My Plan To Avoid Boredom During Coronavirus Self-Isolation

Coronavirus Self-Isolation Help

There seems to be a lot of advice out there about how to spot the Coronavirus and what we should do if we have it, or if we think we have it, or if we have been in contact with someone who has it. The widespread panic is clearly visible in our shops with the empty shelves, so we are preparing for Coronavirus, but are we preparing for self-isolation?

In our household we have discussed the logistics of how we would self-isolate, what we would need and what we would need to do. We have also planned what we might do if we knew of other people outside of our household were self-isolating and what we’d do.

But once you're shut in your self-isolation room alone – what then? If you're sick that’s one thing, you’ll be ill in bed and sleeping – but what if you feel well. There’s only so much daytime TV you can watch before you go stir crazy!

For many people spending this amount of time alone may look like a holiday, but for many it will look like a prison sentence. Now is the time to be planning what you will spend all that time doing. I have been thinking about this myself and I have come up with a few ideas; I thought I'd share my thoughts because they might be useful to other people…

• Writing Poetry – I thought this would be a marvellous way to express my emotional response to self-isolation and my thoughts and feelings. Maybe if I was brave enough to publish my poem on social media, it might reach out to other people and resonate with them.

• I have been to a few Yoga classes in the past and I have always found then to be relaxing and chilling. But I don’t usually have time for Yoga in my life, so I thought if I have to self-isolate, I’ll find a YouTube yoga class and de-stress.

• Read a book. Again, I don’t usually have the time for this, but actually I have bought a few books over the years that I had every intention of reading and never did. Now could be the idea opportunity.

• I thought I’d give myself a manicure and a pedicure, and a leg wax, it will be a full spa treatment!

• This could be the perfect time to try a new hobby – what about water colour painting? I thought I could copy pictures from magazines or photos. I might be a talented artist!

• What about writing your memoirs? I thought I could write the story of my life in a book or on a blog perhaps. Add photos and all my best bits.

• Of course, we can still go in the garden as long as we are 2m away from anyone else, so I could do a spot of gardening and enjoy a day of sunshine and fresh air.

• I have a lovely DVD collection of all my favourite films. I have a lot of monarchy films; I could watch them in order of their reigns – I have never done that before and that might be quite interesting.

• Some people enjoy jigsaws, I don’t think I could manage that, but I do like a game of patience and I do like crosswords and puzzles.

• I thought whilst I was there feeling sorry for myself, I could be doing something for charity – knitting trauma bears or crocheting woolly hats for the homeless.

• I think the hardest part about self-isolation will be not having someone to talk to and to share my thoughts with. So, I shall take my phone with me and the address book so that I can call people. I will also have my laptop so that I can facetime people and chat on Skype and Facebook (other chatting services are available)

Samaritan Help Life Line

• If self-isolation really does push me to the brink – I know that I can always call the Samaritans. It’s a free call number 116 123. I have rung them in the past. I did feel as the phone rang that I was wasting their time, and that other callers must have been more in need than me, but they didn’t think that way. They listened to me and really helped me emotionally – which is what they are there for. Just remember if you do think of ringing them – everyone thinks they shouldn’t ring them. It's your emotional state stopping you reaching out for help. Its ok to ring them and it's really useful.

• One last thing, these are all new idea of that I think I will be doing during self-isolation, I shall also be doing what I usually do during my free time.

Need Virus Advice – Visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Poop The Scoop About The Town

Scoop the Poop Poster

After Sunday afternoon's prize winners presentation in the Newton Stewart Co-op, the winning posters have been distributed around the town.

You will see posters on lampposts on predominant dog walking routes. Posters were also handed out up and down the main street in Newton Stewart to the shops, hotels and cafes, who will be displaying the posters in windows and on notice boards.

Everyone is really keen to highlight the problem of dog owners that don't scoop their pets poop. Everyone commented on how it was a plight on our streets.

We are all hoping that these excellent posters created by the towns children will do the trick. It's a reminder to people who live here; to bag it and bin it. During the holiday season it will tell visitors to the area that we care about our town and we don't want dog fouling.

We haven't yet covered the whole of Newton Stewart with posters and we are waiting on a second batch of posters to be made.

The Children have done an amazing job and the posters are eye catching and charming. Well done again to the wonderful artists.

Bag It and Bin It Poster

Pick Up the Poo Poster

Just for fun, you can go on the Dog Poster Trail with this handy map below!

Dog Poster Trail - Sites where the Posters have been put on lampposts 

The Galloway Fisheries Trust at Newton Stewart Co-op

The Galloway Fisheries Trust at
Newton Stewart Co-op

I went along to the Newton Stewart Co-op this morning, knowing that Courtney from The Galloway Fisheries Trust would be there. As one of this years Co-op's causes, The Galloway Fisheries Trust was invited along to the store to set up a display and to promote their cause.

