A reminder that the first communal clear up of the year will be on Saturday April 9 from 10.00am to 12.00pm. Since this is almost the first clear up day since lock down began, newcomers may not be familiar with the idea. It is the duty of all members to contribute to the maintenance of the site and attendance at a communal clear up is a very friendly way to do this. However for those who cannot manage that time there will be a list of jobs on the noticeboard. Just pick one and let the committee know. The council has stopped providing skips, so it is hoped to hire skips so that any large items of waste can be removed easily.

The next meeting of the Kelvinside AA Book Group is on Sunday 20 March 5 – 6pm. The venue is still to be confirmed so it will be notified when it is finalised.

The book chosen for this meeting is non fiction, Entangled Life by Martin Sheldrake. Hailed by the Guardian as ‘this wondrous book’ Sheldrake explores the life of fungi, particularly mycorrhizal fungi, which join individual plants underground in a ‘Wood Wide Web’. The meeting is open to all Kelvinside members. To register your interest please send an email to kelvinside.allotments@gmail.com

Trellis, Scotland’s Therapeutic Gardening Charity, is holding a its first Seminar Series of 2022 from March 7 to March 11 inclusive. ‘Gardening for Wellbeing’ experts from around the world will be sharing their experiences of using gardening in a wide variety of situations. The seminars are presented on Zoom. Attendance is free, although there will be an opportunity to give a donation when you register. There are at least 2 seminars available on each day of the series. To register click to go to the Trellis website.

The next Kelvinside Book Group Meeting is on Zoom on Sunday July 11 5.00 – 6.00pm. We will have a Guest Reader who has nominated the book and will join us for the discussion.

The chosen book is: The Story of my Childhood and Youth by John Muir

The Guest Reader is: Ewen Donaldson, who recently retired from his post as Manager of Glasgow’s Botanical Gardens after working there for 46 years. Many of us know Ewen, his passion for plants, and his generosity and enthusiasm in encouraging everyone to further plant-life.

Ewen says: ‘I’m a great fan of John Muir, father of conservation in the United States, who was born in Dunbar. He was way ahead of his time in recognising the importance of ecological systems to life for all. The book is a good read – his childhood and early years in Wisconsin were extremely challenging at times. An amazing, true story’.

With Glasgow’s Libraries reopening, we’ve managed to secure their entire collection of the book, which amounts to 2 copies! If you’d like to borrow one of them, please drop us an email and we’ll arrange for you to pick it up – first come, first served. However, I’m sure that several members of the Allotments already own and have read the book. 
If you’d like to come along, please let us know by email; make a note of the date of the meeting; and we’ll email the Zoom link to you a few days before Book Group. Those who have previously attended or expressed an interest in Book Group will receive an invitation automatically. 

May 22 2021: There will be a socially distanced maintenance session from 11.00am to 12.00am. This is the first communal activity since the COVID lockdown in March 2020. There are quite a number of tasks needed to catch up with on both sites. If you can join in please bring your own gloves and tools. We will work in small groups of 2 people. Communal items e.g. tree loppers will be disinfected before and after use.