Friends of Cuthill Park Meeting: Thursday 26 April

There will be a meeting in The Goth from 7pm.

Please come along if you have any suggestions for the park or would like to help the Friends further their aims for Cuthill Park, namely:

• to increase visitor numbers
• to improve the facilities in/appearance of the park
• to install play/exercise equipment
• to create a community garden and growing space
• to increase the biodiversity of the park
• to reinstate the path to Prestongrange Museum
• to promote the park as a venue for outdoor events and for use by community groups

Come along, you'll be made to feel welcome and we always like to meet new people!

What's that caterpillar?

Which butterfly or moth will it turn into?
Find out with the little book of caterpillars - great for identifying the caterpillars you've seen while out walking in the countryside, gardening, on a family picnic...


the little book of caterpillars

Ready, Steady, Grow!

With only 100 days to go until the Olympics, we thought you might like some ideas to inspire you to grow all things floral for London 2012.

Step-by-step instructions can be found in this flower guide PDF.

1. Country in a basket: Run window boxes right down your street, alternating in red, white and blue. Show your support for your team. .
2. Grow for gold: To celebrate the Olympic Torch Relay, you could grow a garden of lucky golden marigolds.
3. Grow a Union Jack: Salute our finest athletes with a stunning floral flag.
4. The Paralympic Agitos: Make an impression on your front lawn.
5. Floral racing lanes: The race is on. Just don’t run on the flowers!
6. The Olympic Rings: Embrace the Olympic spirit with all five iconic Rings.

Chris Collins from the Blue Peter Garden was at Kew for the planting of the giant Olympic Rings. Here are some of his top tips to create your own:
'It might seem like a complicated design, but using flowers such a violas in the various colours of the Rings will make things more straightforward. Plant a nice bright leaved plant, low growing like Pyrethrum, around and inside the Rings to make them stand out. Or, you could just do a simple coloured display using edibles like purple lettuce, rocket or mint.'

Have a go yourself! And don’t forget to Tell Tom what you’re planning.

Grow for Gold

Encourage your whole street to follow your lead and make a real impact for when the Olympic Torch Relay comes to town.

Flower guide (pdf)

Get tips from gardening expert Philip Turvil on how you and your friends can put together an amazing Games inspired display.

Or, if all that seems a little too exhausting, why not join Team CP where we take things at a much  s-l-o-w-e-r  pace!

Nettle Cordial

The Friends of Cuthill Park have been busy in the community garden this week.  On Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday a number of people helped dig up the weeds and level the earth prior to the paths being formed (next week a team from Mobex will be putting down the timber edging).

As we overturned the soil we kept getting an incredibly strong smell of wild garlic and the conversation turned to foraging. On cue, Jocelyn arrived with a bottle of nettle cordial (made using nettles from Cuthill Park).  It was wonderfully refreshing and a big hit with the children who declared it "better than lemonade".

We will post Jocelyn's recipe for Cuthill Park Nettle Cordial here shortly.  In the meantime, take a look at Eat Weeds website which has loads of wild food recipes including one for Sauteed Hogweed Leaf Stalks With Nettles & Wild Garlic.

Dig in!

There will be a workday and BBQ on Saturday 14th April from 11 a.m.

Come along to the Community Garden at the far end of the park and join in the fun.

Bring your own picnic and tools if you have them.

The disposable barbecue is being provided by the Prestonpans Fairtrade Town Steering Group who aim to show the huge range of fairly traded goods available. Take a look at their blog for ideas of Fair Trade gardening items.


Fingers crossed for good weather!

Have a Field Day

 

• Have A Field Day Cuthill Park - the perfect way for communities to get involved in the excitement of 2012 and to feel part of 2012’s national events
• In June of this year, the whole country will be joining together to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee . So why not get involved? Have A Field Day is the perfect way for communities to get involved.
• Have A Field Day  offer something for everyone - they can be what you want them to be! Footie skills, sack races, welly-wanging, tug of war, hog roast, picnics... and there's more ideas in the toolkit.
• If you're organising a Have A Field Day on a Queen Elizabeth II Field (i.e. Cuthill Park), you'll get a free goodie box packed full of bunting, kite making kits, tablecloths, balloons and loads more things to make your day go with a bang! You'll also get a toolkit of tips and ideas, to become your trusty organising companion.
• If you want some ideas and thoughts on how to organise a great event, you can download a soft copy of the toolkit below. But you won't get a hardcopy unless it's happening on a QEII Field.
  
  

  “This toolkit provides a wealth of practical information and suggestions to help you organise a day in which everyone in your local area can participate and enjoy. ...I hope you have a wonderful time”

HRH The Duke of Cambridge,  KG, Patron of the Challenge

 

Have A Field Day - be part of it!

Download your toolkit

Not sure where to get started? Why not have a look at the toolkit.


Download the toolkit


If you would like to organise something a Big Lunch, Jubilee Party or Field Day in Cuthill Park, the Friends of Cuthill Park would be happy to help!

Forging ahead

Three of the Friends, together with East Lothian Council's Principal Arts Officer, paid a visit to Ratho Byres Forge where the railings for the park will be made.

The next step is for a section of the wall on Prestongrange Road to be lowered to 4'.  The installation of the railings and panels on top of the remaining wall will take about two weeks.

(The removed stone will be utilised elsewhere within Cuthill Park)

Show below are the designs for the two insert panels.