OUR YEAR AT A GLANCE

January - We started the year in relaxed mode with a 'Games and Fun' session which gave everybody the oportunity to catch up after the Christmas holidays. A visit to the sauna at Perth swimming pool, after a swimming session, also contributed to the feeling of relaxation during the month.  A walk to the museum and art gallery gave us the opportunity to visit an evxhibition by students of the Fine Art course at Perth College.  Scottish Food was the theme for this month to co-incide with 2009 The       Year of Homecoming.  The traditional fare of haggis, neeps and tatties featured  on the                menu but we also looked at how you can whip up a healthy and inexpensive meal from
       the foodstuffs in your cupboard, as January can be a very long month after the financial
       burden of Christmas and the New Year. We ended this month with a visit to the Edinburgh
       Museum of Childhood which gave us an insight into aspects of Scottish cultural heritage
       and the opportunity to reminisce on the toys we played with when we were children.

Cooking up some traditional fare

February - During February our workshops adopted a reading theme where we looked at
folk tales, crossword puzzles and also reading a play.
The cooking theme for this month was 'Fish and Veggies' and we sampled, tuna and bacon with baked tatties, prawns and noodles and potato curry. We tried our hand at table tennis as a  method of keeping fit, which was an activity that we had not tried before, as was an expressive dance session which was initially met with some reservation but  was voted a big hit by all who took part.                                                                                                                                   Script reading for our play

March - As Red Nose Day was held on 13th March we took a look at how the Comic Relief organisation works and where their money goes. We decided to hold some fund raising activities which included a 'Guess the Baby' competition and bingo. 
    The food theme for this month was 'Cooking with Herbs and Spices' and we kicked off with
    the ever popular Chilli con Carne prepared with both beef and quorn mince.  The garlic and
    corriander soup that we tried was not an outstanding success however, as the flavour was
    just a bit too strong for some, but the orange and cardamom tart was voted a great success.
    We carried out maintenace on the bicycles this month to make sure they were in good
    working order ready for our first cycle ride in April.  In readiness for starting back to our
    community projects we had a sort-out of all the gardening tools and a workshop on tool
Red Nose Day competition          safety.

April - This month saw the start of an art theme, with workshops on card making and a visit to Frames Gallery in Perth.
The cooking theme for the month was 'Soups and Starters which featured stuffed courgettes and vegetable soup. We started back to our community projects this month. These had been in abeyance during the winter months due to the weather and the fact that there is not much call for gardening during this time. We started off with two gardening projects and a garage clearance job.  In addition to our usual fitness activities we tried out volleyball and on a more leisurely note, several games of American Pool
.                                                                                                                                                                           Card making workshop

May - We decided to carry the art theme into May as it is such a  huge and varied topic. We began the month with an interactive art quiz on the internet, visited the Perth Museum and Art Gallery and headed off to the Crieff Ceramic Experience
  where we  each chose and painted a piece of pottery. We finished the art theme with a   
  practical art session where we painted pictures on canvas.  There was such a variety of
  things on offer that everybody found something to interest them.  We had our first cycle run of
  the year and also took part in a social aerobics class which was a first for most of us.  Some
  of us took part in a dry stone walling course which added to our gardening skills, this was
  quite strenuous  but left us with a sense of achievement when we viewed our handiwork.
  One of our gardening jobs involved painting a trellis, a time consuming and fiddly exercise but
  one that the left us with a feeling of satisfaction on a job well done.
Ceramic Experience

June - Our main theme for June was 'Household Finances' and 'Welfare Rights'.  In addition to in-house modules on budgeting we had an interesting talk from Perth Welfare Rights Team and finished off the month with a visit to the Independent Advocacy's open day.  Our cookery theme was 'Colours of the Rainbow'  and during the month we tasted and cooked with different coloured fruit and vegetables and discussed the different vitamins and minerals that they contained.Our
  community projects for June were mainly gardening projects
  with a particularly challenging  one which involved digging out
  30 year old bushes.  Five a side football proved to be an
  enjoyable sporting activity with the girls in the group giving the
  guys a run for their money.  Our AGM took place this month and
  the sandwiches and snacks served at it were all made by our
  service users.
A garden project before we started                                                                                     The same garden  after we had  finished


July - To mark the start of Wimbledon we had a game of short tennis.  This was the first time many of us had played tennis and it went down very well.  A group of us were away for a couple of days this month doing a clear up after T in the Park.  We were assisting Can-able, a group from Blairgowrie to clear up all the cans and rubbish that had been left after the festival.  This might sound pretty boring, but it is a different type of project to those that we normally do and it was enjoyed by all of us. Our biggest community project challenge this month was a garden where the grass in both the front and back gardens was waist high in places.  You could definitely see the difference when we had finished.  The highlight of July was our annual summer trip which took us to Aviemorewhere where we stayed in a local youth hostel.  A great time was had by all.  Our activities included grass sledging, which you should try if you haven'y already done so, and a visit to the Landmark Outdoor Activity Centre, swimming, eating out and shopping.  We are already looking forward to next year's trip.







