon November 11th in silence

and with heads bowed, the act ofremembrance was an occasion ofsolemnity and reverence, madeparticularly poignant now bythoughts of the young man from ourcommunity, Gary Wright, who gavehis life for his country just over ayear ago in Afghanistan.

A representative from theRoyal Marines was present to honourhis memory, along with thememories of those other young menwho gave their lives so long ago inthe two worldwars.

Members ofour uniformedo r g a n i s a t i o n sc o n d u c t e dthemselves withrespect anddignity, both at thewar memorial andin the churchservice whichfollowed. We havegood reason to beproud of they o u n g e rgeneration in ourvillage.

THEIR NAME LIVETH FOREVERMORE

Right: the new plaque in memory ofGary Wright, provided by theHeritage Society, at the War MemorialAbove: the plaque on the seat placedby Gary’s family near the Gowk Stane

Lorna Morris

Under the new title, Poppyscotland, formerly theEarl Haig Fund, Strathblane and District has yetagain collected an amazing amount for

Poppyscotland. Through contributions ranging fromexceptionally large amounts to a huge volume of coppers,all of them much appreciated, a total of £2,550 was raisedand sent to New Haig House in Edinburgh. This is onceagain a big rise on the previous year reflecting a reallygenerous effort for a very worthy cause.

The demands on the funds of Poppyscotland remainvery high and I am delighted that we have been able tosend such a marvellous contribution this autumn.

Fortunately most of the house to house collectorsare able and willing to collect again each year, butinevitably a few new volunteers are needed, and I wouldbe delighted to hear from anyone who could join the listfor next year. The more on the list the smaller each districtcan be, so if you think you can spare an hour nextNovember, please phone me on 770448.Helping to count the collection are Adam Rixon,

Andrew Christie and Peter Morris.

POPPYSCOTLAND COLLECTION SUCCESS

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4

On the 20th of September Pat andJim Guy had their diamondwedding celebration at

Strathblane Country House.Pat and Jim managed to organise

it that all twenty of their family weretogether for the first time to attend theevent. They came frae a’ the airtsincluding New Zealand, America,Sweden, and Pat’s brother and wife andher nephews came the slightly shorterjourney from Cheshire.

Along with these were a furthertwenty guests made up of old friendsfrom around the country, and newerlocal friends. Included was one of Pat’sbridesmaids, who served with her duringthe war, and Jim’s best man who wasalong with him during their five yearsas POWs in Germany from 1940.Accommodation was arranged at the

Country House and two chaletsat the Aberfoyle Country Club.

FIREWOODEXCHANGEAlan Campbell

If you are doing any home alterationsor cutting any trees and have leftoverwood suitable for burning then don'tforget to contact the firewoodexchange. For details look in the“Carbon Neutral” section of thecommunity website.

60 YEARS WED

3

SDAMH rural Access Service providesone to one support for peopleexperiencing mental ill health in theircommunity.

If you have feelings of isolationor stress this Service may benefit you.To access the Service you must livewithin the rural areas of Stirling Districtand be aged 18 to 65 years. For moreinformation contact 01786 451203.info@stirlingmentalhealth.org.ukwww.stirlingmentalhealth.org.uk

Jim and Pat Guy (left) and with theirfamily (above)

Not exactly a quiz questionbut we wonder how manyknow where the view is onthe front page. It neverceases to amaze us howmany residents do not knowtheir own area.

This photograph istaken from the right of waybehind Carbeth House andis of Carbeth Loch. This is

only one of many fabulous views inthat area and a walk along the WestHighland Way to Arlehaven (where isArlehaven? you say - look up the map)to see breathtaking views of BenLomond and the Arrochar Alps is amust. If you have never been there youhave really missed somethingwonderful: a wilderness on ourdoorstep providing an ideal therapyfor over indulgence during the festiveseason.

WHERE IS THEVIEW ON PAGE 1?

ANSWERS TO QUIZ

Obelix and Asterix are beside thestanding stone at Ballagan on theCampsie Road.

Chimneys - No. 1 is in DumbrockRoad; Nos.2 & 4, Old MugdockRoad; No. 3 Kirkhouse Road; No.5,Yarrow House on Glasgow Road;Nos.6 & 8, Glasgow Road; No.7,Southview Road; No.9, Village Club.

The Post House Gallery in Blanefield is raisingmoney for Breakthrough Breast Cancer this

Christmas. For a £1 donation our customers havethe chance to win a Limited Edition "Million Hugs"Steiff Teddy Bear by guessing the date of hisbirthday. The winner of the teddy bear will beannounced in time for Christmas. With 10% of salesof freshwater pearl jewellery, designed and made in

Scotland by Lauren Barclay,also being donated toBreakthrough Breast Cancer,we hope that we will be ableto raise a great sum for thisworthy cause.

BEAR-ING GIFTS

Do you know where Obelix isreading the Blane? Answer onthis page

1515151515

20% off food bill from 7th January to 7th Februaryon production of this advert.

There are still spaces available for party nights

1616161616

5

Leanne Peters

On the 25th of September, 54athletes and coaches fromScotland West flew down to

London to meet up with the rest of theGreat Britain team flying out to Shanghaito take part in the Special OlympicsWorld Games.

We all had to be up really early tocatch the 12 hour flight. When wearrived in Pudong Airport we were takento collect our accreditation and then onto our host town where we stayed forthe first 4 nights. The 211 members ofthe GB team stayed in the Huang Pudistrict of Shanghai.

The host town was a fantasticexperience. They took us to visit a localschool. We went to the park to playChinese games and fly kites. We wentto the Museum and Urban Planningexhibition which was very interesting.We got to visit Hu Gardens and also themarket stalls nearby. One day we weretaken in groups to have our lunch withlocal families in their houses. We alsowent to the Chinese Circus which wasamazing. We had a Chinese banquet withthe host town delegation – 10 courses ofvery interesting food – which we had toeat with chopsticks.

On the 2nd October wewent to the Shanghai stadium forthe opening ceremony which wasspectacular. The stadium holds80,000 people and it was full!Colin Farrell the actor was oneof the speakers. ArnoldSchwartzeneger, Jackie Chan andEva Mendes also came on stage.

The next day the equestrianteam travelled down to Jinshanwhich is about 2 hours fromShanghai. All the equestrianteams (27 countries) stayed in 2hotels in Jinshan, and we travelled45 minutes each day to theEquestrian Centre. On the Fridaywe met our horses for the firsttime. As my mum is the GB head coachshe got to see the horses first and thenwe got to try them out. My horse was anational showjumper and we got on quitewell as we both like going fast! The otherseven members of the team also got onwell with their horses. We had exracehorses and Mongolian ponies – a realmixture. My first competition was thePrix Caprilli – Dressage with jumps andI was delighted when I heard I had wona silver medal. My dressage competitionwas meant to be on the Tuesday butbecause of the typhoon it was cancelled

SPECIAL OLYMPICS WORLDGAMES IN SHANGHAI

Lynda Eastcroft

At the moment, thereis no pre-schooldancing class in

Blanefield. So far thissession, there has been verylittle demand for this class.Hopefully this will improvein the New Year. A newclass will be starting onTuesdays in theEdmonstone Hall at3.45pm. This class is opento girls (and boys!) from 21/2 years upwards. Pleasecontact Lynda on 01360770390 if you areinterested. If there isenough demand, the classwill start in mid - January.

Leanne Peters in Shanghai with her friend VickiKeenan from Aberdeen

until Wednesday. I had to ride mydressage test at 7.55am and then myEquitation test was not until 4pm so itwas a very long day. I was really proudto find out I had won another two silvermedals but a bit disappointed when Ifound out I missed gold by 1 point.

Being part of the Great Britainteam made me very proud and I met alot of new people from differentcountries. I am so glad I was chosen.Fingers crossed I get picked for Athensin four years time.

PRE-SCHOOL DANCING

Gemma Barr was in sparkling form atthe School Halloween disco

6

7

Last year’s pre-school class at the annual dancingdisplay in the Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow. The musicthey danced to was called "Chilly Cha Cha". Frontrow, left to right: Lucy Tabberer, Katie Fabel, NualaHoyle, Abby Fabel, Alice Hewson Back row:Kate Nicholson, Iris Gray, Maja Grantham, EilidhJones, Lisa Wardle, Jessica Buchanan, Katie Burr,Millie Shaw

1717171717

Ronnie Hamilton

For about 15 years I have had theprivilege of being a professional,outdoor instructor. Much of my

work has been for the Duke ofEdinburgh Award Scheme. This hasbeen a wonderful opportunity to be inthe position of makingmemories for young people,which will last for a lifetime- theirs and mine.

I started by workingat the Achnamara OutdoorCentre, Argyll, at weekendsafter becoming a JointService Mountain Leaderthrough being a commissioned officerin the Royal Naval Reserve. It was anoutdoor training centre run by GlasgowCity Council. Weekends generallyconsisted of arriving on a Friday night,meeting a group, doing some trainingand then heading off the next morningfor a 2 day venture in the Argyll hills.

