Friends of Park OUR update on YOUR Park Issue 26 Spring 2018

Forthcoming events Spring/Summer 2016 Sunday 24th July 10.30-12.30 am Seize a Senior! Grand opening of outdoor fitness equipment for mature adults (see next page). There will be tents with tables from various institutions with information about available services. Helpful people will be on hand to instruct on fire and smoke alarm fitting, downloading travel apps etc.. The Botanical Society of will offer a wild-flower walk-round at 12am. There will also be events for children, including Pond Dipping at 11am. We will offer a free gift to any child bringing along a SENIOR (any adult with a bus pass) to the event. Look out for the posters in the Community and Park boxes nearer the time. Bring a friend and enjoy exercising and socialising outdoors. (Organised by Friends of Inverleith Park and the Council Parks Department). 5th – 7th August Foodies Festival Foodie festival is a family food and drink festival. Demonstrations and master classes take place in our marquee theatres. We have a chefs theatre, tasting theatre, drinks theatre, kids theatre. (Organiser - Sue Hitchen) 17th and 18 th August 2016 Inverleith on Foot by Bike – Walking and Cycling Festival Family friendly festival of walking, cycling and other physical activity with 12x6m marquee in case of poor weather. Stalls, information, small activities in the marquees and 'have a go' walking and cycling activities around the park and beyond. No charge for entry or participation and all ages and abilities would be encouraged to come along and have a go. (Event organised by City of Edinburgh Council.) To join the Friends : click on www.friendsofinverleithpark.co.uk and go to Membership. Outdoor Fitness for Mature Movers - Joan Beattie

Friends of Inverleith Park have exceeded their target by raising £10, 500 to install outdoor fitness equipmnent specially designed for more mature adults. This has enabled us to order a double, rather than single air walker and 5 other pieces of equipment. Thank you our many sponsors! These included : Bags of Help - Tesco, Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership, Stockbridge and Inverleith Community Council, Scotmid Community Fund, Waitrose and individual Friends of Inverleith, both directly and through MyparkScotland. Come to the Grand Opening (see page 1)!

Report from our Convener - Pam Barnes

Thanks: I particularly want to thank our Treasurer, Joan Beattie, for her hard work and persistence in raising the funds for exercise equipment. Joan reluctantly became Trea- surer when no-one else would - saying she could only do the basic membership. And look what she has done for us - re-organised the membership, seen that our website was improved (see: www.friendsofinverleithpark.co.uk) and now raised the funds and organised the installation. We have indeed found ourselves a ‘treasure’! Sorry Joan - couldn't resist!

Cafe: We now have a mobile cafe! It is being run by Ben and Gemma Gillespie from the popular cafe called the Blue Bear at . It is in a converted horse box and can be found most days beside the entrance to the Sundial Garden. It is near the play area and I hope lots of you will use it. As one of the volunteers in the Sundial Garden on Wednesday morning, I will certainly be in the queue to get a quick cuppa and restore my energy levels. In the last Newsletter, I said that David Jamieson, Head of Parks, was looking into the possibility of a cafe and toilets. Well this is a great first step and thank you David but we still need the toilets and perhaps more so with a cafe around! The Edinburgh Parks Department has a lot to do with even less money than ever and we have been impressed with all the accolades they have won: Eurocities Award 2015, Entente Florale Europe Gold Medal, 2014 Britain in Bloom Winner and Gold Medal 2013 amongst others. Surely getting some toilets for us will be a doddle in comparison?

Sundial Garden: The city is reorganising its Parks staff and the number of Park Rangers in the city will be reduced by 2 to 12 people. Our area - the North will be combined with the West to give an area twice as large for the Park Manager. I hope that we will get at least 3 Rangers for such an enlarged area - we have 1 full-time and 1 part time at the moment for an area half the size of that proposed. The Head of Parks assures me that he wants to see the Sundial Garden restored and maintained and he will support us in that aim. We are a very small band of volunteers and we would love some more help - you don’t need to know about plants. If you would like to help, come and join us - it can even be fun! There is still a lot to be done - there will usually be someone there on Wednesday if you want to see the different things we do. But better still ring Pam at 332 4765 or 07786 186 698.

Again a big thank you to the dog owners who are keeping their dogs on leads in the Sundial Garden. Things are now much much better for us with less dog excrement and less damaged plants! We really need and appreciate your help - we know a lot of your dogs are well controlled off lead but we have to have one rule and even a small, well-behaved dog can do a lot of damage to plants when running after a squirrel!

Before After (taken last summer)

It’s really good to see our Facebook page being used by people interested in the welfare of the Park. There are lots of beautiful photos to see taken by Anne Rushbrook. It’s easy to get onto Facebook and leave a comment on www.facebook.com/Save-Inverleith- Park-180926588601438/ . Of course you needn't post your own details to the world if that worries you.

Comments from Members:

1. The cyclists in the Park frequently go too fast, endangering young children and eager dogs. Would it be possible to impose a 5 mile per hour limit within the park?

2. It’s good to see that bins are being emptied more than before, but the siting of the bins needs to be re-thought. For example there has not been a large black bin at the South East end of the Park for some time.

Your Opinions: Do let us know if you have any ideas for the park. You can send us a message on Facebook, or ring Pam, or come to our monthly meeting in the Sundial Garden on the first Wednesday of the month at 10am. We are always glad to hear what people think. Pam Barnes 0131 332 4765, mobile:07786186698 Wildlife -Cathy Bell We very much hope that many of you will have now seen the water rail that has spent most of the winter with us on the pond – somewhat secretly ! Its presence has again been celebrated by the many ornithologists who travelled some way to see it, and a photo of it has appeared on the recent local RSPB branch news. Josephine, our lady swan, has been sitting on an increasingly large clutch of eggs throughout most of April in her new nest...... until.... disaster struck! On the morning of the 30th April the nest was empty. The heron and the fox may have been the culprits, but there have also been signs of human disturbance and the police have been bought in to investigate. There have in fact been reports of swan egg thefts from too. The three photos below show 1) Napoleon and Josephine preparing their home; 2) nest with a clutch of 5 eggs; 3) empty nest? (May 4th).

There have been sightings of all the usual thrushes, blackbirds, tits and goldfinches and many have been singing and are nesting in the park. The greenfinches are wheezing away – a real pleasure after they were nearly wiped out by a nasty infection a few years ago. In the allotments rabbits continue to be a major problem – and a badger was observed recently meandering over to them from the direction of the Botanics. It is reported that one of the Larsson traps for catching live rabbits (for rehoming in the countryside) had a stoat in it. In the evening owls have been seen hunting and during the day sparrowhawks have been seen too.

The frogs have left frogspawn in some of the wee ponds and the toads are about. The concern is that visits in the allotments from the ducks and heron may hoover up most of the frogspawn, which is a shame because frogs are such useful munchers of slugs and bugs.

Sadly there is some Japanese Knotweed down at the SE area of the pond (banking). Wild flowers are coming out lending colour and adding to our wiild urban flora. Particularly in the allotments there is an interesting northern version of the dead nettle – Northern dead nettle – Lamium confertum. We would love to hear from you with your observations – send an Email to any of the committee or me , [email protected].

All the photos in this newsletter were taken by Anne Rushbrook. Thank you Anne!