The days are getting shorter, and the weather decidedly cooler, but there’s still plenty going on down in the Community Garden!

We’d like to say thank you to Amy Griffin for taking these wonderful photos at our Fashion Show in September. The show raised over £500 for The Hive.

We would like to say a big “Thank You” to everyone involved, including:

The show design team: Julie Jenkins, Jamie Bankhead, Susan Goodburn-Boddice and Susan Howarth.

The Back-stage Crew: Pete Garnet, Ian Hatcher and Stephen Maxwell, with additional help from Mark and Innes.

Our seamstress, Marilyn, and Make-up Artist, Jolene.

HIVE volunteers – Kay, Kate, Jude, Jacqueline and Maxine who pulled together many of the outfits. Special thanks to Lynne and Cheryl for donating handmade items for the catwalk, and to Anne for the jewellery.

Our Catwalk models: Anna Tagg, Innes Ross, Stephen Sparrow, Tyler Wagner, Isla McKenzie-Wilson, Skye Bonnar, Scott Peterson, David Cooper, Fiona Green, Johnny Macklin, Kerry Morrison, Helmut, Nance Mary, Pauline Jenkins, Rachel Hurley, Saffron, Xenia and Poppy. Special thanks to our younger models from Moniaive Primary School.

Thanks to Lesley Mindham for all her help with the Masonic Hall; Rachel and Jules for Licencing advice, Cairn Chorus for the loan of the Catwalk backdrops, and to The Hive, Watsons and Julies Salon for selling Tickets.

Last, but not least, an enormous “Thank You” to Dickie Fusco for stepping in at the last minute to compere our evening.

We all had a fabulous time, and hope you enjoyed it too!

You can read the full Job Specification here:

Many of our regular Repair Cafe Volunteers are involved in another fundraiser on Saturday, so we will just be holding a shortened Repair Cafe. There will still be coffee and cake, and Repairers available to look at your items, but they will only be available until 11.30am. If you have a fixed item to collect, please come early!

Need some fresh air? At a loose end? Why not join us for a spot of butterfly counting? Everyone is welcome, but children under 12 must be accompanied.

We have ID sheets and Record Sheets ready, all we need now are some volunteers to spend 15 minutes counting butterflies. You can either submit your own records through the App or Big Butterfly Website, or let us do it for you. And don’t forget, we need to know even if you HAVEN’T seen any butterflies – negative results are important too!

As part of our new Connecting Glencairn project, each month we will be looking at ideas for getting out and about around Moniaive. These will be linked into our current work and will encompass Health & Wellbeing, Active Travel and Community Land Access. In July, we are heading up onto the hillside:

In June, we looked at wet places, and their links to biodiversity and heritage. We co-hosted discussion on access to freshwater habitats as part of our workshop on High Focus Habitats with the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere at the Glencairn Midsummer Gathering, and you can see the results of that discussion elsewhere on our NEWS page.

Thanks to everyone who attended our Workshop on 22/06/24 at the Glencairn Midsummer Gathering. Faith Hillier from the Galloway & Ayrshire Biosphere gave a talk about High Focus Habitat and species, and Deb from MI led a follow-up discussion on how and where we access these in Glencairn.

We’ve summarised the comments from these discussions, to add to those from our previous local engagement on community land access. All your feedback gets used to show support for the work we do.

We are currently looking at options for biodiversity improvements by further riverside tree planting; and of course, we want any schemes we support to also include path improvements to make it easier for us to all access the countryside around us.

If you missed the workshop, the following Resource Sheet gives links to key information, to help you find out more.

We’ve got a great event coming up in the Community Garden. Put away your purses – this event is all about bartering! Bring along spare plants and produce (including jams, chutneys, cordials) to swap with fellow growers and gardeners. We’ll also be holding a tool-sharpening session, a hot-composing workshop and we will supply everything your need to wax your working boots. There will be drinks available, and a cooking demo at lunchtime. With nature crafts available for the children, there’s something for everyone.