Great good news!

Dear All
Now that Glencruitten Gazette Issue Three has been (or is being) distributed among the residents and tenants of the Glencruitten area in Oban (thank you, Kay, for a good editing and publishing job), I am absolutely chuffed to bits to pass on the following piece of good news:

We have been granted funding of £6,500 from the Fairer Argyll & Bute Partnership via the Fairer Oban Lorn and the Isles Working Group (part of Argyll & Bute Council). In the past few months, we have also received donations from MacQueen Brothers Ltd (£400) and the Oban Round Table (£100). We are so pleased to find that our garden project enjoys the support of the community and the council. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It also means that we can now employ Community Links Scotland to design and oversee the next stages of garden development, including completing the design, sorting out drainage problems, landscaping, furnishing, etc. By next spring we will definitely have a very different-looking community garden. There will most likely be a quiet seating area at the top. The big trees will remain standing in the wedge along the burn, and your blogger very much hopes that the very productive vegetable and flower plot will continue to flourish along the fence to the drying greens of houses 8-12 Miller Road.

The big grant came in due to the initiative of a local resident (M.P.-J.) and two very hard-working ladies (M.E. and J.H.) at the Council's Community Learning & Regeneration Centre, who wrote and submitted the proposal at extremely short notice. Thanks is also due to another hard-working lady (G.H.) at the Oban Volunteer Centre, who made sure that projects to improve the welfare and wellbeing of the local population (youth projects, garden projects, island community projects, etc.) were taken into consideration when it came to allocating moneys that have to be spent by the end of the current fiscal year, i.e. end March 2010.

Someone has been working on the garden quietly and without much credit, growing vegetables and flowers and keeping the weeds in check while we were waiting for some substantial funding to push things along. Graham will be more than pleased to tell you all about his projects to make the productive soil even more so, such as biochar, EM Bokashi and so on.

That's it for now. Do come back soon!

Rubbish in the burn – and lifted

Hiya again

When the rain stopped two days ago, your Blogger went to have a look at the state of the burn and found it full of rubbish -- chockablock!It doesn't help that there's a culvert or duct running below the concrete platform of the footbridge, where everything gets caught. But why anyone would toss a traffic cone into the burn is beyond me, or a big MDF panel.This morning, some members of the Oban Employability Team came in to lift the rubbish…… the platform of their small pickup was almost full by the time they were done!

How much effort and energy went into clearing this rubbish. Shame on anyone who uses the burn as a rubbish dump.

Flood no 7

Hiya
Scotland has seen some massive flooding in the past few days, and our hearts go out to those who have lost their homes. Here's hoping that no-one will lose their life.

Here, at Lynnside, the garden is flooded yet again today. The heavy rains and a high tide pushed inland by strong winds have conspired to flood not only the garden but also the lane that runs along its bottom end.

Today, 11:38AM
11:48AM12:01PM

As I type these lines, the bottom part of the garden and the lane are fully submerged and the water is running down the car park.
Having watched the rising water, it is quite clear to your Blogger that the obstacles underneath the wee bridge are choking up the burn. But the flooding is exacerbated by the fact that this is just about high tide in the harbour and all of the Black Lynn backs up, especially when the wind pushes the tide inland.
Nonetheless, the Council should do something to give the burn more space -- deepen the riverbed, widening a catchment basin further upstream, ...
The Council does not regard this as a matter of priority – anyone can tell by the dire state of the Black Lynn further downstream, by the car parks and super markets, where it is choked up and infested with shopping trolleys and all manner of large-scale rubbish.

Fruit and Flowers

Hello again
Your blogger is so glad to have made the most of an almost sunny window in today's weather pattern to snap a few photos of the gorgeous flowers and fruit that grace our garden. See for yourself.

Runner bean blossom -- perfect white

Greenish cream of sweet corn

Sweet peas bring a splash of crimson

Blackberries in various stages of ripeness

One of several sunflowers
This bashful one just wouldn't let me see her face
Graham must have planted at least four different variations of nasturtiums, all of which are doing very well

The fence along Dalintart Lane has almost exploded with flowers and colours

Happy bedfellows - tagetes keep pests away from leeks

Very soon now, the cherry tomatoes will be ready, too
Nasturtiums are excellent ground cover to keep weeds in check --
and their blossoms add a wonderful splash of colour and fire to any salad or exotic dish.