                                                                                                                                                                                  One of more adventurous
                                                                                                                                                                                  activities at Landmark

August - Our theme for this month was Spain.  This involved cooking Spanish food and learning more about the history and culture of Spain. After discussing what we already knew about Spain we decided that we would like to know more about Spanish History, Bullfighting and Spanish Dance.  We charted the outcome of the Spanish Civil War for our history session then briefly looked at bullfighting, but as this was quite an upsetting subject and everybody was anti-bullfighting we decided to look at other Spanish festivals. We finished this session by watching a video of La Tomatina Festival where hundreds of people throw tomatoes.  For the Spanish dance session we hired CDs from the library and had a dance session that was a mixture of Ibiza clubbing and Flamenco dancing.   To finish off this theme we had a visit to Glasgow where we visited an art
   gallery and then visited a  tapas bar to sample traditional Spanish food.  Although the restaurant was
   beautiful the food was not  to  everybody's taste but everybody agreed that it had been fun to try
   something different.  August also saw us visiting Edinburgh to experience the Fringe Festival and finish
   off the day with an Italian meal.  In addition to our gardening projects this month we helped two of our
   own service users move house.  In one case the flat was on the second floor and it took quite a bit of
   manoeuvring to get the larger items up the stairs but the second one was on the ground floor which
   was much easier. Both of them are now happily settled into their new homes




A visit to Glasgow Art Gallery


September - The cookery theme for this month was 'People's Favourite Meals' where we asked each member of the group to select one of their favourite meals for the group to cook.  Favourites such as lasagne, stovies and macaroni cheese featured on the menu this month.  The workshop theme was 'Music' .  We had a musical quiz, played some musical games and had a rhythm session using kitchen equipment for musical instruments.  The rest of the month was devoted to preparing for a visit to Heartland FM where we were going to record our favourite musical tracks for a radio programme called 'Personal Choice'.   We had a talk on the history
of Heartland FM and were given tips on how to put our songs in an order that would work well.  We were each going to introduce our favourite song and say why we liked it or how it was important to us, so we spent some time practising this before visiting Pitlochry to record the show.  We each have a CD of all the music that was recorded as a memento of the day.  We continued with our gardening projects during the month and also with our health and                  Our visit to Heartland FM
wellbeing activities which this month included visits to the gym, badminton,swimmimg,
walking and a  game of pool at which the girls held their own with a few wins, but overall
the boys did better.

October  - As Halloween falls in October we decided to hold a Halloween party to which we would invite the members of Can-Able, the project with which we did the T in the Park clear up.  We looked at the folklore and traditions associated with
  Halloween then set about making costumes and decorations for the party. We cooked lots of  
  food for the buffet  and arranged games and competitions. The party was hailed as a great
  success by all who attended and one member commented that  'It was great fun, I felt young  
  today, like I could let my hair down'  To co-incide with the Halloween theme we visited the 
  Edinburgh Dungeons during the month - quite scary at times but thoroughly enjoyed by all.  In
  addition to the gardening projects this month we helped to clear out a stables and
  outhouses.   We filled three van loads of rubbish for the dump and built a bonfire with the old
Getting ready for Halloween      wood.  It was a  long and tiring day and the client was delighted with the result and the effort
                                                          that had gone into the task.  The weather started to change this month which put paid to one
                                                          of our walking activities which was a planned walk up Moncrieffe Hill but the route was quite 
                                                          slippery due to morning frost so this had to be abandoned in favour of a less hazardous
                                                          route.

November - 'Household Hints and Tips' was our theme for this month and we began the month with a laundry workshop, looking at how to successfully wash and care for clothes without your whites going pink or shrinking your favourite woollen jumper.  Instead of coming in during the day on 5th November we met in the evening so that we could go as a group to watch the'Bonfire Night ' fireworks. We met at the project for a plate of soup (which we had made the day before) and then walked down to see the bonfire being lit and the spectacular firwork display that followed.  Later in the month we arranged to meet up with Dundee Six Circle Group at the Megabowl in Dundee for some tenpin bowling action.  It was good to meet up with another group and form new friendships.  The groups were mixed up in each lane and it did not matter who was winning as the real winner was Six Circle with the companionship and spirit demonstrated by both groups.   A trip to the library later in the month gave us the opportunity to browse around the books and find out what was available from the local library.  During the rest of the month  we started to look forward to Christmas
and held a Christmas crafts session.  A computer workshop was held at the end of the month and at this we learned how  to create e-mail accounts and how to search the internet for             A ten pin bowling game
information.

December - As you would expect December was dedicated to all things Christmas.  Some of us finished making the Christmas decorations we had started at our Christmas crafts session, others put them up and the rest of the group made a
      hearty pot of soup.   During the month we spent some time at the Gateway helping Perth &  
      Kinross Association of Voluntary Services with their Christmas gift appeal. We spent the time
      sorting through the donated gifts they had received, putting them into age groups and helping
      to  wrap them ready for distribution to families who are experiencing financial difficulties.  Mid
      December was spent on home baking activities, we made mince pies and low fat chocolate
      brownies which were greatly enjoyed by all.  Our Christmas celebrations were rounded off with
      a trip to The Isle of Skye Hotel for our Christmas lunch.  Everyone enjoyed their lunch and set
Getting ready for Christmas   off home to start the holidays on a positive note, having enjoyed a good chat, a warm relaxed
                                                       atmosphere and lots of delicious food.