Blackford Glen People With Skills
John Fyfe
Arrow Making
In 2018, encouraged by David Roberts, John and Margaret took an interest in Archery.
John found that to become a competent Archer takes time and practice. However, he discovered that developing the skills to make his own arrows was something he could not resist. He found that developing those skills was both challenging and rewarding.
In his studio at Blackford Glen, John can now produce traditional hand crafted, crowned and crested wooden arrows made by him in several styles to suit a wide range of bow draw lengths and draw weights.
He offers these for sale in the Coolest Arrow Department of his online store, https://coolarrow.store/
Take a look and tell your Archery friends about them.
John Fyfe
Wood Workshop Products
In parallel with his arrow making, John has revived his woodworking skills.
Examples of his work to date are illustrated opposite.
He sells his products in the Cool Woodwork Department of his online store, https://coolarrow.store/
John Fyfe
Western Riding Instructor (Retired)
Human beings use 20,000 spoken words to communicate with other human beings. We need far fewer words to communicate effectively with horses.
Horses use a language of gestures, a sign language, expressive and complex.
They don’t waste words. They live in the present so don’t need to talk about the past or the future. They accept what life presents to them. They run away from it, fight it, or go with it, but seldom feel the need to talk about it.
They just want an easy life.
To begin to be at one with our horses, we need to be more like them.
Young horses learn horse language from older horses. By trial and error, they find the appropriate response to any given gesture. When they get it right, the gesturing will stop. When they get it wrong, the gesturing will become more animated. When they argue, they can expect the gestures to become increasingly aggressive.
Novice, and not so novice horses, learn our cueing language in the same way. When we apply pressure of some kind to their minds and bodies, they try everything they can think of to get us to stop. By trial and error, they find the correct response and we remove the pressure. Through time they learn that for any one pressure we might apply there is only one response that will get us to stop applying that pressure. All of the other responses they may think of are a waste of their time and energy.
Removing the pressure is not, as some people think, a reward.
It is the answer, “Yes, that’s what I want”.
For many years John has taught the language that horses and their Western riders must understand if they are ever to move as one.
In 2019 John retired from the business of Riding Instruction but is still willing to
help people with their horsemanship by offering advice on the language of communication, training techniques and programmes.
He will also encourage like-minded instructors, trainers and experts to run clinics, seminars and demonstrations at Blackford Glen so keep track of Events by visiting https://www.facebook.com/BlackfordGlen/
You can reach him via this website’s contact page.
John Fyfe
Blackford Glen Apiary
The apiary at Blackford Glen has between 10 and 20 hives depending on the year and season. This year John and new beekeeper Peter have bees here.
John learned much of the art of beekeeping as a teenager from his father, a master beekeeper, who kept bees for 76 years (from when he was 14 till he died at 90).
Teenagers, however, never listen enough, so it took several years and experience after his father’s death for John to understand bee husbandry enough to be sure that he had replicated his father’s methods. John’s father’s legacy has now been developed and tested with John over the last 30 years. He shares this experience with anyone who wishes to learn about bee keeping and management.
The bees forage on the Blackford Hill and surrounding land. Their main source of nectar and pollen comes from gorse, broom and the trees of the Hermitage Valley. Gorse and broom bushes bloom in profusion on the hillsides for the better part of spring, summer and autumn, so the bees produce honey with a consistent and distinctive flavour year on year.
Honey, surplus to the bees’ own needs, is harvested in mid-August and is generally bottled for sale in September. Unlike many commercial honeys, Blackford Glen Honey is not heat-treated before or after bottling. It, therefore, remains as the bees intended – its properties unadulterated.
Products made with pure beeswax are sold in the Cool Beeswax Department of John’s online store, https://coolarrow.store/
You can contact John through this website’s contact form.
Grass Roots Remedies Cooperative
Blackford Glen Medicine Garden
We are an Edinburgh based workers’ cooperative whose central philosophy is that herbal medicine is the medicine of the people and should be accessible to everyone. We offer a series of practical courses and workshops, run the low cost Wester Hailes Community Herbal Medicine Clinic, a private clinic in Granton, the Blackford Glen Medicine Garden and produce simple resources to enable folks to practise herbalism at home.
As a Co-op we are members of the Scottish Radical Herbal Network, the Association of Foragers, the Scottish Wild Harvest’s Association, The Herbal Unity Collective, Herbalists Without Borders UK and the American Herbalists’ Guild.
Email: hello@grassrootsremedies.co.uk Phone: 07724 361 240