We were blessed with superb weather, as is our usual fortune. I maintain, however, that the unprecedented attendance reflected an increased readership of the West End Festival Diary. Fionna and I noticed that quite a few people came to support one of the really excellent musical groups and enjoyed it so much that they stayed on. All good for FORK!

The profit for this year’s event comes in at about £1,400, and this bearing in mind the fact that we had no White Elephant Stall, and we also had the outlay for the purchase of additional gazebos. Not a bad effort! The profit is mainly due to the success of the Bar, and here we recognise the wonderful work from Sally Thompson and her helper. This year the Bar stayed open for an extra hour or two, and those who stayed on for the Bar were treated to the musicians’ delightful playing. This was a bit of an experiment, and by all accounts a well conceived and successful one!

Speaking of gazebos, did you notice how the gazebos magically appeared and disappeared? Not magic at all, but all the work of a team who dealt with this task superbly. All who helped have already been thanked, but another thank you does not go amiss!

If any FORKs have any comments or ideas for future events, I would be delighted to hear them. Similarly, anyone would like to arrange the raffle is keenly invited to get in touch with me.

Gala aside, a number of people have indicated that they do not like the system of e-mailing the FORK News, preferring instead the traditional newsletter form. I think I agree! However, it does save us a lot of money and is a far ‘greener’ way of distributing the FORK News. However, not everyone has access to email, and I post the magazine out to these FORKs. Having said this I still have not posted the last issue, for which I apologise profusely.

I would be grateful to hear the views of those FORKs who have not yet expressed an opinion on this matter. If we continue to print and distribute paper copies of FORK news, this cost will need to be recouped somehow. Do we put up the cost of membership to cover this, or do we try to carry on as we have been? Are there alternative ways?

Past issues are always available on FORK Website. If you are worried about forgetting the address, just remember FORK, and enter it into Google! You will then be able to select www.fork.org.uk.

Now three heartfelt requests! In order to keep FORK afloat, there are some essential tasks that need attention. Would someone who has an hour a week to spare like to come and help with the filing in my study? We also require someone to look after our very simple book keeping. Apart from my warm welcome, you would find 2 small Labradors who would give a hearty welcome! There is also a cat in house but she spends most of her time either outside or curled up asleep on our bed, so you might not meet her. And out with office work, we are seeking someone who would like to convene our cycling programme.

Charles Thompson has been generous in taking on the role of FORK Secretary. I am sure that all FORKs will join me in extending a big ‘thanks’ to Charles for this gesture.

The second award presentation, also for community focussed projects, was sponsored by the Clean Glasgow Campaign and was held in the Banqueting Hall of the Glasgow City Chambers. Another impressive event, and with a personal touch, as the chair for the evening, John Summers, the Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, commented that Friends of the River Kelvin was ‘well known’ to him as it was under his predecessor’s wing that we were set up.

Closer to ‘home’ and the comings and goings of H.B.H,

Charles Thompson continues to look after our base house excellently.  He enjoys being visited by FORKs, so do make an effort to go and look him up.  His mobile telephone number is 07505 953080.  It would be a good idea if you telephoned first to find out when he planned to be in residence. Charles is assisted by FORK Cliff Giddings and his team who keep some of their canoe equipment in H.B.H. Charles arranged the April Clean-Ups, desperately needed at this time of year. Thanks to all who participated.

Cliff Giddings has organised two excellent canoe trips on Loch Lomond. I am not a canoeist so cannot judge, but have heard how good they have been and they are free! A FORK has hired Cliff to take her, members of her family and work colleagues on a trip and they loved it. Now there is a Christmas present with a difference!

I have written about our (that is ‘our’ rather than FORK’s) goldfinches that feed outside the window I can look out of as I write. They continue to arrive no matter what the weather. Recently, a very handsome bird of prey – a male sparrowhawk – arrived and sat on our rowan tree. To my knowledge, it was the first time Fionna or I had ever seen one, but he was unmistakable! What an excitement! I may say the goldfinches have made themselves very scarce which is not surprising, as we read that the sparrowhawks’ main dishes are finches and birds of a similar kind.

Yesterday FORK was invited to have a stall in Anniesland College’s hall. Charles Thompson, of Ha’penny Bridge House fame, arranged a splendid show. We were up and running from 10 a.m. to shortly before 2 p.m. There were six other stalls. We were beautifully looked after, being treated to warm scones with butter and jam, and tea and coffee, and lunch in their excellent refectory.

The natural follow-on from this is that we will be able to attend, with Charles’s permission, many more public events and so get our name better known. Our (Fionna’s and my) little car can transport Charles and his exhibition with ease and yesterday Ann Brackenridge was good enough to join us in case we got too busy for Charles and me to cope.

If anyone has not attended any of Louis Kitchen’s river ‘three-minute kicks’ before or after our clean-ups, they are excellent and fascinating I am told! (See page 11.) Louis (one pronounces the ‘s’ at the end of his name) is a highly qualified biologist and we are jolly lucky to have him. So, those of you who rather like this idea, come along to the clean-ups! And while talking about them, the barbecue that Charles cooked us after the last clean-up was excellent and fun. Most of us ate it in the dry and comparatively warm Ha’penny Bridge House.

