Turriff and District U3A Newsletter October 2016

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE Hello Turriff & District U3A Members,

Welcome to the autumn edition of the newsletter and I hope you are enjoying basking in the now-traditional Scottish Indian Summer.

For those of you unable to come to the first general meeting of the season I add a photo here of the ARI Therapeutic Roof Garden.

The speaker was Rev. James Falconer who was the creator of this remarkable project and it was a moving and inspirational talk.

I think we’ll hear more about the develop- ment of the Roof Garden and plans to create a fund to ensure that is maintained into the future. I’ll keep you posted. I for one would very much like to become a “friend” of the RG. You’ll be pleased to know that T&D U3A is still growing and thriving rather like a healthy plant (horticultural metaphors seem to be coming to mind). At the last count we number 67 members and 15 Interest Groups.

The following pages will tell you more about those. If you’d like to start and new group we’d love to help – get in touch with Kathleen or any of the committee.*

One rather less cheerful piece of news concerns the future of the Town House. Sadly, despite the great efforts and hard work of the Turriff Town House Association (which includes John Smith, Rose Logan, Helen Deans and others that many of you will know) it has been decided by Aberdeenshire Council that the lease should be transferred to the Turriff Heritage Society and therefore our groups will not be able to use this community building after October 28th I’d like to publicly thank the TTHA for all that it has done for the community.

Topics for future general meetings include: Portsoy Ice cream, Boyndie Trust, Photography and the Camino de Santiago. I hope you find those inviting and if you know of any other good speakers please let me have your suggestions.

As always, thanks to Kathleen Smith for all her hard work in compiling and editing our news- letter.

With all best wishes and hoping to see many of you soon.

Sally Group News Backgammon Backgammon is a classic board game which dates back at least 5,000 years. The idea is sim- ple, move all your pieces, called stones, off the board before your opponent can do the same.

Members meet on the 2rd Thursday of the month currently either in Turriff or Forglen at the homes of group members.

Novices welcome – we would be happy to teach anyone who is interested.

For more information or to join the group please contact Barry Clear on 01888 562028 or email [email protected]

Creative writing After a summer break the group is up and running again and continues to meet fortnightly on a Tuesday morning at Turriff library where we have a chat, share our work and enjoy a cuppa provided by the library staff.

We have recently produced our new book Off at a Tangent II which is on sale at the library or is available by contacting any of the group members.

On October 18th we will meet from 12:00 – 2:00 instead of the usual time. This is because we will be participating in a work- shop run by the crime writer Bill Kirton.

Other meeting dates are November 1st, November 15th, November 29th and December 13th

Current affairs/discussion The Current Affairs group meets in the Library, usually on the third Friday of the month at 2.45- 4.15.

Each member brings to the meeting cutting(s) from papers or items of news in which they are interested, to discuss with other members of the group. These can range from the Jo Cox killing to accusations against Cliff Richard. Brexit featured strongly in the months leading up to the Referendum.

Local news such as Defibrillators in local towns and training for their use and the future of the Town House for groups in Turriff also were debated.

We also had a visit from Caroline Lamb from NHS Grampian to hear any comments on ser- vices in and around the Turriff area.

Last discussion was the list of '50 things that make you proud to be British'. Family History Our small Family History group meet up once a month in Turriff library for general discus- sions about our researching, 'brick walls' encountered and family stories.

We mainly do the research in our own time at home but access to research facilities are avail- able in the library should anyone wish to get started or require some help. Problem solving is greatly helped by the tea; coffee and biscuits provided by library staff and the morning ses- sions pass all too quickly.

We normally meet at 10.30am on the second Tuesday in the month so do come and join us if you would like to start researching members of your family or to share some of your experi- ences and stories that you found while working on your Family Tree. French conversation Unfortunately we did not get to France this summer – well not all of us anyway – but this picture of Provence warms and consoles me. We are a growing group and num- bered 11 at the last count. We rarely all attend at the same time so new people are always welcome – we’ll squeeze you in somewhere.