The centre gave groups from innercity areas an opportunity to try outcanoeing, walking, sailing or mountainbiking in the great outdoors or just anopportunity for an essential break fromtheir domestic environment. Some of thefolk who visited the centre were fromdesperate circumstances. Some were justtrying to make it through life withoutfalling completely by the wayside.Regardless of their social backgroundthere was a resilience and determinationto ‘make it’ to the end of the weekend.It’s easy to be cynical about these councillead initiatives but having been at thedelivery end and experienced first handthe positive effect of the outdoorenvironment on visitors to Achnamara,children and adults, it’s clear that thecentre provided such a valuable lifeimproving experience for so many.

Sadly, the Council decided to closeAchnamara. I guess there was too muchpressure for financial savings fromquarters where there was no appreciationof the benefits of the outdoors. I wasthen faced with finding an alternativeway to continue this involvement indelivering outdoor education. Theanswer was to set up my own smallbusiness in Outdoor Education. TheDuke of Edinburgh award schemeprovides a framework for much of thisoutdoor experience provision. It givesactivities an orientation around challengeand reward. The greater the challenge,the greater the reward. Ultimately, acandidate can achieve a DOE Goldaward. This says a lot about a person -in some ways more than any academicqualification can. To achieve a Goldaward there is a great deal of planningand commitment required. Participantsmust, as well as the expedition,undertake a residential experience,develop a skill, provide a service to

others and improve performance in aphysical recreation. For all these sectionsminimum standards of achievement arelaid down.

The expedition section of thescheme consists of a self propelledjourney which could be walking,cycling, sailing, or equestrian. There are3 levels of award, Bronze Silver and

Gold. As the participantsprogress through the schemethe distance to travel eachday increases, as does thenumber of days. A Goldwalking expeditioncomprises four days journeywith a total of fifty miles of

travel. To make things more challengingthe Gold routes must be in an area ofdesignated Wild Country which hasrobust terrain with little in the way ofhabitation, roads or other development.These areas include the Cairngorms,Argyll and the Borders.

The groups I mostly deal with noware in their late teens and come fromwhat many would call a privilegedbackground. On passing the start line oftheir 50 mile venture they take the firststep of a significant physical challenge,but fundamentally for the Award Schemeethos, they step into an environmentwhich needs teamwork to succeed. Inreturn the young adult has theopportunity to flourish and to experience

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARDSCHEME

the relationship between challenge andreward.

The expedition environmentprovides a place where these youngwalkers must face the consequences oftheir own actions- sometimes for the firsttime in their lives. Where ‘eating’ a mealmeans ‘cooking’ a meal; whereunderstanding the needs of others canbe the difference between success andfailure; where facing up to their ownlimitations is an essential part of the day- all good stuff for the average teenager,even the privileged ones. Of course someindividuals will deal better with thephysical challenge and will have learnedtheir new skills better during the trainingphase. There is then the perfectopportunity for them to use and developtheir qualities of leadership giving themthe opportunity to experience the impactof their leadership on the group.Decision making skills, communicationskills and ability to motivate others areall important attributes. Having thisopportunity for practical leadershipexperience at this age is invaluableparticularly when the individual isambitious and likely to aspire to amanagement role in later life.

The Award Scheme offers a meansto influence the development ofindividuals using the natural wild countryenvironment to provide the perfect arenawhere all individuals are equal and thereis an absolute need for self sufficiencyand teamwork.

For more information on theaward scheme visit www.theaward.org/

Sadie Barclay

Our centenary year began inearnest on the 24th March thisyear, when all club members

were invited to a Civic Reception, hostedby Provost O’Brien at Stirling MunicipalBuildings.

I wonder what family membersand certain school teachers would haveto say about Sadie Barclay rubbingshoulders with such dignitaries andspeaking in public.

On the 6th April a social eveningwas organised in the Village Club wherepast presidents and members old and newgot together to talk over the good olddays.

The Gents’ section opened onSaturday 14th March followed on theSunday with the Ladies’ opening day.

On both days all the bowlingassociations were represented andProvost O’Brien and his good lady wifealso attended, all in all a hectic schedulebut worth every minute.

Although this represented the startof the playing season, the preparationsbegan two years ago with the formationof the Centenary Committee.

Myself and Malcolm MacLean,gents’ president, were greatly assistedby Murray O’Donnell, Frank Sosin, Stan

Govan, Janette Linning and later EileenMcCaig.

Unfortunately, illness causedMurray to miss all of the playing seasonand therefore miss out on a lot of theevents he had been involved inorganising. Jannette’s untimely passingmeant that the season went by withoutthe company of someone who hadbecome a very good friend both on andoff the green. The void left will takesome filling.

As is the norm with centenaryseasons, all our friendlies were playedat home, which meant lots of workpreparing food and keeping the green ingood order. Friendlies are the realessence of bowling clubs, wherefriendships are formed that last for years,and there is no heed paid to who winsor looses.

We were honoured by the K & DBowling Associations by being selectedto host their finals day. Unfortunately,the weather conspired against us and theevent had to be cancelled, a great pityafter the effort put in by a lot ofmembers, particularly the bar staff andmatch committee.

The playing season finished withthe usual finale of the Ladies v

PRESIDENT’S REVIEW

Continued on page 19

1818181818

Rosemary Morris

Reading the Stirling Observer inAugust, I learned that there was aproposal to build a Wind Turbine

Plant on Ballindalloch Muir, aboveBalfron in the West Stirlingshirecountryside. I accept that wind powerhas a useful contribution to maketowards renewable energy and decidedto go to n-power renewables exhibitionin the McLintock Hall. Everythinglooked very rosy. The turbines weredisplayed as barely visible, prettilypeeping over undulating hills, thewildlife could be ‘resettled’ and the noisewas negligible and ‘would only affectvery few houses’. Unfortunately, noneof this is true.

Downstairs, there was anotherexhibition run by Endrick Valley ActionGroup (EVAG) and the major problemsassociated with large windfarms werediscussed.

The turbines will be massivestructures (406 feet high) visible formiles around. They would require hugeconcrete foundations, miles of accessroad, substation and pits scarring thelandscape. It is industrialisation of thecountryside and this will affect localamenities, Balfron Golf Society,conservation, wildlife and tourism.Tourism is very important both locallyand nationally to the Scottish economy.It has been identified by Visit Scotlandthat people come to Scotland principally

for the scenery,wildlife andheritage. Theconstruction ofhuge turbines,visible for milesaround, woulds e r i o u s l yc omp rom i s ethese attractionsand much money could be lost both inthe district and nationally.

There is also the problem of noise.There are reports from England, NorthAmerica, Europe and Australia of peopleexperiencing health problems when largewind turbines have been erected neartheir homes. It is recommended thatlarge turbines should not be built nearerthan 2-3 miles from human habitation.

Ah, yes, people in Strathblane/Blanefield say, we will not see theturbines or hear the noise, but, thechildren might. Balfron High Schoolcampus will be 1.15 miles from theturbines and most children from this areaattend the secondary school. As it is a“magnet” school this could also affecthouse prices in the catchment area.

The phenomenon is known asAmplitude Modulation of Aerodynamicsound. It is not fully understood and isbeing researched by Defra. Thesymptoms reported include sleepdeprivation, anxiety, depression, stress,vertigo and tinnitus, leading todifficulties in concentration and learning

PROPOSED WIND FARMCOULD AFFECT OURCHILDREN

caused by “whooshing”, shadow flickerand strobing effect of the blades. Thenoise produced is both low frequencyand high frequency. It overlaps with thehuman auditory range and is capable oftravelling over long distances. Humancells can be damaged by exposure toexcessive amounts of sound.Unfortunately, at the moment, it cannotbe predicted which areas or directionsmight be affected.

Accordingly, I would urge thatwhen it comes to planning, “location,location, location” should be thewatchword, and large windfarms shouldbe sensitively sited. Taking all issues intoaccount, this is the wrong location. Iwould advise everyone to find out asmuch as they can about this proposal.

Further information can beobtained from the following websites:

www.ninapierpont.comwww.windturbinesnoisehealthhumanrights.comwww.evag.co.ukwww.npower-renewables.com

Maggie Ferguson

I really like ponds because they areso full of life. They are a uniquebiodiversity resource, rich in species

of plants, invertebrates and amphibians.They are however consistentlyundervalued. This may be because oftheir small size, familiarity and perceivedabundance. Unfortunately over the lasthundred years three quarters of Britain’sponds have been lost.

I haven’t searched aroundStrathblane and Blanefield for smallponds but off the top of my head I can’tthink of many. Unusually there are quitea few bigger water bodies in thesurrounding area such as Punchbowl,Deil’s Craig and Mill dams and the lochsof Dumbrock, Ardinning, Carbeth,Craigallian and Netherblane. These area great resource; last June I was luckyenough to net water scorpions, amazingdragonfly nymphs and water beetles as

big as 50 pence pieces at LochArdinning Reserve Open Day.During an amphibian torchlight

survey of Dumbrock Loch Icame across lots of palmatenewts and some lovely nativepond plants.