Winter 2009-10 edition of FORK News

If we do not have your email address (if you receive this by post when you have an email address, we obviously do not have it!) please send it.

I have just seen our Gala figures and I am delighted! Not only was it a lovely day from all points of view but we did not do badly financially either. We are paying £869 into the bank, which is net of the floats. I must congratulate Cliff Giddings especially on the canoes, which made £297. Quite extraordinary!

A few things that have come up from comments made to me about the Gala: The people who provide the bouncy castle, slide and roundabout told me they could not come on Friday afternoon because himself had a bad back. As a fellow occasional sufferer, he had my sympathy, but I heard no criticisms but only delight because of the absence of the noise which otherwise would have competed with the beautiful live music. Some dads thanked me because they did not have to pay out so much! It is decided not to ask them again.

The Food for Thought people who fed us, or whoever feeds us next year, will be asked to provide tea and coffee. They did not bring sufficient hamburgers, so ran out of them, obviously. Do any of you have comments about any of this? It has been suggested that the bar should remain open for another hour or two in order to supply the people sitting on the grass listening to the perfectly wonderful music – and that the music should also go on for more time. This assumes a lot – first that our licence would allow this and the music makers would not mind. Free drink for them perhaps?

Any comments? We had five new households of new members (or seven new FORKs) plus one complimentary one. This last was Nicola MacArthur, from Cardonald College, who won the design competition, of which we have written before. Nicola also brought a large box of delicious home-made fairy cakes for us to sell, which we did without too much problem at 30p each.

Summer 2009 edition of FORK News

I have wanted to put the river’s power to good use from the early days of the committee. We were recently lucky enough to find a new FORK who was actually qualified in environmental science.. However, he thought the river could not produce power because it did not have  steep enough fall.

I happened to hear that the Scottish Parliament was offering grants to look into the idea of producing power for use in communities. Right up our street, I though and I spoke to two researchers from Strathclyde University. They came and listened to what I had to say and thought we were on to a good thing and agreed to put in a grant application to Keep Scotland Beautiful, who were dealing with this.

Richard Bellingham and Craig Menzies from Strathclyde University, who are both members of FORK now, presented our case to your Committee. Rarely have I seen your Committee so enthused!

I have been told that we will not know whether we have been successful in our application for a grant for a little while. If and when we find we have been successful, we will have to discover if we can indeed find sufficient power in the fall of water to drive the generator. It just seems to me that a river which used ot power quite a few mills of different sorts should be able to become the Electric river. There is one caveat. Assuming we get the go-ahead, we have promised not to upset the river or the fish within it.

FORK Gala Saturday 13 June 2009

This year the Gala will be similar to previous years, I hope. Would you please let me know if you know of anyone who might like to take a stall. The cost is £35.00 per stall for charities and £45.00 for commercial concerns. Please put this date in yor diary and make a point of coming!

We now have a new Practical Conservation person – Mariella van Veggel, a new FORK from Holand. She was unable to join us for the first Saturday in January as she had returned home for Christmas and the New Year. Mariella, I am told, wanted to do something positive somewhere and FORK happened to present itself, and the job of Practical Conservation came shortly afterwards. We are most grateful to her for volunteering and to Mike for introducing her to FORK in the first place. I have not yet had the time to explain the ‘job’ to her in any detail nor invite her to be a member of the committee.

However, I would like to thank Mike and his family very, very much for doing such a superb job. His positive, friendly presence every first Saturday of the month became respected and looked forward to by all FORKs who attended. I have rarely received so many delightful comments about any officer of the committee. Mike was able to spend the time cycling up and down the river, checking out the various suggestions made. His young team were  quite spendid reporting various wrongs seen along the river. One of these was reported on and the school concerned saw fit not only to become a corporate member of FORK but also to make a donation of some £150 because they felt that we had been messed about by the building nearby. The reason that Mike quite rightly had to resign was his burgeoning jewellery business, The Bead Company, in Keith Street, Partick. We wish him very well and wish his training of people to run the shop in his absence goes extraordinarily well, so he can perhaps continue to join us occasionally on the first Saturday of the month.

I should be in Brussels as I write! The RSPB was taking a party over to lobby the European Parliament about the Biofuel Madness. However, there was quite a serious fire in the tunnel, which means that the trip is postponed.

Should anyone think that the idea of using crops to boost our fuel problem is either a greener way of doing things or less expensive or generally better, do let me know, and I will be delighted to either send a booklet or a short article. If one should be able to make use of the used oil from a chippie or similar, that, I understand, is a different matter!

Sally Johnston, our Convener Depute, has arranged another visit from the Cardonald art and design students to the Ha’penny Bridge House for two weeks. I visited them and was completely bowled over by the beauty of their sketches. I appreciate I am a complete numpty as far as that sort of thing is concerned, but I do recognise beauty when I see it. My wife is not, and she agreed with me!

Now, please, we need more FORKs! Please enthuse about our charity to dog-walkers and others and give them a leaflet. Come to the next clean-up and collect some leaflets or give me a ring and collect some from my door (address etc. on the back page of this magazine).

All the very best to one and all of you,

Mark

Autumn 2008 edition of FORK News