Goodbye Tom, Hello Zoe!

Tom Ewing, who with his partner Jan Holden, has been a driving force behind establishing The Friends of Cuthill Park, has stepped down as Chairman after four years.

Tom will still be involved with the group but in a less onerous capacity that will leave him and Jan with more time to enjoy with their baby.

Show above is one of Tom's drawings of the park as he remembered it from his own childhood.  Hopefully it won't be too long before the park has play equipment again.

Taking over from Tom, is Zoe Inglis, who brings were her a can-do approach to most things.  Zoe has already successfully involved staff from the Co-op to build the raised beds in the community garden so we look forward very much to seeing what she has planned next!

Our AGM is on Thursday, 22 May at 7pm in the Goth.  All welcome!

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Black Gold

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1984-85 miners’ strike which had a devasting impact in Prestonpans.

Cuthill Park is inextricably linked with the mining industry and this was the theme of 2009 MuralFest held in the park.

The murals are no longer in the park as they get updated after each Muralfest but you can see the 2009 ones below:

Mission:Explore John Muir

Mission:Explore John Muir is a unique set of activities that will inspire people to follow in the footsteps of John Muir - a founding father of the modern conservation movement.

Inside ‘Mission:Explore John Muir’ you’ll find 20 Muir-related missions, and some of Muir’s words from over 100 years ago. Your challenge is to complete and record as many missions as you can. 

You can access your free Mission:Explore John Muir ebook or PDF in a number of ways:
- eBook - on-line with Graphicly
- eBook for iPhone or iPad - search 'Mission Explore John Muir' in iTunes or Amazon
- Download - as a printable PDF version (5.3MB)

Community Planting

We had a miraculously successful turnout for our tree planting today! 

Sixty two people (yes, 62!)came along on a windy but otherwise wonderful day to plant the Harvest Pack we got from the Woodland Trust.

We planted 420 blackthorn, crab apple, dog rose, elder and hazel trees to form a hedge along the edge of the community garden.

As well as planting our hedge we also

• pruned and espaliered the fruit trees

• weeded the paths and beds

• filled a raised bed with soil

• covered part of the garden with weed supressing fabric

• litterpicked the park

Our 101yr old visitor with daughter Mary

The Guides are great supporters of Cuthill Park!

Still smiling!

Joy!!! 

And we had the excitement of being visited by a 20week old baby & a 101 year old lady on the same day! What with guides, a local councillor, mothers with toddlers, the headteacher of the Infant School, young families, senior citizens, four LDS missionaries & some dogs, it was truly a COMMUNITY garden today.

Thank you to the Woodland Trust for donating the trees and thank you everyone who helped to make the day such a success.  

Pruning & Espaliering.

We have finally got the first of the apple trees pruned & espaliered, thanks to our resident expert, Malcolm.

Hopefully we'll get more done on Saturday while the tree planting is underway.

20 things to do with sticks

Sticks are probably the world's oldest toys!
With a bit of imagination they can be absolutely anything - from antlers to magic wands, catapults to marshmallow forks!
Get some more ideas for fun stick adventures:  
    

5 reasons why sticks are brilliant!

• You can find them anywhere - your garden, the woods, your school grounds or local park, your street...
• Anyone can play with them - small children, big children, grown-ups, even pets!
• They're fantastic for inspiring fun adventures.
• There's no such thing as an ordinary stick - they can be absolutely anything, it's all down to your imagination.
• They're FREE!

(via Nature Detectives)