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Avoch Gala, which has been an annual event in the village for as long as most of its residents can remember, will not take place this year. Many families have lots of pictures in their photo albums of the parades, carnival floats and dances which have been features of this annual summer celebration of the village. The crowning of the Gala Herring Queen is recorded in the display in the Bowls Pavilion of photos going back year by year to the Gala’s beginnings in the 1940s.
But there will be no more to add to all this unless someone can be found who is willing to take on the organization of the event. The Amenities Association wants to put a Gala committee together, but has so far been completely unsuccessful. So if you really want a Gala and you’re willing to help, you should contact the Amenities Association Secretary, Caroline Dobson, at 21 High Street (620840).

Chatterbox’s new interactive website has been up and running for some time now and is continually evolving. Within styling constraints it can develop pretty much as its users want it to, and from the initial Chatterbox aim of using it to improve communication between members of its Editorial Team and providing a convenient means for anyone to submit stories and all sorts of other content for publication in the magazine it is beginning to become a much wider means of community communication for news and events etc. And, best of all, it’s all free! (And there are no adverts!)

It can host many private and public user groups providing interaction for clubs, groups and other community organizations , as well as accommodating individual users. It also allows for the hosting and publishing of multiple content managed websites .

In addition to the Chatterbox website at the ‘front’ end, the site works at three interactive levels. Public groups and postings have limited interactivity and are visible to anyone who enters the site. For instance, you can post your events in the “What’s On?” pages. Then there are Community Groups, such as Avoch Amenities Association and the Black Isle Community Choir, which are visible when you have registered and logged on. (‘Registration’ is a very simple process)
And when you’re logged on there are also Private Groups which you may be able to join. Postings within these groups are only visible to members, so groups are able to maintain privacy for their activities - for instance a committee may wish to discuss documents or policy in private before they go public with their decisions.
It’s basically simple, but the possibilities are endless, and it’s continually developing.

Online Chat for Young People
www.lookokfeelcrap.org is Scotland's website for young adults with depression and low mood. This service is starting a new online chat support group from 3 February which will provide a safe place online for people who are feeling stressed, low or depressed to talk about their feelings and explore coping mechanisms.
Contact: Depression Alliance Scotland, phone: 0845 123 2320

by Jim Thomson

Cathy Walker, Sub-Postmaster at Avoch, speaking just a day before taking up her new position at the Avoch Fishermens' Co-operative and new Post Office, said that she was eagerly looking forward to the new challenge. At first, she will be working two days a week at the new shop, however Cathy says that flexibility is the key word.
Cathy has a considerable amount of experience as a Sub-Postmaster; for twenty two years she and her husband Angus owned a shop in Kingsmills Road Inverness where she was the Sub-Postmaster and she has also done relief work at other Post Offices and has combined her work with serving some time as Branch Secretary of the Scottish Northern Branch of the Federation of Sub Postmasters.
In her free time Cathy was a volunteer for Alness Citizens Advice Bureau, and in relaxation mode she enjoys reading and stamp collecting.
Cathy started working in the Avoch Post Office on the 17th July 09. and would like…

Readers of Chatterbox may have noticed that the schedule for the sale of Craig Wood http://www.mikeosoft.abelnet.co.uk/Craig%20Wood%20Schedule.pdf is once more on the web 
This is an area which is a huge asset to both the communities of Fortrose and Avoch as it is the only way in which pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders can get from one village to the other safely; the stone commemorating the battle of Culloden is one of the tourist/holiday attractions of the area; and it is used by all the dog walkers in the district, by school groups and the Step It Up Highland Walking Group  
Land reform legislation means that irrespective of who owns it, access will remain open but perhaps the communities should explore if there might be additional benefits or opportunities if it belonged to the community and was managed by a local Community Woodland. Trust. These may not be great as there are conservation orders preventing development and extraction of timber and ownership may bring liabilities and costs which are untenable.
Still other communities in the Highlands like Abriachan have taken ownership of woods and croft land with huge rewards and there is support from…

In early February, Avoch’s Henrietta Bridge was closed to vehicles after a fall of masonry from the north side. The fall came after a long period of very frosty weather had at last eased off, so it seems that the frost probably got into the stonework and burst it. Temporary Closure Orders were issued by the Highland Council on 12th February and remain in force until 3rd May 2010. It seems that while the main structural arch of the bridge is still sound, the north parapet has been substantially weakened, and there must be particular concern for the safety of pedestrians on that side of the bridge. The bridge remains open for pedestrian use, with restriction from the north side of the carriageway.

