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Hi

Hi all,
John has made it easy for me this week by asking for ideas/materials for the Crosses for Colinton and I’ve put his ideas/requests right at the top so there is no excuses for not reading it! My own comment is given below to start the ball rolling. Comments to John through the Website please.
“Due to the success of the Nativity scene at St Cuthbert’s Paris Church Colinton, the Rev Nicki has asked if we could construct three large crosses in time for Easter. Suggestions from her are below. The crosses would be positioned on the grass in front of the Church where the Nativity scene was sitting. One idea is to sink them into tubes in the ground so that they can be lifted out after Easter. That has still to be discussed with the Church gardener! Otherwise some kind of bases will need to be made. She would also like a plaque made with the letters ‘INRI’ visible.
Could you all keep your eyes peeled for some suitable timber please. Ideally 4 or 5 lengths of 8’ timber. Maybe something like 3”x2” or 4”x3” or even 4”x4”. Will need 3 verticals of 8’ and enough wood to make the cross members and maybe the bases as well. B & Q have some treated 3”X 2” decking timber which is mighty strong and very dense. So something like that might be just the job.
Nicki’s timeline is: Lent begins 17th February but if they were there for Passiontide (21st March), we would have two weeks of being bare and then however long the decorations would last afterwards. Easter ends on May 23rd.
Thanks very much
John”
John also attached two pictures but I cannot get them into this email, one is a cross with base and lots of flowers, the other is a photo of three crosses standing in the ground. I'll forward them to Iain and he can maybe put them on the website for others to see and that will make the next bit more clear.

Ali’s comments -John I’m assuming we (you and Geoff) are doing something like the picture on the right with the three crosses in the ground.
Can I suggest you tell them you wish to put the feet of the crosses into the ground into a tube which will remain there for other years and do not give them any other options. Bases can be made and spikes hammered into the ground but they are time consuming and need to be stored when removed. I have a post hole auger which will drill to 2’ depth and will allow a 4” drainpipe to be inserted (i’ll double check sizes). All you need to do then is have a post of suitable cross section to fit in or if it is a large square section reduce it to a round of suitable diameter to be inserted and simply wedged if square or with a retaining screw if round. When finished with they can be lifted out and the tube capped and that’s it for another year. Caps for those tube sizes are readily available.
I still have not got round to reading all of the SMSA proposal and have had a reminder from the Coop that I have a questionnaire to fill in to meet the conditions of our community award. , I thought I’d done this but I’ll check again this weekend before the deadline now that I have my emails and stuff all set up again.
Otherwise it’s been another week of packing/unpacking boxes and watching two very able contractors making good headway on our driveway at the new house. Looks as though it may even be roomy enough for me to get the trailer in but I’m not sure that would go down too well. Mary managed to wrax her back last weekend and that has put a bit of a stop on her managing to do what she wants to do but we’re getting there and running out of garage and outside space fast. More culling necessary and I was hoping to do all of that before the move but no I was not ruthless enough early on. If the weather improves I’ll be able to spread things out a bit and make a few nore piles for disposal.
It sounds as though a few of us have had dates now for the first of our Covid Vaccines. I'm looking forward to that next Tuesday afternoon although it is becoming clear that there is still going to be a long way to go yet before we get back to even a new normal. It’s a bit worrying when even Boris is not so gung ho as he was. The Highlands which were not too bad earlier on now have a lot of cases especially in the Easter Ross area around Alness and Invergordon.

Now I’ll get this off to you all and hopefully see some of you on Zoom tomorrow if all goes to plan.
I hope that you are all managing to stay safe and well and managing to avoid slips and falls on the ice while taking your daily walk. If it's not one thing it's another!

Cheers for now
Alister


Alister Skinner
Chairman
Pentlands Men's Shed