 From this Friday, 3rd July, both Ardfern and Craobh shops have asked that customers wear a face covering while they are in the shop.
Covering your face shows that you do not want others to be infected; it protects our vital shop workers from infection as well minimizing the indirect risk to vulnerable members of the community. Both shops have some masks available if you forget to bring one, but there may be considerable demand at first, so if you don’t have one already please try to make sure you get a face covering of some sort by the end of the week. We should make it clear by our behaviour that protecting our community is still our highest priority. Latest Guidelines: https://www.gov.scot/…/coronavirus-covid-19-scotla…/pages/2/ Please get in touch if you need advice; email cov@ardfern.net Thank you for your continuing patience and care. About the Coordination Group Our group includes representatives from the Community Council, Craignish Village Hall, Craignish Community Company and other local organisations. We are working with a team of local volunteers to help vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our community and make sure everybody works together and is kept reliably informed. Issued on behalf of Craignish Community Council Coronavirus Coordination Group We would like to draw your attention in particular to two new local services you can call on if you are stuck at home: Pick-up & Delivery If you are in the vulnerable category, and/or you don’t have transport, contact the Craignish deliveries and pick-ups team by calling or texting Simon Bevan who will call back to get details: 07808 276944 Prescriptions In addition to all the offers on Facebook (not instead) we also have a team doing regular trips to pharmacies in Oban and Lochgilphead. Contact Chrissie Saunders with details (and don't forget to give your number, specify the pharmacy, give your address+postcode and the number of items) and they will pick up and deliver. Medical info will be kept completely confidential: 07900 286936   Issued on behalf of the Craignish community council Coronavirus (COVID-19) – local coordination group
In order to be prepared for any developments in the situation, and to make sure we are doing all we can to protect and reassure vulnerable members of the community, we have set up a working group which includes representatives from the Community Council, Craignish Village Hall and Craignish Community Company. This group, which met today, will be conferring every week, and as the need arises, and will work with other local groups and businesses to make sure that any actions we take are coordinated and everybody is kept well informed. In the meantime, if you have any questions our advice is to use official sources and be wary of rumours or speculation. https://www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus gives comprehensive information. There is an official helpine for general enquiries on 0800 028 2816. The NHS advice for avoiding contracting this or other infections is · avoid direct hand contact with your eyes, nose and mouth · maintain good hand hygiene – wash your hands with soap and water or alcohol hand sanitiser before eating and drinking, and after coughing, sneezing and going to the toilet · avoid direct contact with people that have a respiratory illness and avoid using their personal items such as their mobile phone · cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing with disposable tissues and dispose of them in the nearest waste bin after use. Congratulations to Craignish Primary School Parent Council who have raised a wopping £4,255 for the school through the sale of the much coveted Craignish Telephone Directory. They're just £245 off their target, so if haven't bought one yet there's still some available from the Village Store.  Scotland’s Argyll Coast and Islands have been declared a Hope Spot – the first in mainland United Kingdom – by international nonprofit Mission Blue to shed light on the immense beauty, rich history and vibrant life along the country’s west coast and to recognise the four community networks (CAOLAS, CROMACH, Friends of the Sound of Jura and Save Seil Sound) that have banded together under the Coastal Communities Network, Scotland, to raise community awareness of the need to encourage protection of Scotland’s unique marine ecosystems. We couldn't be more proud. Read all about it  CROMACH (Craignish Restoration of Marine and Coastal Habitat) have successfully launched the Loch Craignish Oyster Regeneration Project and made it into the Scotsman.Members of CROMACH community group introduced a thousand juvenile native oysters in cages near Ardfern on the shoreline of Loch Craignish in an important first step to restore this essential keystone species to a sea-loch where it was once abundant. The project, funded by Sea-Changers, and supported by Scottish Natural Heritage, is the first community-led native oyster restoration project in Scotland.  Native oysters used to be commonplace on Scottish shorelines, and a staple food for many, but in the last century human predation and disease wiped out almost all the stocks around the coastline. The native oyster is now critically endangered and they are protected in the few places where they still survive. Science now recognises that native oyster beds are an essential part of a healthy marine eco-system. Each adult oyster can clean and filter 30 gallons of water a day, and oyster reefs provide a vital habitat for a diverse range of other species. The project at Loch Craignish aims, in due course, to place the young oysters on the seabed where it’s hoped they will spawn, settle and create an oyster reef. If the first batch do well, the plan is to introduce more, and CROMACH is developing a fund-raising scheme by which visitors and other regular users of local waters will be invited to “Adopt an Oyster” in order to raise funds to purchase more native oyster stock and the equipment to rear them.  The project has been grant-aided by Sea-Changers, and supported by Lochnell Oysters based in North Connel which has donated a proportion of the oysters and helped with the equipment and stock. Care and monitoring of the young oysters will be conducted by CROMACH members in conjunction with schoolchildren from the local Primary School in Ardfern. This will include keeping the oysters predator-free as well as measuring growth rates, weight and water quality using Sea-search data recording sheets.  [photo credit: Philip Price, Loch Visions Photography https://www.lochvisions.co.uk/]
Well done to all the children from Ardfern, Lunga and Croabh who competed in the Mid Argyll Music Festival this week. And good luck to those who still have classes to go! You are all stars.
So it’s been a busy time on the Craignish Peninsula since the last post. We’ve had weddings, we’ve said goodbye to old friends, there have been ceilidhs, cinema nights, boat club sailings, beach cleans, wheel barrow racing, live music, pop-up shops, vegan cafés and that Big Ass Garage Sale. The summer was unreal, with 5 weeks of no rain, though September seems to be making up for that, although storm Ali was quite frankly a bit of an anticlimax. Autumn is in the air, the apple trees are full to bursting and nights of cosy fires and local social shenanigans are in the offing. Stay posted! We have red squirrels on the peninsula, so if you see one perhaps you’d like to report it here... https://scottishsquirrels.org.uk/how-you-can-help/  |