Often it’s the smallerponds that are home to themost amazing creatures, this issometimes simply because there are nofish in them. Fish are major predatorsin the pond and enjoy eating just abouteverything else. The pond on the top ofGallowhill close to Mugdock CountryPark Visitor Centre used to be burstingwith life with a huge variety of creatures;it was ideal for educational groupsstudying pond life, until…..sticklebacksarrived! They probably arrived there aseggs stuck to the leg of an unsuspectingmallard duck but they soon took over.Nowadays pond study groups catch theoccasional water mite and waterlouse andabout 300 sticklebacks every time theydip their net in.

Luckily Mugdock has severalother fish free ponds, the two lyingbetween Mugdock Loch and MugdockWood are particularly vibrant being

home to loads of damsel and mayflynymphs which will shed their drabbrown underwater coats and emerge asdelicate, colourful flying adults nextspring and summer.

There’s a lovely little pond at thebase of the dam on Dumbrock Loch. Ialso believe there are a few ponds inDuntreath Estate. I know of two ingardens in the village and I’m sure therewill be more, but there still aren’t nearlyenough of them.

Frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies,alderflies, mayflies, (midgies – keep thatone quiet) and damselflies can’t breedwithout ponds. Ponds provide food forbats (they eat the midgies) and birds,not just ducks, but even the black grouse

Continued on page 19

VANISHING PONDS

1919191919

It was standing room only as the EastDunbartonshire Council PlanningHearing on October 23rd got under

way to decide the fate of the so-called“Kilmardinny Wedge”. Cala Homes’application for a mixed use developmentof 550 houses, offices, sports facilitiesand a new rail halt had been passed bythe Planning Department. Now it wastime to see if the electedrepresentatives agreed with theirofficers. Most in the audienceseemed unwilling to back thePlanners’ stance, and thanks tothe high profile campaign wagedin the local paper, and the choice ofBearsden rather than Kirkintilloch forthe hearing, a partisan crowd of a fewhundred were there to voice theirdisapproval.

Both sides were given 30 minutesto present their case. The Calarepresentative gave a professional butdull defence of the proposal and tried toreassure local people that some of thedoomsday projections for traffic gridlockduring the rush hour were unfounded.Predictions of delays as long as an hourhad been reported in the Bearsden &Milngavie, but Cala’s traffic expertsanticipated only a 4-5% increase intraffic volumes. Their £3m contributionto various traffic control measures wouldease the potential congestion. Quotedexamples were a new traffic lightssystem at Cannisburn Toll and a car parkat the proposed Allander Halt.Unfortunately when questioned about thetiming of the opening of this new railwaystation, Cala suggested ScotRail were

unlikely to have the necessary extra railline in place for another 10 years. Hardlymuch use when the 550 new houses werelikely to be built within 4-5 years! Givenhow quickly the Milngavie Station carpark fills up in the morning, the proposalfor a car park of about 150 cars, a similarsize to Milngavie, was considered totallyinadequate by some commentators.

Many residents were veryconcerned over the rumour thatthe Allander sports centre wasdue to be knocked down 18months or so before its

replacement would be completed.Whilst the developers and the EDC

officers made much of the £10mcontribution the developers hadpromised towards its rebuild, there wasa distinct haziness as to whether thereplacement centre could be built inadvance, and if not, why not? Thesuspicion remains that the developerssimply wish to save money.

Even an unbiased observer had toadmit that the local community

groups’ representatives mounted a muchmore spirited and emotional attack onthe plans. There was acceptance thatsome sort of development was necessary,but the scale of the latest application wasthe key problem. EDC’s Local Plan hadoriginally set aside the site for about 300houses, but this number had now risento 550 with the difference beingexplained by the removal of the West ofScotland Rugby Club completely fromthe site. The 40 acres thus released wouldprovide the land for these extra houses.

But where would the rugby club go? Tomy mind this was one of the major flawsof the scheme. Apparently the preferredoption mentioned in the press was agreenfield site just beyond the Rangerstraining ground, which would representanother major incursion into thegreenbelt. If the Cala development waspassed, then the pressure would be onEDC to grant the ground-less rugby clubtheir planning permission as soon aspossible. In my view this applicationshould have been considered as part andparcel of the Cala application.

Two or more hours on, and withall the arguments out in the open, it wastime for the Councillors on the PlanningBoard formally to consider and then voteon the application. As politicians, theyall wanted their say, even if theircontributions added nothing new to theargument. When the chairmaneventually asked for a show of hands,the result appeared in the balance. Therewas a hushed silence amongst the patientonlookers and a loud roar as asurprisingly large majority ofCouncillors voted against theapplication.

We are for ever questioning howsuch a major development never seemsto get a hearing outside of EDC despiteconsequences for commuters in outlyingareas such as Strathblane. Why wasn’tStirling Council consulted and why werewe not asked for our views here inStrathblane? This was also ourexperience with the proposals for a newwater treatment plant in Milngavie a fewyears ago. In that instance StrathblaneCommunity Council muscled itself intothe consultation process and the PlanningHearing, and we can take some creditfor the treatment works being materiallysmaller than the original proposal.

PEOPLE POWER IN EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE?EDC’s planners recently made a decision that could have had a profoundeffect on our lives here, in Killearn and Balfron, but we were not consulted.What’s new? On 23 October, at a public hearing, common sense prevaileddue to people power. Philip Graves explains.

we are trying to encourage on DumbrockMoor feed their young on invertebratesfrom small ponds.

Garden ponds are great. Two yearsago I visited 5 ponds in gardens inMilngavie - they were all very differentfrom a tiny, shallow, pale, stoney zentype one to a raised concrete rectangularone and I found palmate newts in all ofthem. In fact this year EastDunbartonshire’s first recent record ofa smooth newt was recorded in a gardenpond.

So, if you can, it would be worthconsidering a pond in a sunny spot inyour garden. If you’re worried aboutchildren falling in, there are purposemade grids available. The children willreally appreciate the pond when they findout how many amazing creatures live init and maybe they will grow up to reallylike ponds too.

There are lots of interesting pondrelated websites, check out froglife andthe pond conservation trust for lots ofgood information.

Gents; if the truth be told this is supposedto be a friendly but the battle of the sexesbrings out the competitor in all bowlers.

A dinner dance was held in theGlazert Bank Hotel where all memberscould relax and enjoy a fitting end tothe season.

I would like to take thisopportunity to thank all the companieswho supported our club in the way ofsponsorship (believe it or not, ourbowling club appears on the website ofa large motor manufacturer normallyassociated with two rather well knownGlasgow football teams), and all thecommittee members who workedtirelessly supporting Malcolm and mein what was a huge year for our bowlingclub.

There are too many people tothank in this article but, at the end ofthe day, every member contributed inone way or another, which hopefully willstand our club in good stead.

Here’s to another 100 years.

Centenary presidents, SadieBarclay and Malcolm McLeancutting the 100th birthday cake

Continued from page 17PRESIDENT’S REVIEWContinued from page 18

2020202020

Magpie

Jackdaw

Carrion crow

DHL

Crows (corvids) have fascinatedman for centuries. They arefrequently highly visible around

human settlements, widely distributedacross the world, long-lived (up to 30+years), cosmopolitan in their diet andshow remarkable intelligence. Currentevidence suggests that the ancestralcorvid originated in south-east Asia andspread around the world with the soleexception of Australasia and isolatedPacific Islands. In our own region (thePalearctic which extendsfrom the Urals in the eastto the shores of Greenlandin the west and from the Arcticto the northern borders of theSahara in the south) we have 18separate species. Here in Scotlandthere are seven members of thegenus of which five can be seenregularly in the valley. The othertwo are the Red-billed Chough abeautiful maritime corvid which can beseen only on Islay and Colonsay, andthe Hooded Crow which replaces ourCarrion Crow in the North and West ofScotland. In the valley you can see theCarrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw andMagpie daily.

You will also be able to observethe Raven if you keep your wits aboutyou and especially if you keep your earsopen to its characteristic deep

croaking call as ittraverses the hill or visits

Loch Ardinning to prospectfor unwary food sources.Ravens are the largest

members of the Corvidfamily world wide and aresome 30-40% larger than thelocal Carrion Crows and

Rooks. They tend to live in remote hillsand moorland including the Campsieplateau. They will eat almost anything.Here in Scotland their diet is of animaland plant origin, the former either killedby a blow from their powerful bill orscavenged. Sick animals up to small deercan be taken, and rabbits and hares area favourite. Ravens are the Einstein’sof the bird world. They evolved theirmental abilities to aid survival inthe High Arctic wildernesseswhere their life depends upon theirability to scavenge prey from polarbears and wolves – a hazardousbusiness unless you have both plentyof wits and the ability to use them toyour advantage. Although usuallyrelatively solitary they mate for life andtravel around together throughout theyear. However they are not averse toflocking when the opportunity and foodsupply allows. Keep an eye out for thesemagnificent birds as they traverse thehillside looking for prey or just to havea bit of fun noising up the local buzzardsor falcons as they go about their daily

activities.I have commented before in

these columns about the smallest

of the local corvids the Jackdaws.These are the Bovver Boys of thefamily, always going about in

groups and generally causing mayhemwherever they go. Jackdaws behave likecheeky, delightful teenagers and are wellworth watching just to follow theirantics as they go about their daily life.

