As scaffolding is removed and the newly restored fabric of Moat Brae House is being revealed – like a present being slowly unwrapped for Christmas, two special, festive events will be held to raise funds for the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust. A Sale of Works of Art and Experiences at Thomson Roddick Scottish Auctions on Saturday 7th December at 10.30am and the Annual Christmas Concert, Forgotten Carols at St George’s Church on Tuesday 10th December at 6.30pm.

Thomson Roddick Scottish Auctions will include twenty items and experiences donated by local artists and businesses in aid of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust at their Christmas Sale on Saturday 7th December at their Irongray Road Auction Centre, viewing from 9am.

The Annual Moat Brae Christmas Concert will feature soloist Kate Howard, Reader Tom Pow and The Feral Choir in a beautiful and atmospheric programme aiming to renew a sense of all the rich meanings of Christmas. Carols will be woven together with readings of contemporary poetry and prose and features “forgotten” carols originating from Britain’s rich folk traditions.

Construction work on Phase A of the Moat Brae Project will be finished by the end of the year and the Trust is already making plans to re-open the house and garden to the public on a limited basis in 2014. Phase B of the Moat Brae Project, leading to the redevelopment of the house and garden as a Centre for Children’s Literature, is now well underway. With the help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Creative Scotland, the Trust has commissioned architects and engineers to produce designs for the house and garden. Consultants are also helping the Trust to develop activity and business plans and are encouraging everyone to have their say by responding to an online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/MoatBrae08.

The Christmas concert is organised by Friends of The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust who are keen to encourage as many people as possible to support Moat Brae and get involved in the work to open the next chapter for this special House and Garden in Dumfries. Author JM Barrie found it an inspiring place, playing pirate games there as a child which he said were the genesis of his masterwork Peter Pan.

Tickets for Forgotten Carols priced £12 (including refreshments) are available from Midsteeple Dumfries (01387 253 383). You can also book tickets and find out more about Moat Brae and the work of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust at www.peterpanmoatbrae.org

Early yesterday afternoon, Kevin of KSS Images and myself popped along to meet and greet the lucky winners of the DGWGO competition for a table for two at Marco Pierre White’s VIP Lunch at his new restaurant in the Aston Hotel in Dumfries.

Winners of the exclusive table for two were Marion Irvine and her partner John Hope who were randomly selected from an incredible 1098 entries.

The British celebrity chef has joined forces with the much-celebrated Aston Hotel in Dumfries and brought his Wheeler’s of St. James’s brand to Scotland. The restaurant offers an array of British and French cuisine in Marco’s trademark style, focussing on a varied menu that will suit all appetites and pockets.

The Marco Pierre White brand is all about elegant restaurants with a comfortable dining experience, a place to relax and enjoy great food. Menus will offer seasonal produce, sourced locally wherever possible so diners can be assured of honest, high quality food at affordable prices.

It’s been quite a few weeks for Marion, who was also the project manager of the Dundrennan Jubilee Garden, as she was unexpectedly asked along to the fourth D&G LEADER Rural Awards. The event took place at Easterbrook Hall on Friday the 15th of November 2013 and she was delighted to win the award on behalf of Dundrennan.

Marion and John got the chance to meet Marco who all presented them with a signed book.

After a quick chat and some pics we left Marion and John to enjoy their lunch and Marion later sent us this message.

“We enjoyed a marvellous 3 course lunch, great food, great service and super atmosphere. Added bonus of signed book from Marco and a few words. A lovely treat, unexpected early Xmas present. Thank you DGWGO!” From Marion and John.

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and we will have many more over the next few months

Derek Pennycook

Last Wednesday Paul Tebay, Convener of Youth Service for the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright, was invited to speak at the Kirkcudbright Academy assembly and to present Cameron Denerley, a student at the school, with a certificate for successfully completing his Rotary Youth Leadership Award [RYLA] course. Selected and sponsored by Kirkcudbright Rotary Club, Cameron attended the annual week long course which was held at the Abernethy Trust’s Residential Outdoor Centre in Ardeonaig last July. In his remarks, Paul Tebay was able to tell the whole school assembly that Cameron was a great credit to his school and to the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright.

He went on to explain that the stated objectives of this project are to develop in students essential leadership skills and qualities as well as teaching them how to successfully work as part of a team. To achieve this, all the 25 boys involved took part in a range of outward bound activities including climbing, canoeing, raft building, gorge walking, a high ropes course, hiking and a number of team tasks and challenges. In conclusion, the assembly was told that next year Kirkcudbright Rotary Club were hoping to sponsor a boy and a girl to follow in Cameron’s footsteps and attend the RYLA camp . Candidates would need to be at least 16 years of age next July and the students who felt they might be interested were encouraged to listen for further information early in the next school term.

Well done to Church Dental Practice in Dumfries who have won a very prestigious UK award. 

