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
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!
Skye The Turkey Dog!
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 !
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.
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!
Solway Stars
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.
Eilidh Fernando-Campbell receives her prize
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.
Julie Dumbarton is one of Scotlands best selling artists. Painting in a former weaving mill just over the border in Langholm, she creates magnificent rural scenes that utilise layers of oil paint and a rich wealth of colour to create fantastical images that visibly pop with vibrancy.
Her paintings are all about colour, she is always after that ‘colour statement’ – spatially complex, a high or low perspective of densely knotted vegetation, a frantic pattern of grained wood or choking greenery that can be so visually claustrophobic it has to be rescued by some sense of the landscape it lies in.
click here for Julie’s current exhibition listing on DGWGO.com
Her unique paintings are now highly sought after and collected both in Scotland, the UK and all over the world.
Julie moved to Dumfries & Galloway ten years ago, and continues to be inspired by the unique landscape that is on offer there. With coastlines – both sandy and rocky – lochs and hills, forests and fields there’s plenty there for her to draw upon, and she often heads out to explore the area, not looking for something specific but more trying to get some sense of the feel or atmosphere that exists.
Julie often heads out and about in the region, not looking for something specific to paint, but experiencing the change in the landscape as the seasons change.
Julie also credits the vibrant artistic scene within Dumfries & Galloway with helping her develop as a landscape painter. With local initiatives such as the annual Spring Fling open studio event, where artists and makers open their studio to members of the public over a bank holiday weekend, to the dedicated arts centre at Gracefield, there are many ways for a professional artist to develop their style and reputation.
There are also areas with great artistic history. Kirkcudbright has for many years been associated with some of the finest artists Scotland has produced over the past century. Julie is hoping to put Langholm on the map!
As well as having her work shown regularly in London, Julie has also had a record breaking show at the biscuit factory in Newcastle and is soon to be showing work in Paris. Her work is talked about as being recognisably Scottish, something Julie is very proud of.
The Scottish SPCA is seeking loving new owners for twelve homeless cats who are all hoping they won’t be spending this Christmas alone.
The cats, being cared for at Dunragit Kennels in Stranraer, have come into the charity’s care for various reasons, but they all have one wish, to find loving and permanent homes where they will receive the care and attention they deserve. Centre Manager Peter Baker said, “Most of the cats have come into our care as sick or injured strays who were never reclaimed, while others are here because their owners were no longer able to look after them.
“Some cats, like Coral and Anya, arrive under very sad circumstances and it’s up to us to provide them with the comfort and refuge they need until we can find someone to offer them a forever home. “Coral and Anya’s owner sadly passed away and we’ve no doubt they’ve both been affected by their loss. However, they are truly adorable cats who are not only stunning to look at but also very affectionate.
“Coral has a problem with her eyes which means she has very limited vision so we are looking for a special home for her where she will be able to have access to a secure outdoor area where she can explore, along with her outdoor-loving friend Anya, in a safe, enclosed environment.
“We also have a lovely boy called Shearer who was found bruised and battered after trying to survive on his own in an area where he was not welcomed by the local cat population. “A lady who works for the BBC alerted us to Shearer’s plight and he has since received fan mail from BBC news reader Catriona Shearer – her signed photograph is now up on the wall next to his bed in the cattery. “When Shearer first arrived he was very scared and hissed at us whenever we approached but now he’s a much happier, more relaxed boy who craves attention and loves his food.
“We really want to stress that we are seeking genuine, permanent homes for these cats as we do not believe pets make good Christmas presents and they should never be bought on a whim or given as a surprise gift.
“If we do manage to rehome all twelve cats this year then we’ll have rehomed a record 100 cats from Dunragit in 2013.”
Anyone interested in giving a cat a permanent and loving home is being urged to contact Dunragit Kennels on 03000 999 999. The centre is open from 9.30am until 1pm seven days a week and is located at Dunragit, Stranraer, DG9 8PH.
The cats, being cared for at Dunragit Kennels in Stranraer, have come into the charity’s care for various reasons, but they all have one wish, to find loving and permanent homes where they will receive the care and attention they deserve. Centre Manager Peter Baker said, “Most of the cats have come into our care as sick or injured strays who were never reclaimed, while others are here because their owners were no longer able to look after them.