Some people have difficulty indistinguishing between Rooks andCarrion Crows. These birds areabout the same size (46cm long,100cm wingspan) and overallappearance although the Rook hasa much tidier and somewhatglossy appearance with a lightmark at the base of its bill. Both

are monogamous, theRook being more

gregarious especially in thebreeding season. In competition

for garden scraps CarrionCrows will often dash in andget the prize whilst Rooks

are still sitting on a branchcontemplating the pros and cons of thesituation. Give these birds some

scrutiny when you are out for a walk –their complex behaviour might give youa pleasant surprise! The moreobservant reader might have noticed thatrecently we have seen several crowslocally with regular lighter patches ontheir otherwise dark wings or body. Thiscould just be random plumage variationbut is more likely to be due to someextra-curricular liaisons with wanderingmembers of the closely related HoodedCrow tribe. Carrion and Hooded Crowshybridise frequently in the boundaryareas where they meet. This is aroundthe line which traverses Dunoon, Tarbert(Loch Lomond), Fort William, Lairg toThurso. I suspect that we have had afew Hooded visitors to the valleyrecently; indeed I saw one near theWishing Well last week. Perhaps theyhave left a few of their genes in the localCarrion Crow pool before returningwestwards home!

Magpies are also members of thecorvid family. Much maligned for theirundoubted habit of feeding on othergarden birds and their offspring, theyare actually quite beautiful birds. Thegreenish sheen to the tail and bluishsheen on the wings vary according tothe light but make them in my eyes one

of the prettiest of our localbirds. They are unmistakableand are widely distributed

throughout the worldranging fromSiberia and

Japan in the east across allEurasia and into NorthAmerica. They occur as far

south as Saudi Arabia and thenorthern Malay Peninsula. There is onlyone other similar species - the YellowBilled Magpie of California - and eventhat may just be a normal magpie thatoverdid the makeup on a trip toHollywood and then encouraged itsrelatives to follow suit!

The final member of the corvidsto be found locally is the beautiful Jaywhich is at the northern limit of its range

here in our valley. It is a stronglyarboreal species which feeds on insectsand leaf litter as well as seeds, nuts andberries. Jays prefer areas with matureoak trees and therefore are seen inMugdock Park around the Country Club

and along the pipeline as itgoes from Killearn toBlanefield. These birds arenormally quiet outside the

breeding season in our areaand, unusually for crows, arerelatively wary so do notexpect to see them easilyunless you are both lucky and

very aware of yoursurroundings. The usual view

is of a light brownish Jackdawsized bird with grey - blue markings onits wings and a light rump flying off intoa tall tree.

The crows are a greatly underappreciated tribe and well worthobserving as they go about theirbusiness. As the winter approaches theyshould be well to the fore in our localskies.

THE CROW FAMILY

Rook

Bob Flashman

NOT so long ago I endeavoured tohave the current poor quality streetlighting improved along GlasgowRoad especially in the area just southof The Blane Valley public house. Atthe time I was informed that it wouldbe several years before we qualifiedfor replacement. Stirling Counciladvised that a major programme ofreplacement is required throughoutStirlingshire for safety reasons due toa high percentage of the existinglighting columns, particularlyconcrete columns, having deterioratedto such an extent that they could be ahazard to pedestrian and vehiculartraffic. In other words the criterionfor new or improved lighting is notbased, primarily, on poor illuminationlevels but on safety levels relating tocolumns themselves. There are some35 concrete columns located in ourarea and no time scale can be obtainedfor action due to funding and otherpriorities. Currently 1600 concretecolumns have been identifiedthroughout the region as needingreplacing which at present rate willrequire a 13 to 14 year programme.

How then did the Glasgow Roadreplacement occur after only a fewmonths from the first request? Itwould seem that Scottish Poweradvised they were going to removethe overhead cable lines and woodenpoles and SC were left with noalternative but to install new poles andlights. I have also been asked why notreplace the lights on the most poorlylit section of Glasgow Road. This hadbeen part of the original replacementplan but concern was expressed thatthe footpath was not wide enough toaccommodate poles without forcingpedestrians into the road. SC is to keepthis matter under review.

LIGHT RELIEF

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Mary Brailey

The gardeningclub’s 2007/08 season set

off to a fine start atour well-attendedSeptember meeting.David Menzies, keeperof the orchid house at Glasgow’s BotanicGardens, treated us to a photographictour of his native New Zealand. Heencountered some wet and windyweather during his trip there in July lastyear, which helped us to understand whyso many plants originating in NewZealand – and probably David himself– feel at home in the West of Scotland.

The subject for the Octobermeeting was a bit closer to home but

THRIVING AUTUMN SEASON FORTHE GARDENING CLUB

just as damp – Ayrshire. Talking about‘A Year in the Vegetable Garden atGeilston’, Johanna Gough shared tipsand the names of vegetable varieties thathad done well there. Last year beetroothad been particularly popular with thevisitors who buy their produce. Therewas a lively debate at the end on therelative merits of digging or justmanuring and letting the worms do thework. Digging won!

Club meetings are always livelygatherings as well as being informative.So if you’re not already a member andare interested in gardening (even thearmchair variety) do come along if you’dlike to join, or if you’re interested in aspecific talk. The full programme forthe New Year can be found on the villagewebsite: www.strathblanefield.org.uk.

FUTURE MEETINGSGardening Club meetings are in theKirkrooms at 7.30 p.m.25 January, Sandra Halliday:‘Perennials through the Seasons’29 February, Matthew Heashan:‘Himalayan Plants in West CoastGardens’28 March, John West: ‘Making aGarden from Scratch’

George Thom

The Blane Valley Carbon NeutralGroup opened up its Octobermeeting to the public, to hear

Rachel Nunn of Stop Climate Chaos talkabout what we could do about climatechange. Several new people joined thegroup as a result, and now we areplanning how to put our enthusiasm intoaction.

Rachel’s talk, attended by about25 people from the village, looked atthe facts about climate change, how weare contributing to it, and what effects itwill have. But it wasn’t all doom andgloom. She spoke about what we coulddo to stop the problem escalating intodisaster. The situation isn’t hopeless, butwe have to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’.A helpful way of looking at it was to

think about three kinds of changes, allof which make a difference. ‘Easy’changes are quick and cheap – thingslike changing to energy-savinglightbulbs. Then there are ‘sacrificial’changes, which will vary from personto person: things like making morejourneys without the car, or buying morelocally grown food. And lastly there are‘infrastuructural’ changes, which needa lot of effort, working together withother people, support from thegovernment, and maybe campaigning forpolicy changes.

At the previous meeting we werejoined by Neil Phillips from SCHRI (theScottish Community and HouseholdRenewables Initiative), which is part ofthe Energy Savings Trust. He gave us alot of information about different waysto make our homes more energyefficient.

So we had plenty to think aboutwhen it came to our November meeting,and we had a spirited discussion. By theend of it we had decided to follow upseveral ideas: setting up a scheme toinstal solar panels for heating water inseveral houses in the village; exploringhow we could work with the school oneco issues; seeing what we could do

CARBONNEUTRAL GROUP

Rachel Nunn at the Carbon Neutral meeting inthe school

about reducing unneededpackaging and other waste; anddeveloping easy ways for peoplein the village to get their homesinsulated.

We also thought we shouldencourage everyone to make oneNew Year’s resolution to helpreduce their carbon footprint. Socome on, how about it?

The next Blane ValleyCarbon Neutral Group meetingwill be at 7.30 on Thursday 24January. For details contactGeorge Thom atgethom@tiscali.co.uk, 07711537397. New members, andideas, welcome, even if you can’t

come to meetings.

The gardening club has organiseda bus trip on Saturday 23 Februaryto see the snowdrops at Cambo inFife. This is open to non-members.Cost £8 for the bus and £4 entry.Contact Marjorie Shephard(770855) if you’d like to go.

STOP PRESS

Julie Edmonstone

WINTER SALAD

Every time I'm asked to contribute a dish to a celebration, I usually opt forthis Winter Salad. It's extremely good (even men like it), it's a little bitdifferent, it looks very appetising and it's easy to do!

Mix any or all of the following in a bowl in any quantity you like and dresswith a mixture of half mayonaisse (or Caesar salad dressing) and halfvinaigrette dressing.

Finely sliced sweetheart cabbageGrated carrotThin slices of celery (use a potato peeler to strip off any tough fibres)Finely diced red /white onionWatercress/rocket salad leavesLittle sprigs of raw cauliflowerFinely diced red-skinned appleFinely diced red pepperCourgette - sliced thinly and then halvedSprinkling of sultanas or nuts

P.S. If you can find a gadget called an ‘Alligator’ in any catalogue, itmakes a perfect and instant job of dicing.

