The Queen's Birthday

This Sunday (June 12th) we're having a family fun day at Cuthill Park for the Queen's Birthday. 

12-2pm. 

Pack a picnic, bring all the family along & join in the fun! 

Activities will include: 

school kids flags, traditional sports & games, tattie tossing, bowling for all, rugby tag demos, and, of course, birthday cake eating!

The Rugby Club will be doing teas and coffees & will have their clubhouse open. 

There will hopefully be the unveiling of the latest mural, painted by children at the Potteries art class.

The Prestonpans Gala Queen will be planting a special tree in the community garden to commemorate the event. 

We hope to see you there! 

Weeding, Woodcutting & Soil-moving

Today's work day in the community garden, in more glorious sunshine, went well.

Our wonderful new Treasurer, Linda, & her husband, Gordon, cleared the grass out of the cockle shells during the week. It looks so much better now! 

Linda & Zoe hard at work.

Chief lumberjack, Gordon (who also doubles as chief painter-of-raised-beds).

Trainee lumberjack, Rebekah, assisting in clearing away a sycamore to create space for the new mural to be put in. 

There will also be work days on Saturday 11th & Saturday 18th June, 11-1pm (& beyond). Everyone is welcome to come & help!

Coffee morning & AGM

The Friends of Cuthill Park are holding a coffee morning at Prestonpans Town Hall on Saturday 21st May from 10am until noon. 

There will be opportunities for children & adults to make their own fairy/hobbit/mouse door, and to learn how to draw labyrinths, plus other activities such as face painting.

We will be displaying photos of the park & community garden, discussing our future plans and asking for feedback & ideas. Please come and join us! 

Our AGM will also take place briefly around 10am.

Some sample fairy doors: 

Raised beds - all systems go!

In the community garden the raised beds are almost all freshly dug & ready for planting.

We spent an hour there this afternoon, being productive & then relaxing in the sunshine. Cuthill Park is beautiful & full of birdsong at this time of year - a great place to leave the cares of the world behind and de-stress. 

8 month old sleeping, 4 year old making a muddy mess, 7 year old learning to plant leeks & 11 year old managing to take a non-blurry photo! 

Look at all that freshly dug soil! 

There's more top soil in the pile up the hill from the container if any raised bed holders need more (might need sieving though). 

Collapsing in an exhausted heap at the top of the hill to sun bathe.

The obligatory roll down the hill. 8 month old not quite sure how to join in with that just yet.

So, now things are being planted in the beds please, if you walk your dog in Cuthill Park, keep them out of the community garden. Several hours of work (not to mention the money invested in seeds & seedlings) can be destroyed by an excited/out of control dog in a few seconds. 

Magnificent Magpost!

We are grateful to East Lothian Council for installing the MagPost in the Play Area.

You may recall that we were awarded civic pride funding for the Magpost with the aim of fostering a greater respect and understanding of the flora and fauna of the park.

We ordered the MagPost from Caledonia Play,  a Scottish company whose play equipment is made using slow grown, treated timbers from sustainable managed sources. 

The MagPost incorporates a scientific quality 5x magnifying glass on a hardwood post. This, along with it's accessibility makes it an ideal means for exploring the natural world and encouraging experimentation to stimulate a child's knowledge of science through play.

We would love to see how you use the MagPost - tweet us a photo (@cuthillpark)

Impromptu Litter Pick

The team.

Flyers.

And more flyers.

Several large pieces of luggage were discovered. 

And just when we thought there couldn't possibly be any more of those flyers ... 

And now the wildlife area under the trees is looking much better. No photos of that unfortunately as we were playing too hard in the park to remember to take any at the end. 

From Cuthill Park, with love!

More Paths & a Patio

Here's a look at today's progress on the community garden paths. Not long now until the concrete surfacing is finished.