Aspens, Silver Birch and a hint of Rainbow

Aspens and silver birch grace part of our Community Garden, and when onditions are right, a rainbow appears above Soroba.
We must be doing something right... :)

After flood no 6: debris and choked-up grate in Black Lynn

The worst of this morning's flood is over. As I type these lines, the sun has been shining for a couple of hours and the water has receded significantly.
Debris, including a sizeable stump of wood, has collected at the foot of the tall new fence across the burn along Dalintart Lane:Your blogger spent quite some time this afternoon removing several long pieces of wood and planking as well as more substantial rubbish, lots of plastic bottles etc., not least to make sure the youngsters in the neighbourhood can't toss this material back into the burn.
The burn still flows fiercely and has been eating away at its bank, especially below the footbridge in Dalintart Lane.
Further downstream, however, there is a badly choked-up double grate that protects the entrance to a sizeable culvert. The yellow bouncy ball in the photo below has meanwhile been claimed by an adventurous first-year High School pupil. He was going to toss it back into the burn but I suggested he take it home to his little sister, if he has one.

Flood no 6

Hello again
As you can imagine, with the heavy rains of the past two days or so, the Lynnside Community garden was once again flooded earlier this morning. Flooding has affected large areas of Argyll & Bute, with several roads closed just when the commuters wanted to use them.School kids and workers were unable to use Dalintart Lane because the water was at least 10 inches deep.It is the 5th such event since 10th October, 2008, and so far the 2nd worst I have observed since I arrived here in early May last year. The bad thing is that much more rain has been forecast for the next few days... It remains to be seen how much of the produce, the potatoes especially, that Graham has so diligently put into the ground will pull through without rotting.Personally, I think some mitigation work is required:
A lot of debris has been caught up by the footbridge on Dalintart Lane, some of it planking, some of it heavy wood, threatening to damage the fence erected last September.One of the problems is definitely the fact that the modern concrete slab across the burn is significantly lower than the original (19th century?) arch; the pipes/culverts running underneath it also block debris.
While I'm not sure raising the slab to give the water more room would sort the problem, I am confident that the water would back up a lot less if those obstacles were removed.
See for yourselves -- I'm attaching a few photos and a small video clip (medium resolution so here's hoping your inboxes won't fill up too badly). Click here for a video clip.

By about 10:50, the rain had abated, and the water has receded to the extent that the lane is passable again. But this is no reason to be complacent: more rain has been forecast and the weather charts show large, deep green swathes of heavy rain coming up from the south.

SURF's up

Hi all
This post is indebted to my Community Representative colleague, Steve Byrne, from Campbeltown, Argyll.

Steve also happens to be the Chairperson of the Highland and Argyll & Bute Regional Network that tries to bring tenants and residents together. Anyone interested in more details about this network, please leave your comment, including your e-mail address and phone number on this blog. Your blogger will make sure your details are forwarded to Steve, but not published here.


SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration - 27/07/2009
Applications are now being accepted for the 2009 awards – closing date: 21st September 2009.

The SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration is now in its 11th year. The Scottish Centre for Regeneration's prestigious annual awards process recognises and promotes best practice in regeneration and social inclusion in Scotland.

The SURF Awards is supported by the Scottish Government’s Scottish Centre for Regeneration and independently judged by a panel of representatives drawn from relevant national organisations and community groups.

If you are aware of a project or initiative that you believe deserves particular recognition, please consider nominating it for a 2009 SURF Award.

The key dates for the applications process are:

• Monday 27th July 2009: Opening date for applications
• Monday 21st September 2009: Closing date for applications
• Thursday 3rd December 2009: SURF Awards are presented at a dinner ceremony in Glasgow by Alex Neil MSP, Minister for Housing and Communities

How to apply

Further information on the entry criteria and the application process for the 2009 SURF Awards is available for download from the SURF website ( .doc or .pdf).

Growing, weeding, "burning"

Hiya again
Summer is taking its course; the rain and warmth have pushed everything: vegetables, flowers, weeds.
Each rainfall uncovers more rubbish; yet another builders bag is filling up fast.
The butterbur along the burn is growing riotously, as are cleavers and balm. The weeds are also growing inside the concrete bed of the burn. With intense rainfall looming, they will slow the flow of the water and may cause flooding again.Kids from the neighbourhood -- definitely NOT the children from the islands who stay at the Glencruitten Hostel -- have been throwing loads of rubbish and plant material into the burn. Some of us from the garden group will have to work really hard to rake and fork it all out again to make sure the debris does not choke up the low passage under the footbridge......whose left bank is being undermined by the onslaught of water -- something will have to be done about this sooner rather than later:
But not all is doom and gloom: the sweet peas are looking spectacular just now.Notices about biochar, Scottish Orchards and EM Bokashi have been posted on the fence and are attracting lots of attention.