CASTLE RECIPE

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WALK ALONG THE ANTONINEWALL FINAL PARTForrest Robertson

The wall builders had to make asharp Z turn in their work toaccommodate Mumrills Fort here

and I followed its track down what hadbeen the road to Beancross but is now atree edged country lane cul de sac.

Progress is progress but it is a pitythat our modern road systems havesmashed great swathes through ourancient and historic places. The M9 andits roundabout junction with therealigned A803 North West of Polmonthas certainly caused the labours of theRomans more than a little grief but“worse things happen at sea” they sayand the lost section is relatively minorcompared with, say, agricultural andindustrial vandalism over the centuries,and I soon picked up my route againalong the escarpment North of themotorway heading for Polmont Church.The frontier line passes through thechurchyard between the old 18th C.parish church and its successor designedin a simplified Lombardic Romanesquestyle by John Tait in the mid 1840s.

Down Smiddy Brae and a sharpright turn took me over the Millhall Burnand across a car park into Millhall Woodwhere the well defined ditch is nowcrowned by a circular water tank, andjust beyond it, on coming out of thewood after a few hundred yards, there’smy first view of the Firth of Forth -Bodetria Aest to the sandled ones. Isurreptitiously passed round the fairwaysof the Polmonthill golf course and, atthe back of the adjacent ski club house,the ditch runs parallel with an artificialski slope sitting right on top of whatwould have been the rampart. Acrossthe Avon and I’m into Lothian andclosing fast on the Firth. From now onI’m travelling on stout walking boots anda map, aka a wing and a prayer. Thereare now only the vaguest fragments ofditch to be seen over the last fewkilometres. There could well have beena fort here at Inveravon virtually on theriver’s banks but even excavations andits likelihood on the grounds of spacingbetween known forts has thrown up nodefinite proof and I strode on across thestubbled field up onto the C class roadto the remnants of the 15th C tower andclimbing, climbing past the farm andover the railway cutting to NetherKinneil and its curious roofs and aspectacular industry free view of theFirth with Bo’ness straight ahead.

A few hundred metres further on,at the T junction, the line carries straighton through a field and into the groundsof Kinneil Park straight past the roofless12th C church which hasn’t seen acongregation for over three hundredyears and into the precincts of KinneilHouse and, just to the west of the house

is the excavated remains of a milefortlet rediscovered as recently as1978. The rampart’s outlines are

marked by concrete slabs and modernwooden posts have been installed in theoriginal post holes to outline the north& south entrance gates and also some ofthe small internal buildings, while someof the finds can be seen in the KenneilHouse Museum nearby. Kenneil Houseitself is a majestic result of two distinctbuilding periods happily married ahundred years apart. The central portionwas begun by James Hamilton, 2nd Earlof Arran in 1542. Hethen started on thenorthern “palace” 11years later but it layin a ruinous state formany years and it wasnot until 1677 thatAnne, Duchess ofHamilton, beganr e b u i l d i n g ,connecting thevarious disparateparts, but the wholebuilding was virtuallygutted in the 20th Cand we can onlyadmire it from thegreen. To the right isa cluster of smallstone 18th C buildingsin one of which JamesWatt devised and improved his steamengine in 1765.

I turned my back and headed once moreeastward. On my right, behind a low

stone wall, the line of the ditch can justbe made out as a very slight dip in thegrassed play area with an even hazierridge running parallel about 50m beyondit, but I was past the gates of the Housewithin a few seconds and over theroundabout and onto Deans Road, thepresent A993. It can only be anassumption that Deans Road and itssuccessor, Grahamsdyke Road, are, infact, the military way but the name“Grahamsdyke” echoes the same one Iwalked along back at Lauriston towardsMumrills fort east of Falkirk, and its rootmeaning cannot be a coincidence.

In front of the road on the Northside of the frontier line, the ground dropssteeply to the Forth and the panoramahere takes in the Cleish Hills with theLomonds of Fife and the Ochils to thewest with Ben Ledi, one of Scotland’shighest Munros, and eastwards to thetwo bridges slung over the Forth, thenearer, the cantilevers of the rail passagewhich according to legend and maximis never done with painters, and thefurther, the elegant curve of the roadcarrying suspension. Now it’s importantnot to lose the line and I, map in hand,diverged from the main road intoGrahamsdyke Lane past the redsandstone edifice of the Grange School,still proudly inscribed on its Edwardianfrontage “Bo’ness and Carriden Board”which sits more or less right on the track,and I am virtually home because there,

set into the wall in Harbour Road about40m south of Tower Gardens, is a stoneslab which states unequivocally, “IMPCAES TITO AELIO/ HADRIANTONINO/ AVG PIO P P LEG ll/ AVGPER M P llllDCLll/ FEC” - “For theEmperor Caesar Titus Aelius HadrianusAntoninus Augustus Pius, Father of hisCountry, the Second Augustan Legioncompleted (the Wall) over a distance of4,652 paces.”

But, of all the aspects ofAntonine’s Wall, its origin, its purpose,its construction, its route, its length ofservice, the exact start point is stilluncertain. Bede in the 8th C categorically

states that it started 2 miles West ofAbercorn at a place called Peanfahel.Two hundred years later, “Cenail” iscredited with the start line. Cenail,Penguaul and Peneltun are sited asalternatives over time and, tellingly, inEnglish, Gaelic and Celtic all mean “endof the wall” but Timothy Pont, the firstman to make a systematic survey of thewall towards the end of the 16th Cignores Bede and places the starting line“betwixt Abircorn and Queensferry”.Sibbald chose Abercorn itself in 1710while Maitland in 1757 sets it muchfurther west, only half a mile fromKenneil House, and General Roybrought the military engineer’s precisionto the subject in 1755 and noted “… aslight vestige of ditch…” on the southside of The Grange, an old, now longdemolished, mansion a quarter of a milewest of Bridgeness Tower which stillstands and has indeed recently beenconverted to flats. Sir GeorgeMcDonald, the prominent Wallarchaeologist in the early part of the lastcentury was quite convinced that it setout from a rocky knoll at Bridgeness,“…a little headland, projecting into theFirth, with bays sweeping back behindit on the east and on the west.” But! in1945, aerial photographs pinpointed afort in the grounds of Carriden Houseand almost one and a half km East ofBridgeness and that, coupled with thestone of the original “distance slab” inTower Road (the one I saw is a replica,the original is in The Museum ofScotland in Edinburgh) not being the

Continued on page 23

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MOUNTAIN RESCUETEAM UPDATE

Martin McCallum

same as other stones from the wall’s basein the vicinity, tends archaeologists nowto believe that the kick off point is nowon the banks of the Forth at Carriden;so there towards it I set off.

From McDonald’s “littleheadland”, I kept to the main roadthrough the village which turns directlySouth and carried on up hill to the mockSaxon church of P.M.Chalmers andturned left into the driveway of CarridenHouse past the long brickwalled kitchengarden. The mansion itself is amarvellously rambling conglomerationof styles dating from 1602 to 1863 andis still in use as a family home. Thecurrent owners very kindly grantedpermission for me to poke about roundtheir garden to the east side of the housewhere recent excavations have provedthe fort to sit partially in their lawn andpartially in the adjacent field. It seemsto have been about 1.6ha and have hada civilian settlement beside it. Nothingnow shows on the ground but I was justhappy to be there sitting in the shade ofthe trees several days trekking 37½imperial miles, 40¾ Roman miles or60km from Old Kilpatrick.

Continued from page 22

Since the last issue of The Blane ithas proved to be a busy autumnfor Lomond Mountain Rescue

Team. The team has been involved insix callouts involving a total of thirty-one hill walkers during a ten week periodfrom September to mid November.

It all began with a party of twenty-two walkers who got into difficulties onBen Venue on 5 September. One of theparty had suffered a stroke and anotherhad sustained head injuries whilstdescending the mountain. In darknessand in difficult conditions, the Teamprovided emergency first aid to theinjured walkers and assisted the RoyalNavy Rescue Helicopter from HMSGannet to evacuate the most seriouslyinjured walker who was flown directlyto The Southern General in Glasgow.Lomond MRT, with the assistance ofKillin MRT, then escorted the remainingwalkers from the hill.

Later that month, on 15September, the team was asked to assistin the search for two Canadian walkerswho had not returned from their walk

on the West Highland Way nearRowardennan. They werelocated soon after the team wasmobilised.

On October 13th camewhat must be the team’s quickestrescue of recent times. A ladywalker had fallen injuring her legwhile returning from theWhangie and the Team wascalled to assist The ScottishAmbulance Service. Teammembers were on scene within20 mins. of the call out and thelady was safely evacuated to the

Queen’s View car park. The entirerescue was completed within 45 mins.

Four days later, on 17 October, acall came to assist with a walker whohad fallen on Dumgoyne. Again the teamresponded and the walker was recoveredto the waiting ambulance.