We generally choose a topic for our fortnightly session and re- united on 7th September to talk about our best experiences of the summer. We also shared our favourite new words/phrases in French. Many of these were fascinating but completely useless in every- day conversation. For example, the gall bladder is the vésicule biliaire (I hope you won’t need that one) and une cacahuète is one of these: We will meet at the Town House up to the meeting on 19th October and after that has not been decided yet but we are sure to find a new home. Please contact Sally if you want an update. Tel 01261 851770 Geology

The geology group has continued to meet monthly in the Town House on a Friday morning. However due to the ongoing issues with the Town House future meet- ings will be held in the Gateway Centre We have also been out and about exploring various exciting locations of geological interest. Some of the group at Hopeman In April we visited the Sea of stones at Kingston on Spey and the Earth Pillars near Fochabers. In May had a wonderful day at Hopeman and Covesea but our June trip to the Bullers of Buchan had to be cancelled due to bad weather. However we have re- scheduled it for November. In July a small group went to the Craigellachie nature Reserve at Aviemore and in August we went Beaconites at New Aberdour in search of Beaconites at New Aberdour Bay. Geology - continued Apart from our monthly trips some of the group ventured to the Isle of Mull in April. This proved to be a great adventure and much geology was uncovered in the days we were there. The weather was very good and this made the visit even better accentuating the amazing landscapes around us. A highlight was the trip to Staffa and Fingal`s Cave where the beautiful blue green colours of the sea contrasted against the black basalt columns of the rock. Andy and I walked to the fossil tree and to Carsaig Arches both physically demanding ex- peditions but well worth the effort. Wendy and Rosemary explored Calgary Bay.

Lunchtime on Staffa.

Rosemary heading for Andy at the Fossil tree the cave.

Kathleen at Carsaig Calgary Bay Arches Island sunset

Italian for beginners - 10am to 12 fortnightly

Most of us didn’t manage trips to Italy in the summer break. But Venice is still there for future trips!

We started out as a class for beginners and are now switching to ‘intermediate’ level and are concentrating more on conversation.

We continue to work, however, with the BBC course Buongiorno Italia to improve our understanding of the language.

We will meet at the Town House up to the meeting on 19th October and after that we will be moving to a new home.

Please contact Peter if you want more information. Tel 01261 851833 Local History The U3A Local History group has had a busy Summer! We have visited 3 castles; Huntly, Cawdor and Ballindalloch, which is beautiful. Saw Woodpecker feeding young (incidental bonus!)

We also visited Deer Abbey near Mintlaw and were given a talk about The Book of Deer' at Aden Park.

We visited Edinburgh in September to see 'The Celts' exhibition at The National Museum of Scotland.

We have had a guided walk around Gardenstown (lovely Huntly castle weather) and have walked around Fittie in Aberdeen.

Our last venture was a Bus Tour of Aberdeen with Whyte's buses complete with guide and a visit to the Tolbooth Museum followed by a meal.

(There is a need for restoration in the form of teas etc at each outing.) There is definitely a very strong social side to the group!

We meet in the library on the first Monday 2.45-4.15, usually to plan excursions but also to meet group members, now friends. I wish to thank the Library Staff for their kindness to all our groups that met there.

Nature Walks The Nature Walkers - although we really should be called amblers - usually meet on the third Wednesday of the month.

The British weather isn't always particularly kind to us but we still manage to enjoy our- selves when we do eventually meet up. Wind and rain caused the planned April visit to RSPB Loch of Strathbeg to be cancelled.

In May we had arranged to re-visit the Gannets at Troup Head but as we drove towards the car park the haar got thicker and thicker so the proposed walk along the cliff top was defi- nitely not an option. Chris & Dick kindly offered us some hospitality back at their house so everyone followed their tail lights and retired to the warmth of their kitchen where Dick en- tertained us with a quiz on bird songs. The afternoon was great fun and our thanks go to Chris and Dick for opening their home to us.

