Dull and Weem Parish Church

  

The Sunday School again put on a successful nativity, with some unexpected help.

 

Some photos below

 

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembrance Service

After the Remembrance service in Weem Church a short service was held at the War Memorial with Margaret Yearsley again officiating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wreaths were laid by Mr John Ferguson and Councillor Ian Campbell with Mr Duncan McDiarmid piping the "Flowers of Forest"" after the minutes silence. The service closed with prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The service was then repeated at the Dull War Memorial. Here Mr Ted Piner laid the wreath.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Arthur Timperley played the "Flowers of the Forest" with Mrs Yearsley again finishing with a prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are some photos of the setting up for the Flower Festival in 2009

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weem harvest flower festival

Weem Church, early in the third week of September – what seemed like chaos!  There were ladies balanced on pews, ladies perched halfway up the windows; there were ladies carrying step ladders and ladies up step ladders; there were flowers, foliage and assorted farm implements scattered along the pews and straw everywhere – on the floor, on the pews and, I am sure, in the hair of various ladies as well.

But come the evening of Thursday 24^th September and on all the subsequent days of that weekend, all was order and beauty.

The church in Weem was open as part of the Perth and Kinross Open Doors Weekend and this was combined with the Harvest Flower Festival.

The theme of the festival was the local bounty of our area and the entire church was decorated in a way which demonstrated this. The garlands on the church gate, the decorated milk churns and the two scarecrows welcomed the visitors to our church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once inside there was a feast of floral beauty with each window reflecting its chosen theme and with flowers which echoed its colours. There were windows dedicated to the corn harvest, to the production of whisky, to the local newly created ‘Aberfeldy Tartan’, and to the making of honey, complete with tiny stained-glass bees.  The produce of vegetable gardens and flower gardens, the natural world of trees – complete with an owl and a fox – all added colour and interest to the church.

 

 

 

 

In the sanctuary the pulpit, the lectern and the communion table were all most beautifully enhanced with flowers, with bread at the foot of the lectern, vegetables and fruits beside the table and even a dish of fish to represent the salmon of our rivers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the table itself was the lovely silver of which the church should be rightly proud, two chalices which date from 1748 and which originally belonged to the church in Dull, as well as a salver and a silver jug dating from 1901.  All this was backed by flowers of every shade of autumnal colours.

 

 

 

 

There was so much loving work put into this Harvest Flower Festival, from the skill of the flower arrangers, the dedication of those who served tea and coffee to  visitors or sold gifts or books, as well as those who acted as stewards, welcoming and talking to visitors. 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole congregation of Weem church should be rightfully proud of the weekend’s display, in that it showed us as a church which is alive and flourishing and as one visitor remarked “A really lively witness to the work of the church in the area”.

Words cannot properly describe the wonderful displays of floral art which were in the church over that weekend. 

 

Bòchdan or  Crawbogles  in Weem

 

At the door of the Weem Church two figures stood ready to greet visitors during the days of the Harvest Flower festival – figures created by the children of the Sunday School, under the supervision of Muriel Robertson.

Later she wrote:-

“Why did I have sleepless nights?  Well, I had never made scarecrows before and there was I offering to make them with the Sunday School.  I needn’t have worried, I provided the props, the children did the rest.  What Fun.”

She also added:-   “I hope some tell of what happened when we lifted the finished articles from the work tables!!  We should have taken nails from Mark’s children’s address!”

Some of the ‘workers’ reports were:-

We got a brush and then we put clothes on the brush.  Muriel showed us what to do. We used another stick to go across for the arms.  The paper maché head went on.  Then we popped the hat on.  The hair was straw.  We put a smiley face on.  Then we put it outside.  It fell apart.  We tried to hammer it together with a nail, but it still fell apart.  Muriel took our scarecrow to her car. But she came back.  I had a lot of fun.

Angus Hulbert

 

I helped make a scarecrow for the flower festival.  I enjoyed making the scarecrow because it was really fun and we used teamwork and we got to choose what we wanted to put on the scarecrow and they looked so nice on the day of the flower festival.  

Deborah Reilly.

 

It was great, we had lots of fun. Muriel came to work with us. We made the Scarecrows for the Harvest Thanksgiving flower festival. All the kids helped. I helped put the clothes on. We all helped each other. When we put the hat on... it fell off. The scarecrow was taken outside...and the hat blew away. The hat was secured on... but the clothes fell off.  All that was left was the brush and the hat. The whole room was covered in straw. The McDonald room got covered in straw. Everyone at church was drinking their coffee, ankle deep in straw. But the scarecrows stood proud welcoming people to the flower festival.

Mharit  Hulbert

To my many dear friends for your wonderful support on the 24^th September.  Close to £600 was raised for this excellent Charity

 

Thank you all for supporting Rotary’s ‘Musical Evening’ on behalf of Erskine Hospital.  The evening was well attended, with a mixture of local people together with a good number of visitors to our area. It is, as always, a welcome to see our local participation, although disappointing to note, so very few from our linked-charge with Aberfeldy.

 

Great thanks must go to the Aberfeldy & District Gaelic Choir for their wonderful performance during the evening, singing some eight delightful pieces, which enhanced and enthralled the evening with their virtuoso ‘pipe-music’ - superbly done, and I can only say that I hope that this may be the beginning of a rejuvenated Gaelic Choir coming back once again to endear us, as always, with their award-winning singing.

 

Now, what can I say about the ‘Fiddlesticks’ from Breadalbane Academy.  Peter Butter has done, once again, a magnificent job to get together with these young school children, not only to ‘gel’ with one another, but to perform as a group as fiddlers.  As a musician, I find it extremely heartening that someone –  like Peter Butter – is carrying out the good work to promote music in our current ‘disharmonised’ society.  Peter, to you, and  the ‘Fiddlers’, I wish you, and your young protégés, all my best wishes for the future.

 

As you will appreciate, as organist and organiser of the evening, it would be somewhat inappropriate for me to comment about myself.  However, I will leave you with this thought - as an elder and organist of  the Parish Church of Dull and Weem, it has always been my pleasure to give to our local community, an evening of musical entertainment with a recital, on what can only be described, as one of the few original ‘tracker’ organs of the late 19^th century, which still exist in Scotland today, and is played on a regular basis every Sunday of the year.

 

In concluding my thanks, I would also like to thank all of you who attended and gave most generously towards the Harvest Flower Festival at the close of the evening, for what I can only describe as ‘out of this world’ – the sum of £112 was contributed.  It never astounds or amazes me, at the incredible generosity of our local friends.

 

With many thanks and God’s blessings,

 

Ian Caskie

 

The Snuff Mull Golf Trophy

 

 

 

It would seem that the ram’s horn was originally donated to Presbytery at the start of the 19^th century, at which time, it did service at Presbytery sessions. During the 19^th or early 20^th century, snuff taking lost its appeal and members of Presbytery played golf for it. At the end of the 20^th century, due, no doubt, to the lack of time available to ministers to become proficient at golf, members of each congregation, in the Presbytery, replaced ministers as the players and the current, extremely friendly, competition evolved.

 

Recently, Pitlochry won the competition in 2004 and 2005, Dunkeld won in 2006 and 2007 and Dull and Weem won in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, 8 parishes fielded 10 teams of four at Aberfeldy on Thursday 25^th June, when the weather was dry and sunny.

 

Marksmen 1       first           141.0

Dunkeld             second      144.5

Alyth                 third          147.5

 

 

 

 

'The King of Love my Shepherd is'
An expression of true faith to the end.

These hymns have not been chosen in any preferential order - they all evoke different feelings and emotions.