A week later, on 24 October, theteam was requested to carry out a searchfor an elderly couple who appeared tobe in difficulty on Ben Lomond. TheTeam was placed on standby and thenattended at Rowardennan to commencea search. The missing walkers turned upsafely.

Finally on Armistice Day the teamwas called to search for three missingwalkers on Ben Lomond. The one maleand two females had contacted CentralScotland Police to say they had becomelost when darkness set in. Given theinformation available to the team asearch was carried out on the Easternslopes of the Ben and the missing partywas located. Although cold, they weresafe and well.

All in all a very busy period.For more information visit our

web site at www.lomondmrt.org.uk

Bob Flashman

The Planning Department consultedRoads and Transport Developmenton 4 applications (3 new houses

in Moor Road and 1 at Old MugdockRoad). The Service initiallyrecommended against grantingconsent to the 3 developments inMoor Road and at a subsequentPlanning Panel reported that themain issue arising from the 4applications was the potential effect uponroad safety. It was identified that theseapplications will result in trafficgeneration onto Old Mugdock Road. Ata further Planning Panel meeting it wasagreed to continue the applications toallow the Council’s Roads and Transportsection to conclude its assessment of OldMugdock Road.

A well attended public held at thePrimary School on 25th Septembermeeting was arranged by StrathblaneCommunity Council in order to obtainlocal opinion. Stirling Council wasrepresented by Mick Stewart Head ofPlanning and Chris Bell Team Leader,Transport Planning. The issue wasfurther discussed at the October meetingof the SCC following which a letter wassent to Stirling Council summarisingpublic opinion. A copy of the letter canbe seen in the library.

Broadly speaking Roads haveidentified improvements required to OldMugdock Road but in terms of prioritywithin council budget it is unlikely thatwork would be carried out within thenext 15 years. In order to overcome thisobjection the developers have offered tomake a financial contribution towardsthe cost of improvements estimated at atotal of £85,000.

However, widespread concern wasexpressed that the plan proposed byTransport Planning was hastily prepared,was designed to a price that would beacceptable to the developers’

contribution but would not meet themajority of local users needs. This inthe main was that while upgrade wasrequired to road surface, sharp andundefined edges, passing places and lack

of proper footpath, the attractiverural aspect of the road shouldbe left unaltered. It was acceptedthat this could mean StirlingCouncil maintaining its policy of

no further developments thatadversely affected Old Mugdock

Road.Included in the community council

response was a request that time be givento Traffic Planning to allow a productionof a detailed scheme not inhibited byfinancial constraint and which reflect theview of the majority.

Survey cameras have been seen ata number of locations on OMRand it has been confirmed that thisis in relation to the above.

TIME TO STOP DEVELOPMENT

ANTONINE WALL

A car has to drive on to the verge topass horses on the Old Mugdock Road

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Robert S. Davy

The 1960 BMW Isetta bubble carin the Glasgow Museum ofTransport was in many ways

ahead of its time. With petrol now over£1.00 a litre, we may all wish we hadone in the near future.

The Isetta was one of the mostsuccessful microcars produced in thepost WWII years – a time when cheapshort distance transportation was mostneeded. Because of its egg shape andbubble-like windows, it became knownas a bubble car – a name later given toother similar vehicles. Other countrieshad other nicknames:- in Germany it was‘das rollende Ei’ (the rolling egg) or the‘Sargwagen’ (literally- “coffin onwheels”; the name apparently came fromthe small or non-existent distancebetween the passengers and oncomingtraffic!). In France it was the ‘yogurtpot’, in Brazil the ‘bola de futebol defeneme’ (soccer ball of a truck) and inChile it is still called the ‘huevito’ (littleegg).

The car’s origins were with theItalian firm of Iso SpA who, in the early1950s, were building refrigerators,motor scooters and small three-wheeledtrucks. It is said that the stylists hadarrived at the design of the Isetta bytaking two scooters, placing them closetogether, adding a refrigerator andshaping the result ‘like a teardrop in thewind’!

The entire front end of the carhinged outwards to allow entry and inthe event of a crash, the driver andpassenger were expected to exit throughthe canvas sunroof. The steering wheeland instrument panel swung out with thesingle door, as this made access to thesingle bench seat simpler. The seatprovided reasonable comfort for twooccupants and perhaps a small child.Behind the seat was a large parcel shelfwith a spare wheel located below. Aheater was optional and ventilation wasprovided by opening the fabric sunroof.It is questionable whether today’s obesepopulation could actually fit in a bubblecar!

BMW began talking with Iso inmid-1954 and bought not just a licensebut the complete Isetta body tooling aswell. In 1957, Isetta of Great Britainbegan producing Isetta 300 models attheir factory in the former Brightonrailway works under license from BMW.The factory had no access road, withcomponents being delivered by rail andfinished cars being shipped out the sameway.

The Isetta took over 30 seconds toreach 30mph from rest and top speedwas only about 45mph. The fuel tank

only held 13 litres (3.5 gallons)but would get somewherebetween 50 to 80 miles per gallon

depending on how it was driven. Aspetrol had recently reached theoutrageous figure of 7/- (35p) per gallon,not many long distance journeys weremade. It was perfect for the UK’s urbanand rural roads as the first motorway,the M1, did not open until 1959 andmore conventional cars such as theMorris Minor could barely top 60mph.Right-hand drive meant that the driverand the engine were on the same side,so a 60lb (27kg) counterweight wasadded to the left side to compensate.

The car was not popular in the UKuntil a three-wheeled version wasintroduced, costing £339 19s 6d, andalthough these were more prone torolling over, there was a further financialadvantage. If the reverse gear was notinstalled, they could evade automobile

TALES FROM THE TRANSPORTMUSEUM – THE BUBBLE CAR

legislation and taxation by being classedas three-wheeled motorcycles and couldbe driven with a motorcycle license androad tax of £5.00. The lack of a reversegear was not a problem in parking asthe rear end could be lifted off the groundwhich was also useful for changingwheels!

In 1962, the same year that tramsleft the streets of Glasgow, Isetta of GreatBritain stopped production of the littlecars but continued to produce Isettaengines until 1964. Altogether theyproduced about 30,000 cars althoughonly 1750 three-wheelers were built. Itserved its purpose and was the mostsuccessful bubble car of them all, butwith the arrival of the revolutionary miniin 1959, its days were numbered.Nevertheless, with 136,000 soldworldwide, it had done enough to setBMW on the road to its present success.These days one in good condition couldcost around £4,000.

On the lighter side, a visitor to theMuseum from Yorkshire told me he hadowned a red bubble car and on visitinga circus, had parked outside the ‘big top’.In these days, elephants performed inthe circus ring using a heavy duty,brightly coloured circular stand. As theelephants left the tent, one of themnoticed the bubble car which bore aremarkable resemblance to its stand anddecided to perform an encore. It made abee-line for the car and sat on it, therebyreducing it to no more than a ‘saucercar’. No record remains of what thevisitor entered on his insurance claim!

HERITAGE MEETINGS are monthlyon a Wednesday and we welcome anyone to come along to the Village Clubfor 7.30. Local press and posters showthe topic and the date of the meetings.On 23 of January we will welcomeneighbours, Killearn History Group,who will speak about their village.

DVDs of village life in 1957 andHeritage Tea towels are on sale in thelibrary at £5 and £3.50 respectively.

They would make a very niceChristmas present. The DVDs give afascinating glimpse of everyday life andyou might even recognise a few faces,looking a bit younger of course.

Murray O’Donnell

Does any one remember someonecalled Maureen who lived in

Lunchikin Cottage? She sent apostcard to a Mr J Molloy inPortsmouth who has since died and theexecutor of his estate has a fewpersonal possessions that he would liketo pass on. If you have any informationabout either Maureen or Mr Molloy,please contact me on 770748.

MISSING PERSON

HERITAGE

Alison Dryden

The first schoolboard in

Strathblane waselected in March 1873.

It would appear that, prior tothat time, schoolmasters were not heldin high regard and received a verypoor salary. To supplement theirmeagre wages, Guthrie Smith recordsthat, in common with other parishesin Scotland, the schoolmaster wouldarrange cockfights. Every boy whocould, brought a cock to school, andon payment of 2 pennies to themaster, the cocks were pittedtogether. The cocks that would notfight - “fuggies” - were tied to a postand killed one after another in a brutalgame of cock throwing at a halfpennya go.

The master got the halfpenniesand the dead birds, and, as anencouragement and reward to thescholars, would give them cold punchor other spirituous liquor.

Scholars were also encouragedto bring gifts on certain fast days andduring the cold season they had tobring a peat each day to keep theschool fire burning.

THINGS AIN’T WOTTHEY USED TO BE

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PARENT COUNCILAnne Spencer

On Friday 28th

September we heldour first MacmillanCoffee morning atStrathblane Primary.

The day was enjoyed by visitors and thechildren alike.

