\Strathaven
Strathaven Drum and Pipe Festival The excitement is building for the start of the Strathaven Drum and Pipe Festival on Saturday, July 2, at the George Allan Park. Five bands have confirmed, with others in the pipeline. A Scots Guards Drum Major, fresh from Trooping the Colour, will lead the parade with a massed bands march from the Common Green accompanied. There will be stalls in the park and a full programme of music. John Hastie Museum Trust The Trust is extending its already-acclaimed summer Exhibition, “Echoes of Strathaven’s Past” during the weekends of the school holidays, to enable families to come along and learn about Strathaven’s weaving industry and our vanishing farmsteads, as well as our feature on major local themes of the town’s past quarter of a century. The exhibition, in The Granary of Strathaven Town Mill Arts and Heritage Centre, beside the Castle, is supported by Scotmid, and will be open on Saturdays, 10am to 5pm, and Sundays from 1.30pm till 5pm. Book launch Strathaven Gallery is set to host a book launch on Sunday, July 10, from 3pm-5pm. Heather Grace Mackenzie’s book,awakening Child, invites parents and those working with children to engage in a journey of self-acceptance and self-compassion in order to create a more peaceful life, both for them and their children. Heather said: “We come to realise that the best way to learn something is to teach it.”heather Grace Mackenzie was brought up on the Scottish Isle of Islay, daughter of a farmer and a conservationist. She is a Mindfulness Teacher, Reiki Master and Empowerment Coach. She owns a successful holistic therapy business in Strathaven, (www.wheredragonsfly.net), working with therapists who excel in their fields of expertise, to offer therapies, workshops and courses to support people in becoming all that they are destined to be. The book launch will be held at the gallery at Bridge Street. Free tickets are available from the author’s website. All welcome. Tea party Abigail Leille and Lesley Gliksten are set to host a A Wonderland Tea Party in aid of the St Andrew’s Hospice Capital Appeal, in Strathaven Scout and Guide Centre, Kirk Street, on Saturday at 2pm. The Capital Appeal will allow the hospice to be refurbished to enable them to comply with current space standards enabling them to continue to care for patients of North and South Lanarkshire. Tickets for the event cost £10 and all proceeds will go to St Andrew’s Hospice. To book tickets call 07725 783219 to book tickets.