Use porcelain paints and pens to turn a plain mug into your own special Ransome-themed creation in the morning.  For the afternoon bring along a favourite book or two to introduce fellow TARS members to.  Come for either or both parts of the day as you prefer.

Please be aware this is up 4 short flights of stairs!!!

For further details e-mail midlands@arthur-ransome.org.uk.

Want to become an Able Seaman?

Attend this event to complete Titty’s Challenge in your Able Seaman log book.

Celebrate Arthur Ransome’s birthday at the Hawes Inn in South Queensferry – AGM afterwards in the Meeting Room.

The Firth of Forth narrows at this point … Right in the midst of the narrows lies an islet with some ruins; on the south shore they have built a pier, for the service of the ferry; and at the end of the pier, on the other side of the road and backed against a pretty garden of holly-trees and hawthorns, I could see the building they call the Hawes Inn. *

We look forward to celebrating Ransome’s Birthday with a great lunch!

MENU

Soup of the day
Potted oak smoked chicken liver pate
Prawn cocktail

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Salt beef hash
Fish pie
Savoury Eccles cake

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Raspberry creme brûlée
Rhubarb, plum & cherry oaty crumble
Cheese board

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Tea or Coffee

3 courses £25, 2 Courses £20 (including service charge). Time: – 12.30pm for 1 o’clock

Booking is essential for this occasion! We must let the Hawes Inn know the number of people coming. Lunch bookings must be made by 3rd January 2015.

… presently [David Balfour and Ransome] were set down at a table in the front room of the inn, and both eating and drinking with a good appetite. *

* Both quotations from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

All Northern region members are invited to attend the AGM which is being held this year in Penrith on Saturday March 21st from 11.00.

We will meet at the Methodist Church Hall, Wordsworth Street, Penrith, Cumbria. CA11 7QY

Penrith Methodist Church Hall is situated on the junction of Wordsworth Street and Drover’s lane. Follow the one way system in the town centre keeping right to go south and then turn left into Portland Place. Sp Methodist Church.The church has a small car park, and car parking is available nearby. 

By Rail; Penrith is on the West Coast Mainline from north and south, and from the east via Carlisle.

Members are recommended to bring their own packed lunch and eat in the hall. Tea and coffee will be available.

In the afternoon we are pleased to welcome Jenny Weddick as our speaker. TARS and NBT member Jenny has also sailed extensively in tall ships. Her talk is entitled – ‘Blue Water and Albatrosses’

Visit TARS Library and Stall in Dumfries

Follow the town trail and help plan part of the 2016 IAGM

Discover the beauties of the tidal Nith, the story of the last years of Robert Burns, and many other Dumfries characters from the past. Bring your own knapsack full of bunloaf and marmalade, grog and chocolate, or sample the delights of Hullabaloo or one of the many other delightful eating-places in the town.

Meet at Georgetown Community Centre from 10:30am and we’ll take it from there.

Booking is not essential, but it would be useful to know if you are coming, so please email Winifred Wilson at winwilson2003@yahoo.co.uk.

An opportunity for Tars in the south of our Region to meet and learn something of AR at the time when he was writing for the Manchester Guardian.

We meet in the Library cafe at 10.30. There is a room on the lower ground floor in which we can hear a presentation by Margaret Ratcliffe based on AR’s diary entries from this time.

After lunch we can explore the city centre and find some of the places that AR knew.

The annual Scottish Literary Day:

The venue, by popular demand, is once again the Tryst in Pitlochry. It is five minutes walk from the station, with trains from both the north and the south arriving in good time at 10.19 (trains cross here, it is single track).

Robert White, member of TARS Scotland, will talk about nature in Arthur Ransome’s twelve children’s books. In the afternoon there will be a ‘bring-and-tell’ session when you can read a passage on nature from your own favourite books be they fiction, plays or poetry.

Further details from mary.pritchard49@googlemail.com

10.30 Registration and coffee

13:00 Buffet lunch

15:00 Tea

COST £12 for TARS members (£13 for guests) includes coffee, lunch and tea.

tbc

Northern Members of TARS are cordially invited to attend the AGM, to be held in Bolton Abbey Village Hall near Skipton in North Yourkshire, starting at 11.00 for registration and coffee.

AGM meeting at 11.30 then a Bring Your Own Lunch in Company followed by a special reading of AR’s Play ‘Aladdin’ written in 1928 for the girls of Withington School, Manchester. (By kind permission of the Executors of the Arthur Ransome Estate.)

Any ideas for future events or offers of help on the committee woudl be very welcome. Please contact the secretary, Helen Lewis

SWALLOWDALE CAMP

Saturday 27 – Monday 29 August

Come and camp at ‘Swallowdale’ in north Derbyshire, close to Sheffield. We will be following trails, having adventures and cooking on the camp fire.

There are basic camping facilities on a field owned by TARS members. The weekend will cost approximately £12 per person, which includes some of the campfire cooking ingredients. Places are limited and booking by 30 July is essential, with a deposit of £5 per head please. For more information, please contact Vicky see  Signals for contact or e-mail midlands@arthur-ransome.org.uk

Want to gain promotion?

Attend this event to complete the adventure event in your log book, alternatively this is a Susan Challenge for anyone working towards becoming a mate or a John’s Challenge for anyone on their way to being a captain .