Two Parties

From Jacqui Chapple

Last Friday John and Jacqui Chapple hosted an open evening to celebrate the opening of their new Kilchoan gallery.

There were refreshments and nibbles and the opportunity to view and buy some beautiful pieces of art as well as local crafts.

The event saw a steady stream of visitors throughout the day and as well as some smaller items, three paintings were sold – two by local artist, Hazel McLeod.

The gallery, which will now be open every day between 12pm and 3pm, features artwork by a number of local artists including Ron Leckie, Bill Loughray, Stephen French and of course, Hazel. There are also prints and cards by Maureen Minchin and ceramic tiles by Helen Michie. In addition, visitors to the Gallery will find soaps and scented items, crafts, jewellery and homemade preserves – all prefect gifts for Christmas.

The Community Garden Harvest feast took place at the Sonachan on Saturday 12th November. With nearly sixty guests, the night was a huge success and raised a fantastic £775 for the Community Garden. This should help with running costs and repairs over the coming year.

Jacqui Chapple came up with the idea and Saturday morning saw around ten volunteers and a wheelbarrow of freshly dug garden produce appear in the Sonachan kitchen. There followed a very lively and productive day with lots of laughs and banter and before the workers knew it, it was time for the guests to arrive. Whilst the volunteers made themselves beautiful for the evening, Helen, Sheen and Claire got all the food organised and into the hot cupboards ready for service. Bruce Chapple was the 'Fear an Taigh' or ‘Man of the House’ - he lit all the candles, kissed all the ladies as they arrived and ushered the men to the bar. And after the meal, he and Roddy from Tobermory gave the guests a few tunes ......they raised the roof with their Beatles numbers and got a good sing along going. Innes sold raffle tickets throughout the evening and later, Rich took over as DJ for the late night dancing. There were some very interesting dance moves from all ages and we imagine some rather delicate heads on Sunday morning!

A huge well done and many thanks to all the volunteers, Anna, Kirsty, Katie, Peggy, Sheen, Innes, Claire, Trevor, Bill, Rich, Bruce and Roddy and thanks also to Liz for lovely cheesecake, Joyce for meringues, Janet for her apple cakes and Jamie for his fruit syllabub. Also a very big thank you should go to Helen and everyone at the Sonachan for all their help and use of facilities on the day... and finally a very big thank you to everyone that came along, bought a ticket and supported this wonderful event.

Many thanks to Jacqui for words and pictures.