Additional photos from Irene have just been added to the Picnic in the Park slide show (access via Past Events) or click HERE

Well that's it, done and dusted. The final class of the spring season boasted the respectable number of 23 dancers and guests gathering to enjoy a glass of wine and a few nibbles, and dance of course, prior to dispersing for the summer. We missed a few people, especially David who is one of our stalwarts - please get well soon David, though we are impressed with your timing, hopefully you'll be well on the mend long before the classes restart :-) . Others were missed due to their hosting responsibilities, this being the season for visitors but it was very nice to have a few guests join us too. In addition to the general party atmosphere we also received a follow up visit from our new musician friends - for which we were very grateful. I now have my work cut out for me regarding preparation of the dance programme and music for the St Andrew's Ball so that they have time to practice. The Ball is to be held this year on Friday 24th November. It might seem a long way away but there is a huge amount that goes into preparing for this signature event and it all takes time because we really do want to get it right.  There is a lot more news to come about other exciting eventualities but that must wait for now. In the meantime keep cool and enjoy the summer. Jx

I've just been told some of the links to the Picnic in the Park photographs are not working. I have now updated them - hopefully they are now active, but be aware that the 'blether' link will work from within the St Andrew Society website, but probably not from the Facebook page ( I will eventually post them directly there) Let me know if there are any pictures you would like me to send you.

Our spring season is almost over with only one more class to go, and our final event was a fitting success to end one of the most remarkable seasons I've experienced here so far. As usual there are things I personally wish I'd done differently, but the evening itself was blessed with wonderful weather, the decorations and layout of the venue - although not quite what we intended - worked out beautifully and everyone seemed to have a really good time. I have to congratulate all the non-dancers who got up and tried a bit of the dancing, they all did really, really well, especially since not every dance turned out to be as easy as I thought it would be! The food seemed to meet with everyone's approval and the service was outstanding.  If anyone wants to send me photos of the night for the website they will be gratefully received - in the meantime my own shots are HERE (or they can accessed via 'PAST EVENTS' above). Yesterday I spent virtually all day sorting out the decorations into the 'decorations box' and washing the sashes etc. and I almost forgot that I hadn't done these blethers yet - partly because I'd updated the dance programme for next week's final dance night already so the 'website' box in my brain was already ticked :-)  I've kept the Elephant's Stampede on the programme because we all did so well last week, but otherwise it's a nice easy, familiar programme which I hope will carry us over the summer! I'm not sure this is making sense since it's late and I'm tired - one thing I did want to mention is that we topped 300 weekly visitors to the site this week, with more than 2,100 page views - it never ceases to amaze me how many people access this site all over the world, these numbers are nothing if you compare them to big businesses etc but for a tiny society of less than 50 active members we are doing rather well.To all those unknown people who visit us online every week, hello. and all the rest of you I hope to see on Tuesday.

For once I was right and the anticipated reduction of numbers occurred - though we still managed 2 sets easily. The program was intended to challenge but also proved great fun though it was a steep learning curve for one lovely newcomer, she managed really well so hopefully we haven't put her off! The Elephant's Stampede was tackled well, even the set where most of the dancers hadn't done Schehallion reels before would have conquered the dance if we'd had more time to repeat it - which is why I've put it onto the program again next week - despite all the other dances being very well known or easy as befits the 'end of term' class.
Tomorrow night we are holding our 'Picnic in the Park' at the Elea Golf club; as usual there has been lots of preparation going on behind the scenes and it should be a magical night - if you want to help us decorate please come along to the Elea at 10 a.m. otherwise make sure you are there prompt at 7 pm so you can get the maximum out of a lovely night - I hope to see you there. BTW, the dances are all very easy ones so everyone can do them, but if you really want to know, the list of dancesis HERE (just scroll down to the Picnic in the Park) there are no links attached to them, but if you just google the dance name then the videos will come up if there are any.

Last week I was confidently predicting a reduction in numbers but I obviously spoke too soon and we were still getting 3 sets onto the floor for almost every dance this week; we also did every dance on the programme. Even the 'Glasgow Highlanders' which the class definitely has a love/hate relationship with was performed with a certain amount of gusto - not everything went right, but recovery was spontaneous and done with a certain amount of flair! However we said yet more good-byes, and I received apologies in advance for absences next week so maybe next week we will be a smaller class. In anticipation of fewer numbers and therefore in theory at least, an easier class to teach I am putting a couple of interesting dances on the programme - this time the Elephant's Stampede will be earlier so we will definitely get a chance to dance it and we'll give the 6 couple medley Iona Cross another try - we used to be rather good at it, but it's a while since we've had it on the programme. The other point to having a few more challenging dances is that now the weather is hotting up the necessity of extensive walk-throughs gives us a chance to cool down between dances. It should be an interesting class, but we'll see - oh and of course we don't know who will be in the UK government by then either, but there's no point speculating. See you next week Jx