General info
AGM: Theme is Climate Change and the Don – Our AGM is on 11th November at 7.30 in Friendship Room, there will be a short AGM, followed by a look at the flood alleviation suggestions from Binnies and then showing of a program on the river Don. We look forward to seeing you there, please make a note of the date.
Community Garden
Activity day: Saturday 11th October 10 to around 2 with the weather looking good at the moment. We’ve got a bit of tidying up to do from the summer growth, removal of any saplings and also put in place the foundation for the IBCs. The foundation materials are being funded by a grant from the Kemnay Bargain Box. Please come and give as much time you can spare, bring gloves and tea and a piece for the break.
New Fence: Sue has been busy over the last month putting in a bid for Participating Budgeting money to get a new fence to replace the rickety one around the site and we will need your help to get the votes of everyone you know in Aberdeenshire. This will be at the beginning of November, we will enclose a link in the next Bulletin so you can look at all the different projects and hopefully one of your five votes will be for the replacement fence. Aberdeenshire Council have offered to take the wood to be recycled into kindling at Pitscurry rather than it go straight to the biomass plant – this enabled Sue to reduce the bid by £800.
Energy group
Fit is Retrofit: There is a community meeting to be held on October 14th in the Village Hall in the Friendship Room. This will be open to the household that have volunteered to be part of the study and any other interesting party, Matt Chubb will explain the steps that are taken to retrofit our homes to improve your homes energy efficiency. At the point of writing this we are still waiting for the outcome of the funding bid to provide full surveys on 15 homes. We have granite and wooden homes on the list but just one of the other 1930s -1990s homes represented so far.
Path Group
Climate Week North East: To mark this week our path group organised an event at the Place of Origin, it was to take the form of three parts, a work party, and a treasure hunt and also a guided tour but unfortunately due to the high winds it had to be cancelled. Work was carried out informally, by nine people who were doing it at their own risk and we managed to clear an area by the car park with standing stones. This involved removing the saplings, cutting down wild roses and the willow herb and removal of dead trees and now the standing stones have reappeared out of the undergrowth. The work is being done to encourage safe access for humans to appreciate the “landscape as art” site, the deer, birds and insects and amphibians are more interested in the wild bits surrounding the paths.
Naming the Place of Origin paths: To help us manage the site we would like to name the places and paths in The Place of Origin, if you would lie to contribute to this idea please contact me at lamplugh@btinternet.com or comment on the Friends of the Place of Origin Facebook page.
Tools store: The Paths group would like to establish a tools store at the Place of Origin, to help with the logistics of maintenance and save us borrowing each time. The first stage is looking for a site with good access to Place of Origin and we will then be looking for funds for shed and tools.