The whole school was involved inpreparations beforehand. Our Primary7s designed tickets and posters toadvertise the event and helped serve andwash up on the day. Primary 6 turnedtheir hand, very successfully, to makingflower arrangements for the tables andstill had enough energy left to blow upballoons! Primaries 3, 4 and 5 all helped

by producing some mouth wateringbaking. Many parents helped by bakingfor us, in fact people were so generouswe were able to have a baking stall whichof course went down a treat and helpedraise more money. Our parents alsocame in and helped us during themorning.

As a reward for all their hard workthe children enjoyed juice and a cake inthe afternoon. We managed to raise thegrand total of £484.80. Thank you somuch to everybody who came along tosupport this event. It was wonderful tosee so many people chatting and enjoyingcoffee and cake in the hall.

We are looking forward to nextyear’s coffee morning!

Cathie Moir

Some of you will already know thatthe Primary School has a new Parent

Council. This was created as part ofthe Scottish Schools (ParentalInvolvement) Act, 2006, and is designedto replace both the School Board andthe Parent Teacher Association with asingle body for each school.

The parent members of theCouncil are Andy Thompson (Chair),Gun Orgun (Treasurer), Fergus Mitchell(Communications Officer), Cathie Moir,Charlie Haggerty, Debbie Bolton andBerndt Schwann. The teacher membersare Jennifer Cunningham, Anne Spencerand Morven Bulloch .

The Parent Council will carry onthe work of the Board, such asprogressing the multi-use games area andother issues, but will also encompass thevital fundraising work of the formerPTA.

Any member of the Council canbe contacted via our dedicated emailaddress at:strathparentcouncil@googlemail.com,and the next ordinary meeting will beon 21 January, 2008 in the school.

MACMILLAN COFFEE MORNING

HALLOWEEN IN SPS- AAAAAGH!!!

MAD HAIR &PYJAMASVal MacCorquodale

On Friday 16th November, pupils atStrathblane Primary enjoyed a “Mad

Hair & Pyjamas” day full of fun andgames to raise funds for Children inNeed. Teachers and pupils arrived atschool sporting gelled and dyed hairdos,their favourite pyjamas, and some evenhad dressing gowns and slippers. Eachpupil, from the morning nursery classto P7, donated £1 in order to take partin a fun fitness session with Kirsty, fromActive Stirling, and myself. Favouritegames included “newspaper swop”(lovely and noisy!), “tiger’s tail”,“chinese dragons”, and of course theirresistible “space hoppers” and “earthball”. Much fun was had by all!

CHRISTMAS is coming, and with theincreased use of SOSC this term weare consideringopening atChristmas time.Potential users ofthis facilityshould let SOSCknow as soon asthey can.

We welcomenew Playworkers: Laura, Joss,Declan and Rhona who have beenadding a great mix of enthusiasm andexperience to our staffing this term.

Congratulations go to two ofour staff, Gillian and Frances who arecompleting their SVQ level 3 inPlaywork about now.

Finally, if you’re shopping forChristmas presents online, why notsee if you can buy through theeasyfundraising scheme; it costs youno more but a donation is made toSOSC with every purchase. Detailsare under ‘fundraising’ on our web-site, SOSC.org.uk

OUT OF SCHOOLCARE

But the fun didn’t stop there.Throughout the day younger pupils wereinvited to take part in a variety ofcompetitions, word searches, crosswordsetc. designed by the talented P7s whoalso visited each class making sure thateveryone knew why we were holdingthis very special day.

The day’s activities raised afantastic £190! Well done to everyoneat Strathblane Primary for takingpart and thank you for your kinddonations.

Left to right: Hazel Kelly, Eilidh Peddie, shypumpkin, Ruth Ferguson, Rhianna Howell, LaurenDempsey, Abigail Pugh and Lucy Clarke at theHallowe’en disco

Val McCorquodale

After many years of Halloweenhilarity in our household this was

the first I really struggled to get into thespirit of the occasion. Truth be told, Ifound myself wanting to lock doors,close curtains and wish thewhole thing over! This ofcourse meant a major guilt tripfor Mother!

The house was notdecorated for the occasion.No bright orange pumpkins,scary masks or creepycobwebs hung from walls,corners or windows. Anuninspiring lonely pumpkincarved out 10 minutes beforegoing out guising satflickering in the fireplace. Notime to conjure up a clever“home-made” costume foreither of my young sons, myyoungest reduced to wearingwhatever was in the dressing-up box and to my shame,completely buying into thewhole commercial thing, Iordered a white satin cat suit with standy-up collar and frighteningly low cleavagefor my Elvis-obsessed eight year old.

However, after picking up my twovery excited boys from the childminderand putting tea on the table, I showeredand resigned myself to a late shift at theschool Halloween disco. As I looked outof the window across the dimly litplayground, I could see the figures of afew young children excitedly makingtheir way towards the main doors. Icould hear happy voices and sense theirexcitement and it was then that I feltmyself give into the whole Halloweenthing all over again.

Kids do that to you – they takeyou into their “happy zone” and despiteyourself you have a good time!

The school disco was a success.Lots of our pupils and parent helpersturned out on the night. School fundswere boosted but most importantly all

who were there had great fun. PersonallyI really enjoyed being part of that happyoccasion and was glad I hadn’t simply“endured” it.

Yet again, I was reminded of justhow much joy young children bring intoour lives and of how infectious theirexcitement and enthusiasm foreverything really is. Sometimes a verybusy life and adolescent children canmake us lose sight of that.

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Lynne James

LIBRARYC

OR

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IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU

In this article we just want to thankyou all for your great support of thethings we do in Strathblane Library.

In the last issue of the Blane wegave advance notice of our Big Issue Dayand asked you to come along andcelebrate your local library. Well, youcame up trumps! On the day, 340 peoplecrossed our threshhold and many of youwere kind enough to bring us fantastichome baking as well. What stars you all

were! The day was a joy from start tofinish and showed just how vibrant acommunity library can be. We hadclasses of school kids in, we had villagerschatting over coffee, and we even hadOUR BOSS from Stirling in (so thanksfor making us look good for him aswell!!!).

Our joint events with Balfron andDrymen during our Book Festival werea great success. Those of you who didn'tmake it to Simon Brett's one man showmissed an absolute tour de force! Forthe pre school children we had a “MollyMuddle” show which took us all backto our childhood days as we sang alongto various nursery rhymes.

Just a couple of weeks ago we had thegreat pleasure of co-hosting, with the

primary school, a visit by MhairiHedderwick, author and illustrator of the"Katie Morag" books. She was anabsolute delight to be with and thechildren were enthralled by her stories.As I said at the time, sometimes my jobis so much fun it CANT be like REALwork!

Our Book Club, held on the third

Tuesday of the month, is also an eveningI look forward to immensely. So far thisyear the discussions have been reallylively and tremendously well informed.In December we will torture all memberswith the Christmas quiz, but we will helpthe evening go well with mulled wineand Christmas treats so no-one shouldcomplain too much!

We continue to weed out our oldstock of books and DVDs quiteruthlessly and it is always worth poppingin to see if you can pick up any bargains.We sell off fiction from 20 pence, nonfiction from 40 pence and children'spaperbacks are all 10 pence. DVDs areindividually priced, but are real bargainsat less than £4.

Back, though, to the original purposeof this article. Let me just say on

behalf of Jean, Isobel and myself thatour enjoyment of our jobs, which Isincerely hope we manage to convey toall of you, is a direct result of yourcontinued and valued support of us andour service. Our job really is "ALLabout you" so, thank you for making itwhat it is.

Britain is a nation of dog lovers withover seven million people owningone and they provide a great

remedy for getting out and enjoying thefresh air. But some owners in Callanderare failing to take theirresponsibility of dog ownershipseriously.

Callander PrimarySchool’s Eco group and thepupils’ council contacted theStirling Council’s Streetscapeoffice with grave concernsabout the dog mess, on andnear the paths around theschool. Streetscape officersvisited the path close to theschool to investigate furtherand encountered a landscapecovered with dog faeces.

To highlight the problemStreetscape organised a surveyplacing a flag at each instanceof dog fouling documentingthis irresponsible behaviour withphotographs. Streetscape officer JimFisher said: “I was disgusted at the stateof the area caused by dog owners whoare either too lazy or irresponsible toclean up after their own pets and placingothers at risk. Dog faeces can containtoxacara canis which is a major healthhazard especially on a path so close to aroute used by primary and secondaryschoolchildren.

“Stirling Council is in the processof erecting two dog bins which itwill regularly service, StreetscapeOfficers and the Animal Control

DOG OWNERSWARNED TO CLEANUP THEIR MESS

Officers will also be patrolling the areaand issue £40 fines to owners who donot clean up after their dogs.”

Previous studies in Scotlandconcerning waste and litter haveconsistently placed dog fouling near thetop of the publics most despised culprits.

Dog mess can contain a numberof things, which can make people ill -best known of which is infection withtoxacara canis, which is a roundworm.

If the eggs of this worm are swallowedthis can result in a range of symptomsfrom aches and pains to bronchialconditions. In rare cases, eyesight canbe damaged.

