Burnett Arms Closed: Sadly, the Burnett Arms is now closed; this where a lot of the Greener Kemnay meetings have been taking place. We will need to find a new place to meet, especially for the Greener Kemnay Trustees meeting as we like to have this meeting open to the public.

Trustees: We are still looking for trustees to join the Greener Kemnay management team, we meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm   If you know of anyone who could give up around 1 ½ hour of their time, to help us make decision on Green issue for village, please suggest they come to the meetings or call Richard on 07967439109.

Paths Group

The Place of Origin work party 26^th April at 10.00: We would like to continue the good work we started last year with another work party, this time we want to finish off the stone circle and some path work around the site. Please bring; gloves, work boots and something for a break. We will provide some tools, if you have small saws, loppers or any tool you think would help us to do the job that would be helpful.

I hope you agree that the last work parties have made a great difference to the Place of Origin, we need to continue with this.  The number of folk seen at the top has certainly increased.

Sunday 26^th April 10a.m. to 12.30 

Meet at the Fyfe Park carpark

Enquiries to  07967439109

Energy Group

Taking stock: After their successful heat loss project feeding back results in a well attended meeting at the village hall, the Energy group are taking stock over the next few months and examining the way forward. 

Community Garden

Polytunnel: The new polytunnel arrived this month. We must thank the Monymusk Boule competition for helping us with funds toward its purchase and we bought an 8 x 10 feet tunnel. The trenches are dug, we hope to put the tunnel up next Activity Day (see below), this will require all hands-on deck and we hope to see you there.

Camera Traps: We have purchased a camera (with the help of the John Adams Trust) for the garden. This will be put in the woods, along with a camera trap we have been loaned, and we look forward to seeing what wildlife is in the woods.

Activity Day:   11^th April from 10 am to around 2pm, please come along for as little or long as you like. These are the jobs we hope to complete:

· Putting up the polytunnel

· Pruning of dogwood, hydrangeas, buddleia etc

· Dead heading

· Emptying of compost bins

· Move the water butts closer to the Polytunnels

Event: Sharing our Experiences: This is on Thursday 2nd May at 7.30pm in the Friendship Room at Kemnay Village Hall. Come a long and talk to people who; have had really life experience of retro-fitting their homes to make them more energy efficient, how to get your home assessed for its energy loses, find out what is involved in the assessment and then explore the next steps. This is your chance to hear of some of the gains and pitfalls.

Community Garden

May Event: We would like to welcome you all on 11th May to the Kemnay Community Gardens for our annual open event on the theme of birds, from 10 to 2pm.

We have invited the; Wildlife Explorers, Bee Group and the Worm Man (Scot Baxter), Heidi Neal from Owls (Outdoor Woodland Learning) will be showing off her activities and you will also learn how things fly, make your own fatballs. Along with all this you can have a go on Kemnay’s Trishaw and Ukulele group will be entertaining us over the period,

Come and try your hand in playing Boules on our Boules piste with Derek on hand to give you expert advice from 10 until 1 and then you can watch the Kemnay teams warming up for the Monymusk Boules competition later on in the month.

BBQ will be lit and available for use, if you like to take advantage of this please Bring Your Own Lunch. There will also be hot and cold drinks and soup.

If you have time on the day, please come and help us with the running of this event we would love to hear from you. Please contact Richard 07967439109.

There will be a Seeds Swap and Share running, please bring any unwanted seed to the event and you can either donate them or swap for seeds that you might like.

Activity Day: This is to be held on 13^th April from 10 till 2pm, there are a few tasks we hope to achieve; take snowman down and brighten up sunflower, plant onions, break up polling booths to be use for BBQ and weed the site ready for the open day.

Book Corner: This was discussed at the Community Garden meeting, this came out of an idea which has been used elsewhere and there was a thought of trying it in the gardens. We were thinking that the shed that was formally the “Youth Shed” would be a good place to put it, with the books coming from Lorna Bell who has offered them from “Books Abroad”. We thought we might discussed this at this month’s Activity meeting. If any of you have a suitable book case to offer please let us know.

Boules: Boules are back on Tuesday at 7pm at the Communities Garden, no experience needed and tuition given by Kemnay’s representative on the Scotland team Derek. You can sign up to the Boules WhatsApp group to get games outside of Tuesday evening.

Paths Group

Meeting: The group are planning a meeting to see the way forward for the path group, please watch this space for more information.

Balance Posts: Hilda Hart (Co-ordinator, Positive Steps) told the Community Council about their latest project, which is also supported also by Paths for All. They are raising fund to install strength and balance exercise posts on the Village Green near the ‘chatty bench, this will see 6-8 specially designed oak posts being erected there by the council. These will cost about £5000-£6000, which £2000 of this is coming from developer obligation funds and the rest the will need to be raised.

General Information

Keep Scotland Beautiful:  Sue has been approached by John Glover of Inverurie Environmental Improvement Group, to see if Kemnay would like to be involved with Scotland Beautiful (KSB) It’s Your Neighbourhood (IYN) non-competitive competition this year. She is looking to set up a group of people who could help with this, if you are interested please contact her (at Greener Kemnay) as it would be a nice thing to get involved with.

Green Waste: Just remind you that the green waste is being received at the Council Depot at Birley Bush on Saturdays from 8 until 11am

I hope you had a great festive season and 2024 gives you more opportunity to be involved.

Dates for your diary:

Trustees meetings 

6 February 2024

5 March 2024

The trustees meeting is open to all, these meetings are at the Village Hall in the Wainman Room and April to September meetings are on the first Tuesday of the month at Kemnay Golf Club.

Communications Sub Group:

meetings will be on the following dates:

16 January 2024

13 February 2024

12 March 2024

We are looking for more members of the Communication sub group, if you are interested, please contact me on 07967439109 or lamplugh@btinternet.com.

Energy Group: Meetings are on Tuesday at 7.30 at Village Hall

23 January 2024

20 February 2024

19 March 2024

Community Garden: Meetings are on the last Tuesday of the month, if you would like to attend please contact Richard as above.

Community Garden

Activity Day: 13^th Jan from 10 to 2, we want to clear behind the cabin, also build a plinth for the water butts by the poly tunnel and start to move the soil by the red container. Please come along for as long or as little time as you can give us, the weather looks like it will be dry but cold.  The work will keep you warm and the outcome will be satisfying and a long-lasting contribution to the garden. 

Kemnay Steens

Information board: Kemnay Steens group has been part of Greener Kemnay since the project conception, now the Steens have been in place for 4 years, the group has been awarded funds to erect two information boards. There will be one at the Fetternear Car park on the back of the sign that is already there and the second will be placed at one of the entrances of Bogbeth Park (still to be decided).

Boules – the piste has been draining well though overhead conditions have not been conducive to play and steel balls are chilly to handle at 0 degrees!  The date for Monymusk Boules is 25^th May so plenty of time to enjoy practising and get a team together for April registration.