The June meeting was planned as a joint venture with the Geologists to visit the Bullars of Buchan but once again the weather intervened and the trip was postponed.

Just a small number of group members made the journey across to the Craigellachie Nature Reserve at Aviemore in July for a walk around the birch forest. Few birds were spotted there but flowers were abundant and we also spotted Toads and a Frog. The highlight came later with a visit to the Coffee and Cake shop at Inshriach Nurseries, about 4miles from Aviemore. One part of the café overlooks a large wildlife feeding area which offered close- up views of birds, including Woodpeckers and Siskins, and Red Squirrels.

The Braes of Gight were our destination for August and for once the weather was perfect with blue skies and warm sun - we were even glad of the slight breeze at times. Helen was able to identify the dead Common Shrew that we found and we also found a dead Slow Worm on the path (with a live one being seen by some of the group later on). We watched Brown Trout from the bridge and although birdlife may have been in short supply, the ruins of Gight Castle and the ancient trees gave us plenty to look at during our 5km stroll. Photography The weather may not always be particularly fine but that doesn't stop the Photography group from heading out to take a few pictures.

Back in May the group visited Inverboyndie near Whitehills where the wind turbines formed an unusual backdrop. In June we returned to Delgatie Castle with the gardens and old build- ings taking centre stage. A trip to Aden Country Park in July happily coincided with an exhi- bition of the winning photographs from the Scottish Wildlife competition, which was opened especially for us to view. Unfortunately the museum of Farming Life remained closed but we did manage to walk around the woodlands and garden.

Leith Hall near Kennethmont was our venue for August with the gardens, extensive grounds and house exterior providing plenty of inspiration, but the rain put a damper on the afternoon so we retired to Huntly for tea and cake.

You will note that all our outings allow for refreshments at the end of our photo taking ses- sion. During this time we get the chance to view our efforts and to look at the 'homework' for the month. This can be quite a challenge to us all with subjects as wide ranging as 'What's that?' to 'Animal Portraits'.

We are a small, friendly group with everyone willing to help no matter what level of skill you have or the type of camera that you use so if you enjoy taking photos and would like to share your skills or learn a little more then do come and join us on the second Wednesday of the month.

Scrabble We are a small group who like to get together for good company, a laugh, a blether, and the usual cuppa and a biscuit.

If you would like to come and join us we meet on the last Friday of every month @ 2oclock. For more information phone 01888288079

Spanish

The Spanish group continues to grow, currently with nine members who meet on alternate Thursday afternoons. The group established a good basic language foundation in its first year and is now moving forward towards increased conversational practice and translation in the second year.

Several members are learning Spanish for the first time and others are reacquainting after a long absence. Quite naturally, most people have an initial apprehension about speaking out aloud and this year the group has a particular focus on mutual support and working as a team of friends who help each other.

For reading and audio translation work, the group is currently working on an illustrated chil- dren’s story (La mejor familia del mundo) and a radio drama (El idioma del amor). Both of these help to build knowledge of new words and pronunciation. There are always dictionaries to hand and the group has just elected to adopt the Pasos 1 course book for additional refer- ence.

The important thing is having a diversity of learning methods. Outside of the group meetings, most members of the group practice some self-teach with the online internet site DuoLingo and regular use of Google Translate, both of which supplement word translation with audio speech. There has never been a better time to learn a language. Theatre group The Theatre Group has not been very active over the summer, but we would hope to organise theatre visits over the coming months. I send out a list of forthcoming productions to the group, and I would be very happy to send this to any interested U3A members.

For further information please contact: rose- [email protected]

Walking Group -for information contact David Liebnitz 01888 563772 or email [email protected]

Committee from May 2016:

Chairman – Sally Givertz Vice-Chair – Sheila Gray Group Coordinator – Kathleen Smith Membership Secretary – David Liebnitz Business Secretary – Eva Collins Treasurer – Helen McGill Publicity – Roselyn Corbett