We welcomed more people than ever to our alternative Christmas tree event in Portmoak Moss on Sunday, December 10th. Was it the promise of warm crumbles, mulled juice, or a wonky tree which drew the crowds? Whatever it was, we reckon at least 160 people turned up, including many bairns. 

Thanks to everyone for taking away around 60 spruce trees and donating over £1,400. This was an amazing sum and will help to pay for all sorts of things next year - from lots of bird boxes, for a special day with Portmoak Primary School, to an exciting calendar of public events.

We'll try to maintain our standard of homebaking to accompany all our activities. Marje Smith went the extra mile this time, providing custard to go with the crumbles. The other goodies included chocolate torte, clootie dumpling (a shout out to Michael McGinnes for these), shortbread and cookies. 

A further thanks to those of you who couldn't immediately drive into the car park, at our busiest time, and who were very nice about it. And well done, the folk who walked; that's obviously not practical for everyone but is a good, green approach.   

And that ties in with what we're doing by removing the spruce trees from the peat bog, to stop it drying out, helping to store carbon and creating the right, soggy conditions for beautiful sphagnum moss. It's working! Members of Portmoak Community Woodland Group had a snowy walk out onto the bog, on December 30th and discovered lots of bright green and pink patches of sphagnum and very little tree regeneration, on an area where restoration effort has been focussed.

We're exctited about the prosects for 2024 and wish you a very happy New Year!