Dog owners can reduce risk toothers by worming their dog regularly,and adopting a good hygiene practiceof always clearing up after their dog.They are also reminded to use dog wastebins and if there are no bins around,take the dog mess home and dispose ofit. If that is not possible, then as a lastresort wrap the dog mess in a plasticbag and dispose of it in a litter bin.

Flags mark the poos in Callander

SEE THE WARD MAP IN THE LIBRARY

BLANEFIELD WARDDavid Anderson 770669Willie Oswald 770497Margaret Vass 770131Fiona Murray 771497

STRATHBLANE WARDElspeth Posnett 770113Alastair Smith 770120Marjorie Peddie 770074Finlay Fountain 770488

MUGDOCK WARDPhilip Graves 0141 956 1954Bob Flashman 770979John Gray 771031

COMMUNITY COUNCILLORS

Going through or suffering from theeffects of a broken relationship?

Feeling overwhelmed, lonely,depressed, hurt, lacking confidenceand self-esteem, bitter and angry?

Wanting to help a friend or relationgoing through a difficult time?

We provide a range of servicesincluding: telephone support, supportgroup, signposting to websites, social

events, useful reading andsupport to helpers

For more information contact:01877 339966 or 07790 437713Email: info@hearttoheart.org.uk

Heart †o Heart

2727272727

J & K MuirPlumbing &

Heating Services

770261

44 Glasgow Rd Blanefield

Blane ValleyInn

770303

Open all day Every day

Meals always available

R Dickson

Private HireANYWHERE

AT ANY TIMECompetitive Rates

770040Mobile 078 01 372 735

Brown’sButcher, General Store

& Post Office

Opening HoursMon-Fri 9.00 to 6.00

Sat 9.00 to 1.00Closed lunchtime 12.45 to 2.15770255 (Shop)

770291 (PO)

StrathblanePharmacy

770731

Prescriptions, Toiletries

• •

• •

•

•

• •

FUNCTIONS PARTIES WEDDINGS CELEBRATIONS

NIGHTS OUT AIRPORT, BUS & RAILWAY TRANSFERS

TOURS APPOINTMENTS...

771321

www.visit-lochlomond.com Accommodation around the loch

Sports and Leisure, ShoppingWedding / Celebrations etc.

“What’s On” listing, monthly Newsletter

Suggestions and ideas welcome

Willie BellInfo@visit-lochlomond.com

Blanefield

Cars

Cars & 8 seater mini busavailable for all your travel

requirements

D & M Frood

4 Craigfern DriveBlanefield

770646

DAWSON ELECTRICALAll Domestic and

Commercial Installations carried out

Phone Graham

770999

STRATHBLANE COUNTRY HOUSE

FOR RESERVATIONS 01360 770491

Fax 01360 770345

Fresh meat & home made piesGroceries, frozen foods,

fresh fruit & vegEnvelopes, greetings cards

newspapers, magazines

Groceries, chilled & frozen foodCrisps and confectionary, Off-licence

Magazines & newspapersNational Lottery,

Major Mobile phone top-up cardsLINK Network ATM cash machine

770123

Open 7 days 7.30am -10pm

Premier StoreWilliam Wallace& Sons

General BuildingContractors

770266

Derek Edward

Hairdresser &Stylist

770634

Southview Road

770002Stockiemuir Rd

For Men & WomenCutting, colouring

Perming

71A GLASGOW ROAD

771070

LYNDA TURNER ASDTA

SCHOOL of DANCINGAdult Line Dancing

Thursdays 8pm till 9.30pm

Edmonstone Hall 770390

ArthouseLimited Edition PrintsStrathblane/Blanefield

and the surrounding areaby

Andrew McNeish

22a Kirkhouse Road

C T M DESIGN LtdChartered ArchitectsPlanning SupervisorsDirector C T McNair

14 Craigenlay Ave Blanefield

Glasgow G63 9DR

RIBA ARIAS MaPS

& fax: Mobile: 07798 875 345

770666

c.mcnair@ctm-design.freeserve.co.uk

Milndavie FarmRiding Centre

Lessons. Special coursesfor children - take care of

a pony for a weekAdults - ride across openmoorland, discover local

bridleways

770658

Fun for all!

771134

Office supportservices both off-siteor on-site for large or

small businesses770149

/Fax 770983 11, Milngavie Rd., Strathblane

All roof repairs, slating, tiling, guttering, leadwork,

roughcasting, storm damage, Professional Tradesman

Tel: 770708Mob: 0796 883 1313

G S (ROOFING)Strathblane

771313

Mister HandymanSmall jobs & home repairs

Call Charlie Ward for information

www.mister-handyman.co.uk

771110Delicatessen

Finest foods from

around the world

ROBERTSONSArchitectural Consultants• Extension? • Dormer? • Internal Alterations?

rac_ltd@btinternet.comwww.robertsons-architects.co.uk

01360 771280

770166Mob: 07745046483

D M JoineryHome extensionsTimber decking & fencingAttic conversionsAll property maintenance

771543

771544

kfbrickwork@btinternet.com

Wide Range of Building Services Free Estimates*

01360 770836Mobile: 07915346447

Lorne HowellJoiner & Builder

Attic conversionsHome extensions

Fitted kitchensBathrooms

All property maintenance

EAB ServicesLocal tree and hedgerow maintenance

Hardwood logs

Mob: 07717872838

The QuinlochAccommodation for relatives, friends, Wedding guests?

770225

Helen LoudonFarm-House B & B

Chartered Physiotherapist

Home Fitness & Rehab

David McLean M.Phil, BA

Expert help from

770919

We wish to reflect the views and opinionsof the whole community withoutincluding anything that would offendanyone. We would emphasise that theviews expressed in the Blane are notnecessarily those of the editor and heretains the right to have the final say onany articles included.

Doctors Surgeries

Strathblane 770340Killearn 550339(prescription line) 550095

Police 770224Crimestoppers 0800 555111

Post Office 770291Pharmacy 770731Primary School 770608

Royal Bank 770610Library 770737

BLANE TEAM

Morag Roy 770863roymorag6@yahoo.co.uk

Murray O’Donnell 70748murray.odonnell@virgin.net

Alastair Smith 770120smith@blanefield.freeserve.co.uk

Bill Woodger 770940billwoodger@email.com

Mary Brailey 771613mary@brailey2.freeserve.co.uk

Patsy Fischbacher 770716patsy.fischbacher@virgin.net

SOME USEFULNUMBERS

2828282828

8

Gary Nimmo, Stirling Council

As part of the current service development plan, theMugdock Country Park’s Joint ManagementCommittee is now proud to announce the opening of

the park’s new art and craft centre on December 1, 2007.It is being franchised to the Mugdock Makkers who

are a highly talented group of peoplewith various and wide-ranging skillsin arts and crafts. There will be overthirty of them under one roof, and adelightful diversity on offer, coupledwith Mugdock Park’s awesomesplendour and setting which makesthe park a great attraction to visitorsand businesses alike. The gallerywill be open every day starting at12 noon and closing at 5pm.

There will be work from someof Scotland’s finest artists and craftspeople on display at the gallery. In addition to being openevery day of the week for general sales, there is an addedattraction for country park visitors on Saturdays and Sundayswhen different members of the Makkers will be showinghow they create their art. The activities will be from 2pmuntil 4.30pm on these days. Visitors will also have theopportunity to meet the artists, ask them about their workand even have a go themselves.

On show will be a selection of superb paintings fromthe likes of Gillian Kingslake, Peter Pollock and Ian Shanlin.Also there will be fabulous jewellery made by Mhairi Simand Jean Murphy; beautiful hand painted porcelain by AlisonBorthwick, fused glasswork by Julie Chapman and EilidhMackenzie, ceramics by Eleanor Caie and Stuart Grant,plus mosaics, basketry and much more.

Wendy hasbeen busy

this year findingall sorts of greatgift ideas for allages. Havingyoung teenagekids herself, thisis an area thatshe is especiallyaware can bedifficult, soexpect to findplenty of fun items for this age groupalong with the fab baby andchildren’s presents, and imaginativeand thoughtful presents for all theother loved ones in your life.

Alternatively, if you just want tospoil yourself, the ranges of bags,jewellery, fashion accessories andbody products have all gone down astorm this year, so we are confident

4b Balfron Road

you will find something that youlike. We are also running a 'WishList' this Xmas to make it easier forwifes (& husbands) to make surethat they get the things that theyreally want.

Call in at the shop and we'lltell you how it works. Rememberthat parking is right at the door andwe are open 7 days.

Killearn 550666

MUGDOCK MAKKERS

Annette Brown at her spinningwheel at Mugdock Country Park

Several people have pointed out tous that the green woodpecker on theback page of the last issue was, infact, a greater spotted woodpecker.Our resident bird man, DHL, alsopointed out that the sparrow hawkis unlikely to attack a crow. Theeditor apologises for that error as thephotographer had originally statedthat it was a blackbird that was theunfortunate victim.

CORRECTIONS TOITEMS IN LAST ISSUE

9

Winter sky at sunrise above Blanefield, taken byRichard Callender

Old Mill Gift & Accessory Shop

Bowl by Julie Chapman