The Regius Keeper Event November 24th 2004

The Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Professor Steve Blackmore, unveiled our new Intrepretation Panel and planted a commemorative tree on Wednesday 24th November. And what a great day it was in every respect. The panel was installed in time; the weather was glorious - a fine autumn day; and our distinguished guests were in sparkling form.

It made the last 18 months of hard work all worth while to see a number of people who have been involved in the Garden since the days in was a midden - you don't have to remember too far back to recognise this description; people such as local resident Gavin McGregor who was involved in the original Hopetoun Steering Group; Richard Barclay from City Development who had been part of the HSG and was the driving force behind the CEC's part in the restoration of the Garden;

Alan adjusting the Information panel behind the glass - at midnight on the day of the unveiling!

The Regius Keeper and Mrs. Anne Hope

Jane Ellis, Eileen & John Dickie and Bill Chalmers - part of the small local group which led to the formation of the Friends; Scott Thomson and Billy Wilson - our main contacts in the Parks Department; all the people who came from the Botanic Garden - and what support and help they have given to the Friends - special mention has to be made of Alan Bennell; very welcome guests were Mrs. Ann Hope and Mrs. Margaret Street - stalwarts of the Hope Trust and very special indeed as Ann's late husband was a descendant of John Hope; and not forgetting Jeannie Harper (our Treasurer), because without her knowledge, skills, enthusiam and ability to get blood out of a stone, we would still be in the planning stages. Just a few names but without the support of everyone involved in the Friends this Interpretation Board would not be there today.

One of our members helping to plant the Commemorative shrub

11th October 2004 – 2nd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
This took place on Monday 11th October in the Nelson Hall at the Library; We had time for a glass of wine and a chat before the AGM started - and it all went smoothly; The Treasurer went through the Accounts which were duly passed and the Chair gave a report on the events of the year.

Then came the elections: Of the 10 Committee members, 8 had to stand down having served 2 years but were elegible for re-election - but only for a further 2 years; of these, two - Irene Duncan and Evelyn Hunter intimated they did not wish to stand again. Two of the Committee, Barbara Clayton and Andrew Johnston were elected last year and so can serve for another year.
The following were elected to the Management Committee for 2004/5:
Chair: Eileen Dickie Vice Chair: Bill Chalmers Secretary: Mitchell Manson Treasurer: Jeannie Harper Committee: Andrew Johnston Barbara Clayton Christine Savill Jane Ellis Julie Johnston
This means there is a vacancy on the Committe - so if anyone is interested please get in touch with Eileen on 556 0903.

The AGM was followed by an interesting illustrated talk by Max Coleman on the Heritage Trees of Edinburgh. We certainly learnt a lot and I for one have looked anew at a tree in Comely Bank whose importance I had never realised before.

Thanks to all who came to the AGM and to those who sent apologies. It gives the Committee a lot of encouragement to get support from the members for what we do for Hopetopun Crescent Garden.

MUSHROOM CELEBRATION DAY

Wednesday, 6th October 2004 The mushroom sculptures have been well and truly welcomed! Between 1pm and 3pm the Primary 3 classes from our 3 local primary schools - Broughton PS, Leith Walk PS and St. Mary's PS had great fun with the mushrooms and thoroughly enjoyed the Story-Tellers, John & Noreen Hamilton. And the children were each given an apple as they left - which were very generously donated by Tattie Shaws of Elm Row. Thanks to the schools - the pupils, the staff and the parents helpers - it was great to see such enthusiasm for the mushrooms and the enjoyment of listening to the Story-Tellers.

story telling

We had this appreciative e-mail last night:
Thanks very much for entertaining the little terrors today. I think your mushrooms are splendid, and 'xyz' thoroughly enjoyed the story telling. She regaled us with rolling body parts throughout an otherwise bloodless supper. I ate her apple on the way back to school and it was delicious. To quote Young Mr Grace: 'You've all done very well!'

This extract comes from St. Mary's PS's recent Newsletter:
"Last Wednesday 6th October, we went to the Hopetoun Crescent Gardens. We went to listen to some storytellers. First of all we had to unveil the mushrooms in the Garden. The mushrooms were made of wood and had carved leaves on them. We had to stand in a circle around the mushrooms.

Then we were told a story about a giant and a golden bird that went "Nee nee ne ne ne'. Another story was about why the owl only comes out at night. The owl is hiding from the crow who was painted black by the owl. Owl was painted muddy brown.

helping the to raise the sky

In the story about the boy who kept bumping his head, we had to help him push the sky up. When people banged their heads on the sky the man banged a drum.

At the end of the stories we were all given red apples to eat. They were hard and sweet. Joe's tooth fell out.

It was a sunny afternoon and we all enjoyed the stories and being outside.

It was the best field trip ever. " (Thank you P3 - St. Mary's)

and another e-mail:
"I saw the mushrooms today and thought they looked superb."

and in the evening.......... Quite a few people braved the evening chill as we gathered in the Garden to chat and listen to the Story-Telling; It was especially good to see Robin - who carved the mushrooms and the leaf sculpture and Carole from Four Winds; as it got darker night lights in jam jars made interesting lighting effects and about 7pm we processed with our lights to the Library where the finger buffet, the band and the raffle were waiting for us. Vittoria and Eatalia brought over a giant mushroom risotto and various pizzas and this along with sandwiches from the Hopetoun Inn and the food prepared by the Mushroom Committee soon warmed everyone up. The Drummond Big Band added oomp-pa to the evening during which the raffle was held - this took rather a long time as local businesses have been incredibly supportive and we had some really good prizes.