I know that amongst other things that The Galloway Fisheries Trust work a lot with the rare Sparling fish that use the River Cree to spawn. I remember back at the beginning of March that the trust was all geared up to do a 2am till 4am vigil to see the sparling fish swimming up the river. But with the terrible weather we have had with storm after storm, the river has just been flowing to fast for the fish so they were late to their spawning grounds and they didn't really swim as high up as they should have had to get to the perfect habitat for egg laying. It's not a disaster, but it could have been better.

If you drop in and see Courtney, she can tell you why the fish didn't reach the point that they should have.

The Co-op are supporting The Galloway Fisheries Trust this year with donations. Everytime you shop at the Co-op a percentage of the cost of your shop is donated to the good causes and The Galloway Fisheries Trust is one of them. For you to do your bit, you do need to always use your Co-op Members Card.

Not got a Co-op Members Card?
You can get one from the Co-op counter when you are next at the checkout.

Or you can apply for one online here...

Or for today only, you can ask Courtney for a Co-op members application form, but only until 2pm.

The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust

A Meeting With The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust

Today I had a meeting with The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust at the Creebridge House Hotel; well if you are going to have a meeting, have it in style.

The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust is a wonderful charity run organisation that relies on donations, fundraising and grants to keep going. The aim of the trust is to support local wildlife both in and out of the river so they have projects of tree planting and increasing fish stocks. They are also heavily into looking after the health of the river, and testing and monitoring what is happening to the river and its inhabitants.

The The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust
Training, Work Experience and Education

Alongside the work they do with the river they also give training, work experience and educational classes to local children, and they are committed to encouraging interaction with the hatchery and the wider community. If you run a local community group and would like to visit the hatchery to see the fish or riverbed nymphs, you can contact the Hatcheries directly through their Facebook Page.

We spoke about the possibility of work experience placements and a visit for the Newton Stewart Youth Club as it sounds like they might have a lot of fun and learn lots about the local wildlife. What a wonderful opportunity.

If you'd like to make a donation to The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust, please click here to give online...

The River Cree Hatchery and Habitat Trust

Six Lucky Winners for the Newton Stewart Dog Fouling Poster Competition

Back in January the Co-op Member Pioneer for Newton Stewart launched an attack on the foul streets of the town by launching a competition for the local children to design a poster; reminding dog owners to clean up after their pets.

Suzy Cowper, the Member Pioneer, said “I started the job in mid-January, and I opened a Facebook Group where the community could come together to share their thoughts and ideas about the town. It soon became apparent that what was driving most residents crazy was dog mess on the street, so I came up with an idea to address the issue and arranged a competition for the local children to design a poster for the town.”

Poster designs soon came flooding in and you can see them all here https://newton-stewart-and-wigtown.blogspot.com/2020/02/here-are-latest-competition-posters.html

Suzy said “Children have wonderful imaginations and are just so full of fun. The posters were marvellous, and it was incredibly hard to choose just one winner, so in the end 6 winners were chosen.”

Competition Winners in no order are…

Catherine, Ayva, Charlie, Molly, Holly and Jack. Well done to all of you!!

Suzy said, “I’d like to say a big thank you to Dumfries and Galloway Council who have been an amazing support and are putting up the posters around the town.”

Prize presentations and the first glimpse of the posters all printed will be on Sunday 15^th of March at the Newton Stewart Co-op at 5pm. Come along and see the artist for yourself; and look out for a prize winning ‘No Dog Fouling’ poster coming to a lamppost near you!

An Afternoon at St Ninian's Roman Catholic Primary School

St Ninian's Roman Catholic Primary School Newton Stewart

I was invited along to St Ninian's Roman Catholic Primary School for the afternoon to talk about Fairtrade. It would lovely to meet the children, who already knew quite a lot about how Fairtrade works and why it's needed. What did surprise me what I went there to talk to them and to teach them something and one boy there taught me something!

The boy said that the Fairtrade logo was a man waving. I asked why he was waving and the boy said he was happy and was waving his money in the air. I had never realized until then that the logo was indeed of a person, and he does have an arm raised. How amazing!

Can you see the waving man on the Fairtrade logo?

We had a little talk about Fairtrade and then we went off to the staff room in groups to melt Co-op Fairtrade chocolate. I had taken milk, dark and white. After melting the chocolate we went back into the classroom to dip Co-op Fairtrade bananas into the chocolate - yummy! One little girl had given up chocolate for lent and showed amazing restraint, she had a couple of extra bananas - which ironically didn't feel like a fair trade to me.

After washing up plates and forks, sticky hands and faces, we got into teams for a Fairtrade quiz. You can get a copy of the quizz here... 

And then it was time to go home. Such lovely children and a really friendly class, it was a joy to meet them.