This week we were shocked by the unexpected death of Cllr Ian Campbell, Council Leader and Councillor for the next door ward Highland. Ian was a councillor who worked for those he represented without favour and to the utmost he could. He will be missed by all who knew him.
Like everywhere else the council has been caught up in this year’s severe flu epidemic and there have been many absences; both members and officers. It has been quite a job making sure the committees were covered so that decision making could carry on as usual.
Now that the Festive Season is over and the flu bug has been seen off we are getting on with 2018. We are now almost half way through February and the work is unrelenting. We are in the annual task of preparing a budget under what was an even tighter financial settlement than before. We have to balance the budget and make sure it is legal. We watched the usual playing to the gallery of a minor political group followed, as usual, by capitulation and an agreement to support Holyrood’s budget. We are grateful, however, as this means we have a little more money to spend on the services we provide. Budget day for Perth and Kinross has been delayed till 22nd February.
As I attend meetings outwith Dunkeld and Birnam they are amazed at the achievement by all those working on the A9 dualling. The hard work has paid off with the community now having carte blanche to have a major say in the design of the road. This is a first. The co-creative process has brought the community together right down to the fully involved and switched on young  people I met at the Youth Parliament Event in Birnam Arts Centre on 26th January. The young people know what they would like to see and I have undertaken to help where I can. It did leave me, though; with the wish I had a magic wand.
We have had a wet winter but now the sun has shone on many days. I think I feel a touch of Spring, the snowdrops are out and the daffodils have poked their nose out of the soil so we can look forward to Easter and hopefully good summer weather which will get us out of doors.
My best wishes, to residents who live in and organisations who work for the benefit of Dunkeld and Birnam, for a good 2018.
I am always happy to hear from anyone who has ideas or has issues they wish to raise. I can be contacted by e-mail at AnneJarvis@pkc.gov.uk. My telephone number is 01738 475030.
Anne Jarvis
Conservative Councillor

We hope that in this new year our long vacancy at St. Mary’s may be coming to an end.
Whatever our trials and tribulations we have at no time felt deserted by our fellow citizens in Dunkeld & Birnam of whatever congregation (or none) and emerge able to open our door to a new rector.
And while “the cat’s away” the local mice have been very busy moving all our church documents from their entirely unsuitable accommodation in the seldom heated church to the controlled environment of the Community Archive where we hope they will be available to all – as never before.
Two gems worth mentioning are St. Mary’s Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths 1860-1993 (almost from the beginning of our history!) – handwritten but mostly legible and, secondly, pages of Church Magazines. These are edited by the rector of the day, published almost monthly from July 1901 to October 1925, some machine-printed and some by hand but copied on a cyclostyle.
Those written in the days of WW1 are possibly the most enlightening when frankly local knowledge is scarce. They show the prayers of spiritual support for members of the community in the conflict, the challenges of the small congregation coming to terms with the loss of members, as well as lighter moments of social events. Come and read, mark, learn and inwardly digest!
By the time you see this they will be on their new shelf and we hope you will henceforth regard them as part of the history of the whole community and not just that of what used to be called “The English Church”, just as St Marys is open to the whole community at any time.

Eileen and William Cox,
St Mary’s Episcopal Church

I was in Birnam Post Office whining to Gordon about January and how depressed I was with the darkness. He said the trick was to plan things to look forward to. So, I am trying to plan nice things in the hope that this will bring the light back and hasten the arrival of the ‘longed for eternal summer.’ However, this does require a giant leap of faith as with the snow still lying on the ground it’s hard to think that spring will ever come. One thing I look forward to is getting a spade into earth rather than hitting the iron that is currently forged across the flower beds.
I can get quite excited about the thought of a nice bit of warm soil which maybe is just as well because we are being asked to get our gardening gloves on and volunteers with various horticultural endeavours going on around the community. A new advert that caught my eye is an appeal for ‘guerrilla gardeners’ to help maintain the Beatrix Potter Gardens.
I wondered if we were supposed to turn up at dusk, disguised as a tree, or Mrs Tiggywinkle and furtively weed away without anyone seeing us. However, on reading the article on it appears the most accurate part of my musings was the ‘turning up’ bit.
So please do. While on the volunteering theme have a think if you could help with Osprey Watch up at Loch of the Lowes from the second week of March onwards. People are needed to watch the nest and protect our Ospreys from ne’er-do-goods and I can assure you that there are many a reward to be reaped in heaven for that deed.
Wishing you all a very Happy 2018 – I hope it’s a good year for you. Here’s to the light coming back very soon!

Sally Robertson