Well, it’s February already, and those of you who bought (or received a Caerlaverock 2020 Calendar will be looking at some pics of Snowdrops and frosty coos by now. Hope you are enjoying them!

We wouldn’t have been able to make it without the help of:

  • The photographers, some of which chose to remain A Nonny Mouse, we shall never know? Or possibly coax them out of their hidey hole with a bit of cheese for 2021, as some super photies were taken.
  • The lovely people manning the sales outlets – The Boathouse, Nith Hotel, and Gerry’s Junk Shop. (Also known under its more esteemed moniker, Vintage on the Nith)
  • YOU! Yes YOU! The purchaser or purchasee of the calendar.
  • Some nice people who generously donated last year to help produce this one.
  • And of course the inspiration of Dave Logan, who mooted the idea in the first place.

We produced 50 this year, as we were a bit tardy in getting into production mode, and they all sold out before Christmas. (The 100 made in 2019 sold out too, but it took 3 months.)

Sales raised, including some kind donations, and after costs of sending to printers, came to….

£550!

(How did we get that amount, if they were £10 each? Well the printers kindly gave us some extra to make up for a delivery delay, which was nice!)

We asked the Kirk this year to choose the recipients of funds raised, who will be….

  • The Barbour Hall
  • The Hutton Hall
  • and Caerlaverock Primary School

So even though it’s barely into February, we do have to start planning for the 2021 Edition.

The A4 format seems to have gone down better than the A3 one, especially for posting to friends and family far away. We chose to use a montage of photos, rather than one – which meant everybody who submitted (we hope!) got at least one photo in there.

This meant too we could use some mobile phone photos, so if you want to send in your photos for consideration for 2021, please do – email to caerlaverockcommunity@gmail.com. If you can, make sure when attaching that the email app sends the hi res file rather than a reduced one.

(Google: how to email hi res photos from phones). We also like the “wecollect” app on phones, or wetransfer.com for computers, for sending large full resolution pics.

We need photos taken all throughout the year too – we tried to match pics received to the months, depending on what we got. Subjects can be big or small, near or far, wet, dry, windy, snowy, dark, light, taken by locals, visitors, professional or amateur, old snappers or young whippersnappers we don’t care! We generally haven’t put pics or people in though, privacy concerns and all that.

Just try and keep to the theme “Taken in Caerlaverock”. 

And we know we have suggested Sponsorship last year. About half of the months were spoken for, but with the short time available and a lot to organise on that front, we decided to leave this to 2021 and get a team together to help organise it! If you want to help, please do let us know!