A happy accident led to Fiona MacKenzie joining the FHT team – where she’s since held a variety of vital roles!
I first became involved with Findhorn Hinterland Trust through a kind of lucky accident, or serendipity. I came home at lunch time one day to a message on my answer machine from Jonathan Caddy, asking if I could take minutes for a meeting – in two hours’ time! I did have experience of minute-taking, which I had done as a volunteer for various organisations I had belonged to over the years. And I had space for some more work. So I called him back and said yes – only to discover when I got there that he had thought I was a different person! However it worked out well, and here I still am, 10 years later.
Besides taking the minutes at the trustees meetings, I now also do some administrative work on our shared Google drive. Recently I took on the role of interim secretary to the Trust, when the person in that role had to leave suddenly and unexpectedly. I took it on in order to give the trust time to look for a replacement.
This was when we were navigating restructuring the Trust, and Jonanthan’s retirement as chairperson, and we needed someone to step in quickly. This is a temporary situation and I hope we find someone who enjoys this kind of work to fill the role.
I have always loved nature. I grew up in the countryside on the west coast of Scotland. Our playground was fields and the open hillside, and we were allowed to roam freely for hours of the day, jumping through bracken and climbing in bushes. We would be outside even on rainy days. The outdoors was as much a part of our existence as indoors.
I learned to swim in a lily pond and we could skate on the ice in winter. In spring we marvelled at an abundance of dragonflies of all colours. In the evenings we would often sit and watch the sunset, and look for pictures in the clouds. I don’t remember being cold or wet, though we must have been at times. I only remember the fun and the beauty of it all.
My mother taught us the names of all the flowers and all the trees. We would pick wild hazelnuts on walks along the river, and play in a burn where the banks were covered in primroses. My father taught us about rocks and stones, and how to recognise those, and took us on long walks up mountains. We learned to be observant, and to love nature.
Now living in Findhorn, although the scenery around me is very different, my love of nature endures. I love to see the wild flowers in the dunes, the delicate blue harebells and little pansies, the heather and the gorse, and to listen to the song of the birds: skylarks, yellowhammers and others.
I appreciate the work of the Trust in documenting and showing us what is there, which we might not otherwise notice. Tiny things like lichens, rare fungi, rare moths and insects. I have learned such a lot about our local landscape, nature and ecology. I have enjoyed Hinterland guided walks to learn about lichens, and recently attended the bat-watching event.
Above all, I love to just be there, out in nature. And I am so glad it is still here.
My hope for the Trust is that it will continue to attract people who appreciate the unique work we do, well into the future; people who will understand and protect our special environment, a last remaining remnant of a dune system that once stretched from Lossiemouth to Nairn.
I hope the Trust will continue its work, particularly educating others on why it is so special, and why it needs protecting. The work is also gathering information, practical work in protecting and managing the land and the unique and rare species that it provides a habitat for, and through educational activities, allowing many to become involved.
This is possible thanks to the organisation being a charity, attracting funding and volunteers. Keeping the charity running, and attending to those administrative tasks, needs people who are interested in this equally vital, though less visible, work. I hope it continues to attract people to be the ‘invisible glue’ that helps hold it all together.
I am deeply grateful for all I have gained from my experience working for the Findhorn Hinterland Trust, and I hope it will equally reach others, and benefit them similarly, long into the future.
Fiona MacKenzie, Minutes Secretary, Secretary and trustee.