Press Release sent to DGWGO

We are delighted to announce that Church Court Dental Practice, on Castle Street in Dumfries, is the first ever winner of a brand new national award specifically designed to acknowledge the hard work and commitment that goes into being a great practice. However, it is the strong focus on professionalism and risk management that makes this award different from so many others. Entries from practices throughout the UK were assessed on the following criteria:

Ethics – Professionalism – Record keeping – Cross infection control – Team working- Consent – Communication – Health and safety

Mark Colwell (Principal Dentist), Adele Welsh (Practice Manager), Lorraine Gibb (Hygienist) and Catherine Colwell (Development and Marketing Manager) travelled to the Premier Symposium at the Shaw Theatre in London on Saturday 23rd November, to be presented with the award at one of the most prestigious events in the dental calendar. The Dental Practice of the Year Award is sponsored by Dental Protection, the world’s largest Dental indemnity organisation supporting 62,000 dental members and Schülke, European leaders in cross infection control.

Kevin Lewis, Director of Dental Protection said: ‘The particular attraction of the Church Court winning entry, was the transformative effect on the practice culture that resulted from engaging the whole team in taking risk management and patient safety so seriously. We hope that their success will inspire others to follow a similar path and reap unexpected rewards as a result’

Mark Colwell, Dental Surgeon and owner of Church Court Dental Practice said: “Our whole team is delighted to receive this recognition of our efforts to provide excellence in all aspects of our work. We hope this brings benefits to all our patients as we aim to put care for individual, long term oral health at the heart of everything we do”.

Last Sunday I was very kindly invited by the Carr Family of Millhill Farm, just outside Dumfries, to go along for a wee tour of their family run free range turkey farm! The Carrs are one of the Latest DGWGO Advertisers and as a keen farmer myself, who knows very little about farming turkeys, I jumped at the chance, so I packed my camera and popped along to say hello .

I was given a very warm welcome on my arrival at Millhill by Tom and Sue and their family and 3 dogs too! It’s a lovely Spot, and I don’t think I’ve driven out on the Old Glen road that used to be the main A75 for years!

After we chatted in the wonderful farmhouse kitchen by the Aga for a while, and discovered actually just how many mutual folk we knew ( that’s D&G For you), we headed off down to the sheds and woods where the turkeys roam.

It was fascinating to see just how much work goes into rearing these amazing and large birds, and Tom is totally dedicated to producing the very best Turkey! I was shown the sheds that the turkeys roost in at nights , their feed, and how they eat and drink, then I was taken out into the woods to meet them.

The birds have a huge 8 acres of woods to wander around in very freely. There is a high fence around the woods, not to keep the birds in so much but to keep predators out!  This, however, didn’t’t quite work with the squirrels , as we stood in the woods we saw at least 5 red squirrels playing high up in the oak trees above us! Skye (Tom’s Turkey Dog) was very interested in watching the Squirrels too, which was handy because it showed me where to point the camera to try and photograph them! But a Turkey Farmers work is never done at this time of year, so after a couple of hours I had to head off and leave Tom and his family to get on with their Chores !

You can keep up to date with Tom and the family by following them on Facebook

I asked Sue if she could put together a few words to tell us more about family life on the farm and she kindly sent this along.

Sue Carr Writes –

It was a lovely still, chilly November day when we were pleased to have a visit from DGWGO’s very own Robin Baird.

Robin was interested in taking a tour around the farm, in particularly our Christmas Turkey Enterprise!

As a small family group of us entered the barn where the turkeys live, we were greeted by the very loud and traditional ‘gobble gobble’ sound.

Turkeys are very intelligent and curious creatures and they were soon coming over to investigate every buckle on our Wellington boots.

The chicks, or poults as they are called arrive in the summertime, and after spending some time under a heat lamp, if it’s chilly, and then in the barn to acclimatise, they are then allowed outside in the daytime. The wood that they use is full of greenery in late summer so they enjoy picking around, eating grass and plant matter. The trees provide shelter and a natural habitation for the turkeys as they would always live in woods in the wild. This provides much entertainment for Sue and the boys as many an evening is spent by Tom climbing trees to get the turkeys in for the night and they are roosting up in the branches hissing at him!

The turkeys are fed adlib in the barns and bedded on fresh straw every day. Twice a day, Tom walks through the barns topping up feeders, checking progress and health of the birds. He is assisted by our youngest son, Hamish who bags all the feed ready for his dad to lift. We rear a few different breeds of Bronze turkeys, such as Devon Bronze and Norfolk Blacks. They are a slower maturing, some say more gamey in flavour and we also rear some White turkeys for their more delicate flavour.

It is a family team effort towards Christmas, Sue does all the admin and orders, the two boys Charlie and Hamish who are 12 and 10yrs old help with plucking and weighing (hoping that Santa will be good to them) although we did receive an invoice from them both last year!

