Scourie News Edition 114 December 2015 Dates for December Sat 5th Carly’s pub quiz @ 7.30pm Wed 9th Last day for Scourie Christmas greetings Fri 11th Primary school trip to the panto Thurs 17th Primary school show @ village hall th Sun 20 Carol service @ 6pm Many thanks to all stall holders and guest who braved the st Mon 21 Community Christmas party awful weather to attend our craft sale on Saturday 24th Tue 22nd School close for holiday October. Christmas Carol Service We raised a wonderful £407.12 Everyone in the community is invited to take part in the Sandra from KLB was our lucky bidder on the silent auction carol service in Scourie Church of Scotland on Sunday with a bid of £87.75 for a trailer of logs. 20th December at 6pm. Tea, coffee, juice and mince pies will be served in the Church Hall afterwards. A special note of thanks goes to - Overscaig House Hotel Those who wish to may contribute to the Christmas and The Old School, who kindly donated baking. appeal to support Barnabas Fund’s ‘Operation Safe Havens’. UPDATE: The total has now been raised to £814.24 as we This provides for safe travel received Grosvenor match funding - woo hoo! and support for a new start in Europe for Christians having to flee from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Scourie Angling Club Bonfire Night The Angling Club held it's A. G. M. on 20th November, and despite a quiet season due to inclement weather local A successful bonfire membership increased by 60%. night was held in The committee appreciates your interest and support. We November to celebrate would also like express our gratitude to those who help Bonfire night. The Forsyth family created with Club boats at the beginning and end of the season. a Guy for the fire, which was taken around the village and raised £105.37 towards next year’s event. Well done to the Forsyths. Thanks to all who helped to build the bonfire during the day and to those who helped on the night with the bbq and fireworks. Special thanks go to Andy MacKenzie for use of vehicles to collect wood and build the fire. Photos by Sean MacKay Scourie Gala 2016 Lochinver Friday, December 4th Following a recent meeting, a committee was formed to organise the next gala event in Scourie. With a membership of 16 people, the following office bearers Spectre Certificate: tbc were appointed. Chairperson- Linda MacDonald, Duration: 135 mins Secretary – Aileen MacDonald and Treasurer- Pete 17:30 Tuck. The dates for next year’s summer event have been set as 12th/13th/14th August. It is planned to have a car treasure hunt in April. Look out for further details in SuffragetteCertificate: 12A the New Year. Duration: 106 min 20:30 Christmas Greetings Saturday, December 5th Final call for anyone wishing to place a festive greeting Hotel Transylvania 2 Certificate: U into the special edition Scourie Duration: 89 mins News! Additional order forms are 14:00 available on the back page and in Scourie Stores, where you will also Suffragette Certificate: 12A find the box for orders and Duration: 106 mins payment. Last date for inserting a 17:30 greeting is Wednesday 9th Dec. Christmas Greeting Newsletters will be delivered during the week beginning Spectre Certificate: tbc th Monday 14 Dec. Duration: 135 mins 20:30 Traditional Greetings Delivery Durness Monday, December 7th For those who prefer to send Christmas cards around the village, the primary school will have their usual local postal service. This year the price of delivery has gone Hotel Transylvania 2 Certificate: U up to 15p per card. This is still considerably less than a Duration: 89 mins second class stamp. A collection box will be in Scourie 17:30 Stores from Mon 7nd Dec until Mon 21st Dec. Deliveries will be made during this period. All monies raised will go to Scourie Primary School Fund. Spectre Certificate: tbc Duration: 135 mins 20:30 KinlochbervieTuesday, December 8th Hotel Transylvania 2 Certificate: U Duration: 89 mins 17:30 Spectre Certificate: tbc Duration: 135 mins 20:30 SCOURIE GEOCENTRE Village Hall COMMUNITY SURVEY The attendance at the recent AGM of the village hall Scourie Community Development Company Ltd has been was very disappointing. The new committee is Les working for the past while on the development of the Hathaway (treasurer), Jean Mackay (secretary), Neil Scourie Geocentre Project. Macdonald, Pete Tuck, Iona Shaw, Dorothy Harper, The project received a welcome boost in September Donald Fisher and Wendy Fisher. Unfortunately no-one 2015 with news of a grant award from the Scottish Land felt able to stand as