On Thursday 17 August John Mustard's Cello Studio and friends put on a fund raising concert in our Abbey Church.

The beneficiaries of the evening were two. First our own new Guest House building Project. Then quite a new local charity called SurfABLE. This organisation helps people with impaired abilities to enjoy the surf around the Moray Firth coast line.

Our Transepts were packed to capacity, and beyond, for a really wonderful evening's performance, featuring, in particular, local and youthful musicians. John Mustard's Cello Quartet sometimes became a Quintet, as it played, with full and beautiful sound, a variety of pieces specially arranged. Their programme was interspersed by pieces for solo clarinet, played by the famous American Clarinetist Carl Topilow. He most generously gave his virtuoso performance gratis: his first ever in a mediaeval Abbey! He was accompanied on the piano, also with virtuosic skill, by our own local Adam Csenki.

Large machines are already hard at work on our building site, preparing the ground for the formal stone laying ceremony scheduled for 8 September.