from The Life Science Trust and everyone in Pishwanton Wood
Christmas Greetings & all best wishes for 2015 Once this chalet is completed we would like to build the next as a course. All these steps seem to be taking the project into a new phase of existence. For the first time ever we have a plan for the next year ready before Christmas! A list of courses is enclosed. We have spaces for more clients and the first student chalet may well be completed by the spring. Events As well as all the courses and workshops we had a wonderful midsummer concert with the Peaty Millers and Friends organised by Alan Faulkner. This coincided with one of our John Muir Centenary events—a poetry workshop on “Wild Words in the Woods” with Paul Matthews who read some of his poetry for the Midsummer offering. Six months later we have just held our Advent fair and another wonderful concert with Peaty Millers and Charles Lawrie of Duns sharing entrancing animal poems. The John Muir theme continued into the autumn with a lecture by Doug Scott on “High and Wild” in Dunbar in November. The last event of the year has been Matthew Dexter performing “A Christmas Carol “by Dickens in Longformacus Village Hall. Our Advent Appeal is therefore this year all about kitting out buildings and financing essential stuff to take the project forward into its new future. With very best wishes for Christmas and the coming year,
Margaret Colquhoun (for all at Pishwanton and The Life Science Trust)
Front Cover Picture from an original by Donald Scott painted at Pishwanton Wood
The Life Science Trust, (SC020705)
Midwinter Newsletter 2014
Quince Cottage, 4 Baxtersyke, Gifford, East Lothian, EH41 4PL
Dear Friends and Supporters of The Life Science Trust The year to this November has been a tough one - trying to survive the stress of human crises financial insecurity and extraordinary weather ups and downs. But wonderful things have happened too - we found and bought Catriona, a replacement Clydesdale horse - who duly foaled in July. Merlyn is now shooting up and besides eating like a horse, is a joy to lead out with mother finding grass in wintry weather.
Animals and Products We had four fine lambs (three Shetland) in the spring bringing our flock to eighteen and wool has been used seriously and often from all of them. We have bags of washed and carded wool coloured by Eta Ingham with plant dyes, for sale. White wool (£2) and now woven seat covers made of unspun wool. It is lovely working in the Craft Workshop with our own fleeces. We also have a multiplicity of cordials and elixirs as well as dried herbs gathered and processed throughout the year by volunteers and students, notably four Hungarian girls and one boy who filled our summer with youthful energy.
Courses Alongside the usual garden, farm and forest activities there have been a number of courses. Unfortunately several had to be cancelled due to lack of support - but those that went ahead were excellent, especially a study/research week on landscape in September with Axel Ewald and myself. The result of this will be published as a little book. Another booklet will be on the methodology of Goethe’s Science and Art used in Pishwanton using plants as an example. This was based on a week-end of research with Margaret Shillan and myself. Research seems to be the hallmark of the year, with our herb workshop in the summer with Maureen Robertson having very much this quality. We studied Leonurus cardiaca (Motherwort) and used the herb a week later as a medicine to aid the expulsion of Catriona’s afterbirth. Such is serendipity!
Clients We have had a number of personal Goethean Science clients this year including a group from the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh Herbology Course. Donald, Ciaran and David continue to accompany all our weekly activities on the land. David learning a lot with Malcolm, Ciaran excelling himself in all strenuous activities, and Donald delighting in baking and painting. This year’s Christmas card is one of his paintings. He does three per week and we have mounted card s of many pictures for sale at £3.00 each and framed the best to sell at £25 each.. Now, since the 1st November Christopher Ramsbotham has joined the baking team while staying here as a special kind of school. He also works with Malcolm learning woodwork doing tree study and is a budding weaver, helped by Eta, Susie and myself.
Quince and Greenbank Cottages Susie Musgrave arrived in the autumn and has taken on the care of Quince Cottage as well as being lots of help in the wood and with the co-ordination of volunteers. We were threatened with eviction by CVT twice in the last fifteen months and were forced to put Quince Cottage on the open market. Miraculously a fairy godmother appeared, bought the cottage and is now leasing it to us. Susie offers B. & B. there, the office is installed in the cottage, meetings, study groups and regular shared meals are there in a new clean and lovely atmosphere. Greenbank Cottage has been let for the summer - not terribly successfully - as a holiday let. We now have a longer term winter let, but we need more students to fill it up in summer.
Marketing On a positive note we were given our marketing officer Jordi Albacete from Barcelona, through the government “Adopt an Intern “ scheme. He was such a fine addition to our team that Mike Galbraith, one of the International Goethean Students, funded him for several months and then :
Financial Godparents step in We wrote a letter to twenty-three people from East Lothian and a small anonymous syndicate responded - they funded Jordi for the next six months - and have agreed to finance the completion of the first chalet. This is such wonderful news and we cannot thank Michael Williams the Chair of our Steering Group enough for mediating this generous gift. Following this surprise gift we are now able to start the upper part of the first student chalet. However, we still need all the equipment with which it might function—chairs, beds, a wood-burning stove and a compost toilet.