We have a very busy programme of events throughout the year. As well as our weekly scottish country dance classes, Burns night and St Andrew's ceilidh we offer:
Social evenings
Social evenings take place several times a year. These include our "socials" which often comprise a talk or entertainment on a Scottish theme and we also hold events in members homes such as cheese and wine evenings. A social evening in 2009 portrayed the life and work of the Perthshire poet Lady Nairne in narrative, song and dance. Our autumn social that year included a balloon debate between six historical or contemporary characters each with an Ayrshire connection. Our spring social in 2010 focussed on members' crafts and skills including sampling all the Scottish recipes that had featured as the front cover theme on the past year's newsletters. The autumn 2010 social evening featured contributions on the theme of Highland Games/Highland Gatherings and the spring 2011 social evening featured a celebration of (and friendly competition between) Scotland's various world-wide exports - bagpipes, dancing, golf, tartan and whisky.
Rambles and walks
We hold two rambles of approximately 5 miles in length during spring and autumn.
We also have a gentler walk on Boxing Day. Our autumn ramble last year was in Denham, Bucks in October, the Boxing Day walk at a very snowy Ruislip Lido, and the spring ramble was in Chesham. We also, in May, hold a "dawn chorus walk". Our 2011 Autumn ramble (approx 4 miles) was at Burnham Beeches. The Boxing Day walk was at Stanmore Common.
Book club
Our book club meets on a monthly basis to discuss works by Scottish authors (or with a
Scottish connection). See here for past and future reading list.
Outings
Outings to local places of interest take place monthly. Once a year we have a
weekend away, eg to attend a performance of the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. Thirty
members visited Edinburgh for this in June 2009. We also visited the Wigtown Book Festival
in October 2009. A group of thirty is looking forward to a Scottish Fiddle Orchestra trip in March 2012.
Other activities include gardening group, scrabble, theatre outings,
new year lunch, river trip, summer picnic etc.
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