September News

September has been an awesome month for fungi at the boggy brae. See here and here for a few examples. By the end of the month the ash log looked like this:

Earlier this year at a Rotary meeting our District Conference, to be held at Crieff Hydro, was mentioned. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go. On the one hand I'd never know quite what to expect if I didn't give it a go but on the other hand Rotary does have a reputation for rather more formality of dress than I wish to be bothered with nowadays. Our own club is pretty informal – it's good to find like minds where unnecessary formality of garb is concerned (especially at a time when school uniforms seem to be getting more rather than less formal; Toadlet has far more uniform rules to put up with/resist than her sisters had to deal with) – but I didn't know what to expect from the rest of the district. Toad and I have had no need of formal attire for a long time. So long a time, in fact, that we'd forgotten whether he actually possessed a 'lounge suit' for the Saturday evening dinner dance, which is what was specified for men if they weren't going the whole hog with 'black tie' or formal kilt! Then I vaguely remembered dust-covering a good jacket of his with an old nightshirt and, it turned out, he had a matching pair of trousers. He had to buy a new shirt though as his usual scruffs, which are fine most of the time, are not what you would call smart. As for ironed... well... tell me another joke! He baulked at wearing a tie and went cravatted instead. Well done, that man. If Rotary really wants to attract younger members, they could start by learning to 'chill' a bit about people's attire. Respectable is fine; formal – meh!

I wore some plain black trousers, and a silk tunic and scarf, which latter contained in its pattern the same colour as my new 'understated elegance' (some of my readers will get the joke about these) shoes: 

So, you see, we went. The decision was made when Toad mentioned a half-day Zoology conference in Oxford that he wanted to attend the same weekend. "You can't," I said, "We're going to Crieff that weekend." Funny how decisions get made when you think a choice is being removed from your grasp. Toadlet came too. She enjoyed staying in a proper hotel instead of the usual youth hostel or tent, and she especially enjoyed getting to go on two hacks on two different horses from the hydro riding stables.

I enjoyed the various talks and presentations and an enjoyable walk with a few others along the River Earn on the Saturday afternoon. The best speakers were the younguns, confirming the conference theme of "Today's Youth – Tomorrow's Rotarians". Eleven and twelve year olds from Luss Primary School spoke about their highly successful hatching of powan fish eggs and the release of the hatchlings into Loch Lomond. The powan fish is native to Loch Lomond and only Loch Lomond and is suffering from predation of its eggs by an alien invader fish. You can read more about their success here.

The Lussers were followed by three brilliant young debaters from the third and fourth year at Glasgow High School defining "Britishness" in the here and now. Other young speakers included three young professional women who had been on a group study exchange to India and spoke of their experiences, what they had learned and the friendships they had made. Two members of Renfrew Interact Club came and spoke, with much humour and evident enjoyment, about what they get up to, and there was a presentation by members of the district Youth Leadership Award scheme.

The older, more practised Rotarian speakers were no less interesting in what they had to say but my overall impression was that they simply had too much to say. Perhaps they had not had the benefit of learning how to be succinct that the younger people clearly had. Or maybe young people are just better at cutting through padding and speaking more to the point.

The only thing I really disliked about the conference was the fact that (a) there was a Sunday morning religious 'service', and (b) it was overtly christian in flavour instead of being, as in my opinion it should if there must be a service at all, non-denominational, even non-religious, while still encompassing the universal secular values and ethics of all Rotarians whether they are religious or not. I did give some 'feedback' about this on one of the available forms, though whether anyone will take any notice remains to be seen. In my view secularity is something else Rotary officials need to think about if they want to attract more young people to become Rotarians.

Overall an enjoyable weekend, and the food was fab.

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The first half of September was quite cold, marking the getting out of sheepskin slippers and the stacking of the winter wood supply. The second half was milder and typified by the penultimate day of the month when Little She Bear and I used my last year's christmas present from DivingDaughter – a champagne tea at a local hotel. We went for a wee walk on the loch moraine afterwards while the tide was out and enjoyed the blueness of the day and looking across at the beauty of our home ground.

Happy October, folks!