by Charles Kennedy

This is a good moment in British politics to reaffirm my support for fixed term Parliaments.
Most countries know well in advance when their elections will be, barring extreme and very exceptional circumstances.
While quite a lot else has changed about their democracy, the United States has managed to hold presidential elections once every four years since 1792, without fail. That is not to say that, in the event of a major crisis coinciding with polling day, there should not be some flexibility.
Instead, we have had and will continue to have weeks of speculation about a decision that is the Prime Minister’s alone.
At Parliament, the weekly spectacle of Prime Minister’s Questions is increasingly fractious, as the campaigning activity gears up on all sides. At the best of times, there is not much love lost between Gordon Brown and David Cameron, but recent weeks have seen more and more personal anger in evidence at the dispatch box.
The rest of the time, MPs are going through the motions, but all too little real business is underway. There won’t be time for the nuts and bolts of real legislation to make its way, after due scrutiny, on to the statute book – so we wait for the inevitable.
I am afraid the inevitable is not just the election, which – for a whole range of reasons – will certainly see one of the biggest intakes of new MPs ever. It is the time after the election too, when difficult spending decisions which have been talked about but not taken can finally be deferred no longer.
Amidst all of this, spare a passing thought for the officials who have to run our electoral process. Just like the political parties, they are forced to play the absurd guessing game of snap polls and ‘elections that weren’t’ whenever speculation rises.
At least we now have some certainty as this long Parliament nears its obligatory conclusion. But wouldn’t everyone be better served by a fixed date of the kind which is good enough for Holyrood, councils and so many other countries, but not yet for the change-resistant corridors of Westminster?…

Winter visitors
Large flocks of geese have flown south over Avoch on 1st and 23rd of December. On 20th Jan. hundreds flew west (not in a V formation) but in a long N/S line. All these flights took place in the early morning.
An interested birdwatcher reported a Dabchick in Avoch harbour on the 8th. Dec. These are difficult birds to watch, as at the moment you look at them they "plop" under the surface and swim for a long distance. They can surface almost anywhere for a few seconds before diving again. Dabchicks (Little Grebes) are more at home in inland waters than the seashores.
What most of us suspected   has now been officially confirmed - that December and January have been the coldest in Scotland since records began in 1914. The snow, which first fell on the night of  19th December has persisted in places until the present (6th Feb). The lowest temperature recorded in Avoch was minus 14ºC on 7th. Jan. We have had temperatures lower than this in previous years, but it has been the continuous low temperatures that have put this winter into the record books. How have wild things coped? Some, such as bats, have hibernated in dry frost-free places. I once came across a colony in an old hollow beech tree. Rabbits have had a hard time, as most of their food was covered with frozen snow. You can find fallen branches stripped of their bark, which has probably been eaten by rabbits. 
Birds have had a difficult winter; the smaller they are the greater the problem. Our smallest birds are goldcrests, which eat insects on tree branches. Most of these were covered with frozen snow, and it is likely that 80% of goldcrests will have died. The usual garden birds, such as blackbirds, thrushes, chaffinches and robins have responded, from first light, to food provided for them. Male blackbirds have been the bullies of the bird tables, and all the other birds gave way to them. A wary wood pigeon even ventured to feed. Blue tits were not plentiful, and visitors of previous years such as greenfinches and goldfinches did not appear. 
Birds must generate all their body heat from food and their survival depends on this and the insulating power of their feathers. It is no wonder that most birds pay a great deal of attention to keeping these in good order.
Herring gulls favour a spot where a burn runs into the sea to spruce themselves up. This behaviour starts with one bird and then spreads through a group, with active splashing and preening.  However their activity was surpassed on a sunny morning by an oystercatcher, which after vigorous cleaning took a "wave bath", when it was almost submerged several times before it was satisfied.
Many people look for a sign that the severe winter weather is coming to an end - for me this came on the cold, grey morning of 6th Feb. when I saw masses of snowdrops and golden winter aconites near Bay Farm.

by Alasdair MacEwen

Alasdair’s uncle, Malcolm MacEwen, for many years a senior member of the staff of the Daily Worker and well known for his left-wing political and architectural writings, included a chapter about this event in his fascinating book, The Greening of a Red, first published in 1991 by Pluto Press. - Ed.

The idea of running a ferry, to relieve traffic congestion while the Kessock bridge is being repaired, will bring good and bad memories to older Black Islers - of how much we relied on the 'Rosehaugh' and the 'Eilean Dubh' to get to and from Inverness - until Monday 9th July 1982.
At Saturday night dances at the Caley (Frank Gale the boat builder on the double bass) we would anxiously check our watches to make sure of getting the last boat home. The 'Eilean Dubh’, which carried six cars and a hundred passengers, became prone to breakdown, when she was called the 'Ailing Doo’.
Some very old people may even remember that just before the Second World War the estate of Kessock, and consequently the ferry rights, were owned by William (Bunt) MacDonald. Bunt thought that he could make a fortune by introducing a car-carrying chain ferry to replace a ramshackle steamboat called the 'Lowestoft Belle' which had been condemned by the Board of Trade in 1935. This was not in itself such a bad idea; such ferries, which pull themselves to and fro on a fixed chain or cable, are used all over the world in conditions of strong tide or current. Enough slack is left in the cable to let other ships pass, so access to the Caledonian Canal could have been maintained. …