Black Mount Bugle February 2020 Issue 123 In this Edition Dates for your Diary 2 Note from our Councillor 3 Rigside and Rural Communities Nursery 4 BlackMount Christmas Dinner 5 Dolphinton WI 5 BlackMount Burns Afternoon 6 Black Mount Primary School News 7 2019 Wreath Laying 11 Dolphinton & Blackmount Bulk Oil Buying Group 12 Puzzle Corner 16 1 Note from the Editor Welcome to the February edition of the Black Mount Bugle. Thank you to all the people who have contributed to this edition. We would love to hear from you and welcome new contributors as well as regulars. The deadline for contributions to the May 2020 edition of the Bugle is 12th April 2020. Contact the Bugle Please send any articles, events, photographs, puzzles to: [email protected] Black Mount Community Online Visit the Black Mount Community website: www.blackmount.org https://www.facebook.com/groups/bmccouncil Dates for your Diary Date Event Location Time 6 Apr BMCC Meeting Elsrickle Village Hall 19:30 15 Apr WI Meeting Dolphinton Village 19:30 Hall 1 June BMCC Meeting Elsrickle Village Hall 19:30 3 Aug BMCC Meeting Elsrickle Village Hall 19:30 7 Sep BMCC Meeting Elsrickle Village Hall 19:30 5 Oct BMCC Meeting Elsrickle Village Hall 19:30 2 Nov BMCC Meeting Elsrickle Village Hall 19:30 Join 2 Note from our Councillor I hope everyone has had a good new year and is looking forward to the new decade. It may be tempting fate, but the winter is passing without to many problems from frost and snow [spoke to soon! Ed.]. Within the council it is the time of year that budgets are set for the next financial year, it may be more difficult this time due to the fact that we may not know what our central grant will be before we have to set a budget. For those of you interested you can look on the council website to see what programmes are being looked at for savings. It will be towards the end of February that we need to decide on our spending priorities and would be pleased to hear what views you have. We have also been trying to have better traffic management used next to the new school, but as of yet not had any success, it is hoped to have a traffic management survey done to help with our cause. We have applied for a grant to improve the access to the path up Black mount at the Walston end, I would hope this would be done in the next couple of months and allow better access to those who wish to climb the hill. An award has been set up by The Provost to reward members of the community for their service to the community, if you would wish to nominate someone please contact one of the councillors who can nominate two people on your behalf. Cllr Allison 3 Rigside and Rural Communities Nursery Rigside and Rural Communities Nursery are delighted with their new campus at Black Mount Primary School. We are open 50 weeks of the year from 8.30am- 4.30pm five days a week and are offering 1140 hours of free childcare for children aged between 3-5 years old. The closing date for new applications for children starting in August 2020 is the 28th February 2020. Please contact Rigside and Rural Communities Nursery to make an appointment or if you would like any further information about our campus at Black Mount. Email: [email protected] Telephone number: 01555 880689 4 BlackMount Christmas Dinner 72 Senior Citizens enjoyed what is usually the first festive meal of the season in Elsrickle Hall on Friday 6th December. That was in 2019…seems a long time ago now. Many thanks must go to the Crown Hotel for preparing an excellent Turkey dinner; Drum Maw Ceilidh band (well, part of it) namely Ian Reid and Brian McFarlane for lively entertainment, and Torcuil for his singing, especially his rendition of “Caledonia”; To Graham Barrie for his version of His Favourite Things, and the value of older people! Thanks go to the “kitchen staff” Mara Orr, Kirsty Keenan and chief dishwasher…Alastair Muirhead, the waitresses Emma, Charlotte, Eilidh and Morven, bar staff Brian and Margaret Curle and Andrew and Joan Highton and to hallkeeper Richard who made sure that the Hall was nice and warm to welcome us all. All in all a great night was had by all! All the best for 2020 from the Blackmount Social Group. Dolphinton WI At the January meeting of Dolphinton SWI we were given a fascinating talk and slide show about Biggar Explorers three week expedition to Japan. After a 15 hour flight to get there they immersed themselves in the culture by attending activities from Sumo Wrestling to a visit to the Toyota Museum and a sobering trip to Hiroshima. The competition winners for the evening were: A handmade greetings card - 1st Jean Campbell; 2nd Elsie Reid; 3rd Ann Ross, Flower of the month - 1st Jan Pearson; 2nd Pam Taylor; 3rd Jean Campbell. 