The Wee Vine

It’s been a busy few months for Kippen Playgroup and Toddlers, not only with the regular sessions, but also with our AGM and the ever popular bottle stall we run at the Street Fayre.  We would like to extend our heartfelt thank you to the community for helping us, once again, by donating an extraordinary amount of bottles and then supporting us by visiting the stall on the day. We managed to raise an impressive £685 for playgroup and toddlers, with 10% going to the over 60’s Christmas dinner fund. So thank you…and remember to stash all those unwanted bottles for next year!

Springtime for the children at Kippen Playgroup has provided a great opportunity to connect with the natural world and our fully qualified play leaders, Jane and Pam, have been encouraging the kids to go all green-fingered by planting sunflowers, creating personal gardens and adding to Kippen’s stunning blossom display by making their very own cherry blossom tree at playgroup.  There’s also been much interest in caterpillars and butterflies, and of course springtime’s star of the show…the mighty tadpole! The children have been experiencing one of life’s earliest rites of passage by watching, in shock and awe, the metamorphosis of the common frog; and, as we all know, it never fails in its wonder.

With ponds and their inhabitants being de rigueur, we had our annual outing to June Waley’s garden for some pond dipping, guddling and mini gorge walking. The children get so much joy from it, whatever the weather, and we are forever grateful to June that she lets them descend on her garden with such vim! The opportunities for learning in this environment extend all the way from a respect and love of the natural world right through to the basics of staying safe at the side of the pond, how to use the nets and how no good ever comes from splashing others when they’re not expecting it! Children who are allowed to take part in this kind of experiential learning will develop confidence and the ability to assess and manage their own risk. Communication, cooperation and resilience all improve simply by having fun playing in a garden and guddling around in a burn.

Kippen Playgroup is about to break for the summer after another busy and successful year, but if you are interested in enrolling your child for next term then please get in touch with Jane Bain via kippenplaygroup@gmail.com. During term time we run two Playgroup sessions per week: Tuesdays and Fridays 9:30-12pm. Two years to pre-school welcome.

Our burgeoning toddler group continues to be a welcoming and friendly get together where mums, dads, grans and grandads can pop in for cake and a chinwag whilst the kids get on with the serious business of playing and forging friendships. We’ve seen a flurry of brand new babies recently, which we’ve found can either cause overwhelming broodiness among other mums or the total opposite! Either way everyone is enjoying some newborn cuddles whilst the ‘new mums’ get to actually drink their tea and perhaps even have a biscuit! We meet at the village hall every Thursday throughout the year, 10:15-12pm, and we welcome little ones from birth to pre-school. Just drop in!

Sion Bingham, aged 20, has been a member of the British Telemark Ski Team for 3 years.  He races on the Telemark World Cup circuit and has competed in 2 senior and 3 junior World Telemark Championships.

Racing in France: Giant Slalom section of the race

Telemarking is a discipline which crosses the boundary between normal alpine skiing, ski jumping and cross country skiing.  It is the original form of skiing, where the skier’s heels are not fixed to the skis. The races are an interesting composite of a Giant Slalom, a ski jump, where the racers are required to jump about 30m and with a big-time penalty if the line is not reached, a banked 360⁰  “loom” and a cross country skating section.

Sion’s summer programme is based around improving his aerobic fitness, strength and conditioning and balance work.  This programme has been devised with advice and support from Andrew Patterson of Framework Clinics.  Framework have helpfully also fixed his many injuries as and when required! All this support has been very much appreciated.

You can follow Sion’s racing and training by liking his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sionbtelemark/.

Simon & Jean

By Jeremy Pemberton-Pigott

When the famous Kippen “Big Vine” was finally cut in 1964 by Selby Buchanan, over a century of village heritage was resigned to the history books only to be read about by future generations. Some people in the village tried to preserve the “Big Vine” by taking cuttings to grow the vine for themselves in their own greenhouses. After living in the village for 12 years, I was interested in getting a hold of cutting for myself and tracked down one of the many recipients of the original cuttings Fiona and Lindsay Macdonald that had the vine flourishing in their greenhouse. I took a number of cuttings but only 3 survived.  I planted 2 in my own greenhouse and the other was given to Gartmore House to cultivate in their large greenhouses. Five years later I was interested to see if it would be possible to make wine from these grapes that were now producing a healthy crop of grape bunches.

