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.