chairperson. We could do with Fund which will facilitate the purchase of Doctor’s Park more committee members; we could have up to 12, which in the village, the site of the proposed new Geocentre. would help spread the load. The duties are not onerous; A new Community Survey is now needed to progress we only have 6-8 meetings a year. Could you help a vital Phases 2 and 3 of the project and will shortly be village building stay open? distributed. Your responses to the survey and your If being on a committee is not your thing. Never fear, support are very valuable and vital to the future success there are lots of ways you could help. We need helpers of the project. for dances, for the Burn’s Supper in January and other Please return your completed surveys to the drop box in events we would like to run, contact any committee Scourie Stores by Friday 18th December. member to offer your help. Thank you. We have ambitious plans for refurbishing the village hall by upgrading the toilets – this work is necessary for us to retain our entertainments licence and will need to be complete by December 2016 if we are to remain open for events. You could help by joining in our fund raising group – organising fun events to raise money towards the work. If this is your thing contact Iona. Please help us keep the village hall open. Camera Club As many of you will have noticed, we now have the Scourie calendar for sale in the shop. We hope you enjoy it throughout the year. We had a very interesting talk by Andy Kirby from E Sutherland Camera club (Brora) at our last meeting. He talked about Photoshop, and showed us how to edit pictures to get better images. Andy is a regular guest speaker at the club, and has given several talks now. Our last meeting of this year will be on 10th December in the Hall Library at 7:30 pm. School Christmas Fayre Achfary Bingo Night Another successful Christmas fayre was held in the George & Priscilla Leligdowitz organized a bingo night village hall at the end of November. Despite the stormy with a grand raffle in aid of The Highland Hospice weather, lots of people came along to support the recently. Great fun was had by all who attended. The children, parents and staff. There was a variety of craft combined total raised for Highland Hospice was stalls selling lovely products and a wide selection of £422.80. Thanks to everyone who attended, contributed activities organised by the pupils and parents. prizes, home baking and raising such a splendid total for Rebecca MacInnes correctly guessed the weight of the such a worthwhile cause. Christmas cake (baked and donated by Christine MacDonald). Kevin Arrowsmith identified the Jura malt whisky. Iona Harper-Reynoldson selected the date closest to the Christmas teddy’s birthday. Clare Warwick chose the square where Santa would land to win the pamper basket. Rory Jack guessed there were 120 sweets in the jar and Iza valued the hamper at £129.78, just 8p above its actual value. The whole event raised a phenomenal grand total of £1236.96 The pupils, parents and staff would like to sincerely thank everyone who came along, helped out, donated And a final great big items and contributed in any way to make our annual event a huge success once again. Merry Christmas to you all! to BAM Nutall and Annmaria Coletta for all the printing of the Scourie News for the last few years. It has been a pleasure working with you! November Weather The first “named” storm, Storm Abigail, struck at the beginning of the month, but did not reach the strength that had been forecast. There followed a week of Next month…… stormy weather, before a wet 2nd half to the month. Total rainfall was 179 mm, slightly higher than the 20 Look out for a report on some local young football year average of 168. The most rain was recorded on 19th players. with 27 mm. There have been 6 days when no rainfall was recorded. Temperatures have again been below Remember the purpose of the Scourie News is to share average, the average minimum was 5.3 deg C (6.2), with any village events with the whole community. lows of 0 deg C recorded on 23rd and 24th of the month. If you have a suggestion for a regular feature or know The average maximum temperature was 9.1 deg C (9.7) of any news which should be shared, please let me know. with a high of 13 deg C recorded on 7th. The solar panels aren’t producing much during the I can be contacted through winter months, an average of 1 kW [email protected] (1.3) per day, with a high of 3.03 or on 01971 502371 kW on 5th (last year’s figures in Aileen MacDonald brackets).