Grapes still green mid-summer

The grape variety that the cutting was taken from is the Gros Colman variety, the vine which most famously produced nearly 4,000 bunches from one vine in the original Kippen Vine. They were originally produced in Kippen as eating grapes. I researched on the internet to see if there was any history of wine production using this grape variety. There was very little mention of wine production with the Gros Colman apart from in the late 1800’s in India. Some hybrid varieties of the Gros Colman had gone on to be used for wine production in France but again, very little information was to be found.

Turning red in the Autumn

“Hey, well why not give it a go!” I said. My vines had not expanded enough to produce enough grape bunches  to make a significant volume of wine, so I combined crops with my original donor Fiona Macdonald  and set about harvesting the grapes in October 2014 when most of the grapes had turned from green to dark red and as the leaves were falling off the vine.

Bunches “a plenty”                                              Grapes being harvested

After cutting the grape bunches from the vines, I picked the individual grapes off the stems and placed them in a plastic VAT. It was tempting to employ local “Kippen ladies” to press the vines in the traditional manner with their feet, but instead decided to crush the vines using a potato masher.

The finished product has a similar colour to a dark Rose. It has a naturally sharp flavour which can be softened by adding sweetener when bottling. I wait to see what it will taste like once it has fully matured. Perhaps a tipple in the summer of 2017 is the time to try!

Bottled and ready for drinking

If you are looking to produce your own home made wine, I can recommend Stirling Health Food Store on Dumbarton Road in Stirling who provided excellent advice to novice winemakers and brewers and sell all of the equipment needed for any form of home brewing. I also made some Bramble Wine which uses a similar process.

Messy! Imagine the sharp intake of breath when I mentioned the words messy and church in the same sentence. Both the shocked wide eyes and narrowed accusing eyes when I brought out a vial of glitter into worship. I know the feeling because, sometimes, I react that way when my kids suggest a messy activity.

‘Mummy let’s bake, let’s paint, let’s fill the sink with soapy water and splash like crazy’ (not an actual quote). My mind jumps to the messy aftermath and the arduous clean-up, but should it? I admit to times when I have shied away from messy activities because it might be too much work. I look back with sadness at the adventures, laughter and memories I’ve missed because of the mess.

Life is messy! Trying to keep things ‘perfect’ and in order should not be the goal of childhood nor of adulthood – nor should it be the goal of being church. I know the cleaning teams of the church and others may have words with me later, but I believe that following Jesus in real life is messy and complicated. That is part of the reason I enjoy Messy Church and playing with my children. In the mess is where profound moments of inspiration, connection and revelation appear.

Have you ever been digging in your garden and come across a creature in the dirt, been washing the car and seen a rainbow, been baking with children and hear their laughter, held a hand with someone struggling and seen a smile mingled with all the tears? Wonder, awe, hope, love, joy and learning find us in the messy places of life.

In the church we are sometimes seen as ‘having it all together’ or being orderly, but underneath the caricature I see the very human, very messy, but also very lively community trying their best to be faithful to God and to each other. Perfection is not something we will see this side of eternity. Messy is life. Messy is love. Messy is faith. Messy is community.

In Kippen and Norrieston churches, we are joining together with other local churches to do Messy Church. We do creativity (mostly messy), singing (not always pitch perfect), Bible stories (often very noisy) and we share food together. It’s church but not as you know it, and to be honest we’re still figuring it out, too. Would you care to join us sometime? Next Messy Church is at Kinlochard Village Hall on Sunday 20^th August 2017 from 3 pm to 5pm. All are welcome, messy and neat-freak alike, young and old, confident and confused, saint and sinner.

Blessings, Ellen

Rev. Ellen Larson Davidson
Minister, Kippen linked with Norrieston
Parishes – Church of Scotland
Registered Charities: (Kippen) SC004286 & (Norrieston) SC028719