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Another opportunity to work with Kirkcudbright Library to improve or learn additional IT Skills. We can choose from tuition in IPad/Tablet, Introduction to Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Powerpoint, Working with Digital Photos, Microsoft Excel and other topics. It is also possible to receive individual coaching.

You can access details of open courses by phoning the library on 01557 331240 or if you prefer to work with fellow U3A members in a small group, let us know which workshops you are interested in through our ‘contact’ on the website by 31st January 2015.

This group will be meeting again from 10am to 12am on 7th January 2015 at Greyfriars House, Kirkcudbright where the emphasis is on conversing in Gaelic, listening to native speakers on compact discs, reading and conversation.

The aim of this group is to be “super tourists” when visiting Gaelic speaking areas, to read bilingual signs and have conversations on everyday topics.

By popular request, a Gaelic song workshop will be included with musical repetition helping members to remember some simple and useful vocabulary.

Contact us if you are interested in joining this group.

Our members are invited to visit the Kirkcudbright Parish Church Christmas Tree Festival any Saturday or Sunday until the 25th of December 2014 to see a display of 40+ trees decorated by various organisations, businesses and clubs to reflect on the wonderful message of love, joy, peace and hope during the Christmas season.

Our tree is number 37 and well worth a visit:

Anyone interested in applying for the 2015 series should visit www.thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk .

The closing date for applications is Sunday 11^th January 2015.

In late August I attended the 2014 Summer School of the North of England region of the U3A, at Newton Rigg College near Penrith. 100+ members attended, most from within the NW region, on a range of courses including Art, Music, Creative Writing, Geology and Digital Photography.

Our course had a challenging title. Labelled by our tutor ‘A History of Ideas’ we had been asked in advance to read a list of a dozen novels all published in 1961, ie at the beginning of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ in the UK, with Bob Dylan about to write ‘The times, they are a’changin’, with JFK becoming US President and the Berlin Wall going up. The books ranged from Ivy Compton-Burnett towards the end of her writing life, through Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene in their prime, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, John le Carre introducing George Smiley, and Alan Sillito and David Storey publishing the first of what was to be labelled the output of ‘the Angry Young Men’

Meg Shaw, our tutor, is a former national U3A Co-ordinator for Philosophy, and brought out the philosophical background to the time most skilfully, so that, for example, we could see the characters in ‘A Severed Head’ enacting Iris Murdoch’s own interpretation of the zeitgeist (she being of course herself a philosopher.)

All the 11 members of our group had to own up to being at the very least young adults in 1961: some still at school, some at university, some at work,
And some young parents at home. We typically had an introductory talk from Meg, broke up for discussion into smaller groups, reassembled and showed a quite consistent failure to reach consensus!

This nicely challenging intellectual activity was supported by good teaching accommodation and good organisation by members of the regional committee, with the evenings offering entertaining after-dinner speakers or a visit to the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick.

The big ‘but’ has to be that the student accommodation at Newton Rigg leaves a good deal to be desired. The study-bedrooms are very basic, and the bathrooms-cum-wetrooms so small that the need to brush one’s teeth shortly after a shower needed either waders or a power of levitation! If we hear in 2015 that the accommodation has been upgraded (as is said to be the intention) then I can warmly recommend the Summer School. Otherwise one might choose to stay off-campus, or perhaps instead to consider one of the national Summer Schools at Newport (Shropshire)or Cirencester.

Mike Lawton September 2014.

A visitor strolling past the sedate exterior of the Stewartry Museum mid-evening on Friday 16th May might have been puzzled by the sounds of considerable merriment from within. Had the exhibits come to life in some sort of Disney-style fantasy?

The answer was in fact that this was the evening of a most successful wine-tasting event. The museum is presently hosting a Commonwealth Exhibition: linked of course to the fact of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July. The museum came up with the idea of a local evening event linked to the theme of the exhibition: a tasting of wines produced in countries of the Commonwealth.

Thus on the evening of 16th May some 35 of us took our places at bistro-style tables laid out within the museum, and prepared for an evening of stimulation – of mind and of palate.

We were not disappointed. The Museum team knew that the U3A has an established wine appreciation group, and approached us for help. A most interesting variety of Commonwealth wines was selected and sourced by Magnus Johnson, facilitator of the U3A group, and tasting notes and explanatory maps prepared. On arrival we tasted an English white wine, and were informed that no less than 9 Commonwealth countries (Scotland included!) are now wine producers. We progressed to presentations and tasting of excellent and interesting wines -white, red and rose – from the ‘obvious’ producer countries of the Commonwealth (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa); and between these we also tasted wines from India, an emerging producer. There were comforting – and frequently replenished supplies of breads and cheeses to absorb the wines and refresh our palates.

As the U3A expert, Magnus Johnson was to have been the presenter and mentor, but at short notice was unable to attend. No problem! With typical U3A resilience there stepped forward Marthie Clark, Don Cowell and John McQuistan – members of the wine appreciation group – who divided the producer-countries between them and each gave us most helpful and informative introductions both to the wine-producing histories of the countries and to the specific wines we were tasting. Their ability to cope admirably with the growing hubbub of an increasingly, congenial audience was remarkable. A most successful evening which reflected great credit on the skills of the U3A and museum teams: one feels that a future exhibition of links to any grouping of countries almost anywhere in the world could be the occasion of a future successful event. Ice wine from Antarctica anyone?

(In case you wondered – an Oenophile is a connoisseur or a lover of wines)

1. Cream o Galloway  –  Farm and Creamery Tour –  Friday 16^th May . This event unfortunately will not take place as advertised.

2. Kirkcudbright Graveyard Tour 20 May 2014

Following last year’s successful tour, Don Cowell, Facilitator for the Family History Group will organise an afternoon tour (1 hour) in May or June to visit Kirkcudbright Graveyard. An historic site where finds have included a viking sword and a papal bulla and where a range of gravestones include Covenanters, local merchants, local artists and the famous Billy Marshall who died age 120 – contact Mo Pattullo

3. Dumfries House Visit  (date to be advised)

Visit to Dumfries House built by the 5^th Earl of Dumfries. A Georgian Palladian mansion house housing the most important collection from the Thomas Chippendale period and saved for the nation by Prince Charles – contact Anne Levi  

4. Edinburgh Zoo Study Day – Thursday June 5TH
U3A/RZSS study day on ‘Bird Cognition & Conservation’. Cost is £22 per person. Applications for this event are managed by U3A Scotland and application forms are available only from www.u3ascotland.org.uk

Interested in any of the above contact Mo Pattullo  – 

From 13th January to 24th March there will be a trial run of this group meeting at Argrennan Mains at 7pm on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month. The group will continue if there is sufficient interest

Happy New Year to all our U3A members and we look forward to seeing you at our first meeting of 2014, on Wednesday, January 22nd at 2.00 pm in St Ninian’s Hall.

Christine Fairweather, Manager of Citizens Advice Bureau in Castle Douglas, will be talking about the current range of services she and her staff provide in a modern day Citizens Advice Bureau.