5 BlackMount Burns Afternoon The first Blackmount community Burns afternoon was held in Elsrickle Hall on the 26th January. A great turn out for an afternoon of Haggis with all the trimmings, piped in and addressed to great fanfare, was followed by music on the piano and accordion. Afterwards a few Burns songs were sung before we finished off with a ceilidh enjoyed by the young and the not so young! All in all it was a great afternoon, which did the Bard proud. It will be a regular date in the calendar so save the date Sunday 24th January 2021. Thanks are due to the many people who gave up time to decorate the hall, make soup and puddings, bake, play instruments and recite poems. There are too many people to thank individually, but special thanks must go to everyone who attended. 6 Black Mount Primary School News Black Mount Blackhouses The Primary 4s to 7s of Black Mount created Blackhouse replicas for their topic of The Highland Clearances. The replicas were made from boxes, Paper Mache, cardboard and straw. All of the replicas came out great and it worked. By Harley Stewart P7, Press Group. Ceramic Tile Making Thank you to artist Mrs McCann who has been working with the children to design and start to create their ceramic tiles. We look forward to see how they progress. By Press Group. Netball/Bench Ball Festival On Wednesday the 30th October, P4-7s went on a trip to Biggar High for the netball bench ball festival. All the small schools from the area e.g. Wiston, Liberton, Auchengray and Abbington. We had 2 teams Black Mount A and Black Mount B. Black Mount B was joint with Auchengray as they only had three P6-7s. In team A there was Marissa, Harris, Autumn, Beth, David and Callum. In Team B there was Caitlin, James, Erin, Harley and some Auchengray students. By Caitlin Cairns P6, Press Group. 7 Black Mount Primary School News The Halloween Party On the 31st of October we had a Halloween party. We had lots of fun activities we had cakes drinks and games I dressed up as a cat. I thought everyone looked great it was a great day. By Imogen P4, Press Group Kingswood On Monday 4 November, Primary 6-7 went to Dukes house Wood- Kingswood, Hexham. At Kingswood you do really fun activities such as: nightline, zip wire, fencing, abseiling and of course the infamous 3G SWING!!! The best part in my opinion was either the 3G swing or zip wire. By David Patterson P7, Press Group. Sky Studios Trip In November 2019 Black Mount’s P6 and 7s and Auchengray’s P4-7 went to The Sky Academy Studios in Livingston. They each got a job e.g. producer, director, camera operator. Their topic was “Earthquakes”. There was 4 studios but only 1, 2 and 4 got used. There were 3 different sections. The first was the introduction, the second was live from an earthquake site, and the 3rd was talking with a seismologist who is an expert of earthquakes. All of this of course was completely fake. It was done completely by pupils. By David and Harley P7, Press Group. 8 Black Mount Primary School News Black Mount Garden The Black Mount garden is nearly complete. A shed has been built in the garden for all of the playground toys. Most of the children helped the gardener that came in to plant flowers and shrubs. They also came into put wood chips down by the plants to stop the weeds growing. Everyone came to watch the people put down the some wood chips. The gardening was tough and there was a small hill in the garden now covered in plants. The side of the hill was not bad but the top was filled with stones and rocks. It was very hard to dig out the stones. Some people are very enthusiastic which a big boost to our garden. The Black Mount Eco Team will be making plans to our already great garden better. By Marissa Harding P6, Press Group. Christmas 2019 The children and staff would like to thank Katharine Barrie for our delicious Christmas Lunch. The children and staff had a great time at their Christmas party. Lots of fun was had with the games, dancing and delicious party food. 9 Black Mount Primary School News Our Nativity and Craft fair was a huge success. The children put on an amazing performance and the craft fair raised an amazing £657.40.