Tom has a real passion for producing a great Christmas Turkey. Right from how they are reared, fed, killed, plucked and dressed. It is all done in the most traditional, non mechanical, humane way and we are convinced that’s what creates a succulent and tender Christmas Turkey.

Just before collection day, the turkeys are trussed ready for your oven. The giblets are supplied in a separate bag for lovely gravy! You won’t find a fresher bird than that.

Our customers keep coming back years on year and some of them have eaten our turkey since we started 26 years ago.

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If you would like to make your Christmas Dinner more special this year with a locally and traditionally produced turkey, give us a call to order, or take a look at the website, where you can order for collection from the farm, which is handy for Dumfries or book a home Delivery.

www.millhillfreerangeturkeys.co.uk

DGWGO follower Anne-Marie Coxon wanted us to let everyone know that Dumfries and Galloway’s amazingly talented youngsters the Solway Stars and Solway Eclipse are off tomorrow to compete in Belguim this weekend!

These twenty dedicated girls, aged between 11 and 17, will be up against a strong field of 50 teams from all over Europe. The girls are all members of the Solway Sk8ting Club and train at Dumfries Ice Bowl both before and after school. Last year they even won Sports Team of the Year at the D&G Life Awards!

The Solway Stars became first ever Scottish synchronized skating team to be named in the National Ice Skating Association’s Performance Squad and one of only three teams in the whole of Britain. Solway Eclipse became the first British team to win an International Skating Union championship event against opposition in March of this year.

They will be next in action at the British Skating Championships in Sheffield in January and then at the Trophy D’Ecosse in Dumfries next March.

Good luck to all team members and please feel free to send any of your pics for us to share!

Galloway Mountain Rescue Team were called out on Saturday 23rd November 2013, after a soldier, who was involved in a training exercise in the Galloway Hills, sustained a leg injury and required to be evacuated for medical treatment from a very remote hillside location.

The team were alerted about 2.00pm after the soldier took a fall on the eastern slopes of Shalloch on Minnoch above Tunskeen bothy; a very isolated and rugged location in the heart of the Galloway Hills.

Ken Mackenzie, Depute Team Leader, who co-ordinated the rescue said:-

“Seventeen team members responded to the incident from both Newton Stewart and Castle Douglas. Although the injured soldier was accompanied by colleagues involved in the exercise, they didn’t have suitable stretchers and other equipment to evacuate him from such a rough boggy hillside.

Fortunately, we were able to get quite close to the site with our vehicles and thereafter the recovery of the casualty to an awaiting military ambulance turned out to be relatively straight forward rescue.”

For more information about the voluntary activities of Galloway MRT including details of incidents, training, walk routes and much more, visit www.gallowaymrt.org.uk.

Following on from the senior Youth Speaks event held two weeks ago at Kirkcudbright Academy, it was the turn of the local primary schools to be sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright. They held their own Junior Youth Speaks competition at Kirkcudbright Primary School last Thursday evening, when seven pupils from Kirkcudbright Primary, Gatehouse Primary and Twynholm Primary Schools competed for winners and runners up trophies and prizes as well as a ‘Most Promising’ prize. Spectators, one of whom described the evening as ‘charming’, enjoyed talks on topics as diverse as elephants, polar bears, avalanches, Darcy Bussell, Downs Syndrome , Christmas and education! All the talks were supported by the students’ own power point presentations and visual aids and it was clear that they had all carefully researched their topics and thoroughly practised their delivery.

The competition was judged by serving Police Officer and Rotarian Jacqui McIllwraith, retired Primary Headteacher Andy McMinn and Rotary President, Dr John Locke. After careful consideration the judging panel named Eilidh Fernando-Campbell as winner and Alexander McCormick as runner-up whilst Allystair Nicholas was recognised by the judges as the ‘most promising’ among the other speakers. Dr John Locke commended all of the participants for their efforts before the judges presented the prizes to the winner, the runner-up and the most promising young speaker, as well as Certificates of Participation to all others who took part.

In his closing remarks MC for the event, Rotarian John Frew, observed that the competition had been a great success and he thanked the judges and Kirsty McClelland of Kirkcudbright Primary School for hosting the event.

Local band ‘What About Wolves’ will headline at the Venue in Dumfries on Friday 29 November when they launch their debut EP – Identity Parade. Doors open at 8.00pm with supporting acts Smoke Stack and The Unlikely Lads leading the way.

The Band which formed in December 2012 are really excited to be performing at this event. Drummer, Angus Spray, says, “We’ve played at lots of gigs over the past year but this is really exciting as we get a chance to showcase our own songs written over the summer and recorded at the Lovers Lane studio”.

The EP features five songs including their favourite, Identity Parade, which has been previewed on the Melissa Gunn show on local Alive Radio. She predicts a great reception for the talented youngsters at the Venue and said, “I’ve got a lot of time for What About Wolves. They show real commitment by producing their EP at a professional recording studio”.

Tickets for the event can be bought on the door for £3.00. The EP will be on sale throughout the evening.