A & M photographers - 2 disposable cameras; Annie's Sandwich Bar - full breakfast; Borlands - pack of 100w bulbs; Chambers Harrap Publishers - 4 Reference books; China-China - bottle of red wine; Crombies - £10 voucher; Dofos - Goldfish bowl starter set; Elm Row Newsagents - Box of chocolates; Embo Panninni Bar - a wrap, juice & a coffee; Garlands - beautiful plant; Harburn Hobbies - Bob the Builder Gift Box; Hopetoun Inn - a) Meal for 2 & b) 2 bottles of wine; Jolly Pizzeria - 2 bottles of wine; Mad Jacks - 2 mushroom paperweights; Myles Hairdressing - Voucher; Old Scotland in Pictures - framed picture; Royal Bank Scotland - 5 plastic piggy banks; Tesco (Broughton Road) - 2 x £5 vouchers; The Jewellers - a watch; Theatre Royal Bar - bottle of whisky; Thompson Intersport - a football; and last (alphabetically but not least) Vinyl Villains - Videos & DVDs;

OUR SPONSORS Thanks to our main sponsor "Awards for All Scotland" http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/scotland/; to Tattie Shaws for the apples for 100 children; to Vittoria's and Eatalia for the hot courses for the buffet; and to MBE for all the photocopying.

AND THANKS TOO to the CEC Parks Department for pulling out all the stops to install the Mushrooms and the Leaf sculpture and to the Library for being on standby from 1pm in case the weather turned nasty.
And we mustn't forget Carole and Robin from Four Winds; Robin who carved the sculptures and Carole who oiled the wheels!

Thanks to everyone who helped to make Wednesday 6th October a fun and successful Mushroom celebration Day.

And What's not been happening ? Remember the planned event with the Regius Keeper from the Botanics? We were very disapointed that the planned event on 27th September didn't happen but at least the Interpretation Board has been installed (Thank you Parks Department) but the Information Panel has yet to be fitted. We are waiting for the Botanics to come up with a new date for the panel to be ready so that the Regius Keeper can come to unveil, plant a commemmorative tree and meet with Friends.

Sunday 26th September 2004
and another lovely day for being in the Garden; pity about the dog crap and the glass but over-all the litter is getting a lot better .(Is that a contradiction in terms?) It is obviously worse when it's windy but picking up the odd piece of unwanted litter as you walk throught the Garden makes quite a difference inbetween Clean-Ups.

EDINBURGH in BLOOM 2004 - the RESULTS!
We entered under the Community Garden secton and guess what? Out of 16 entrants in this category we were in the top 5 and were awarded a Silver Gilt Certificate. We were apparently 'very much up in the top of our category' and we got some very welcome feedback:

the judge was very impressed by both our community involvement and our web-site; we scored highly here and the cleanliness of the Garden was also praised - so the regular clean-ups have been more than worth while. we can do better in the 'green issues' aspect - eg more choice of plants for wildlife benefit (shelter and food); perhaps nesting boxes. Bio-diversity and sustainability are important - a garden can look good and at the same time be good for the environment!

So we have something to work on for next year's competition.

August Clean-Up - the 29th
A smaller group this month (still on holiday? too much Festivalising?) so it was just as well that there was not the same quantity of litter, glass and crap that we have picked up in some months. But how is it that the dog owners we speak to all have plastic bags and yet we still find dog crap all over the Garden? Answers on a postcard please!

July Clean-Up
Thanks again to all those who came and welcome to the new cleaner-uppers! A lot of glass - and a lot of ............guess what?. More work was done on clearing around the trees and despite all the rain we have had, the ground is still very hard. Volunteers to water some of the trees each evening would be welcome. It was yet another beautiful day for our monthly clean-up and some of us enjoyed the hospitality of the Hopetoun Inn afterwards.

Edinburgh in Bloom Competition The Judges visited the Garden on Friday 16th July and met with Eileen, Jane and Julie who along with devoted partners had done another half-hour clean up before the judges arrived at 9am. And unfortunately it was needed........! Why do people let their dogs run riot in the Garden? We entered the Garden under the Community category and we will hear how we got on in August - there were 16 other entries in this category.

Special Clean-Up Thursday 15th July
Thanks to all those who appeared in the Garden at 7pm - it was a really good turn out and we swept through the Garden like a dose of salts! Hope the judges are impressed tomorrow!

June Clean-Up
We had one of the best turn outs at our monthly clean-ups - thanks to everyone who came. The Garden really looked a hive of activity with the main focus on gathering all the branches which had been brought down with the recent ferocious rain; the monkey puzzle tree was rescued from the exuberant grasses surrounding it and is now visible again; the litter bins got their monthly wash - what a dfference that makes! Litter was picked up BUT the dog crap was worse than we have seen for a long time. We didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the amount that was in there and that was despite collecting 2 supermarket bags full of dog crap. Why do a few selfish & inconsiderate dog owners do their best to spoil the enjoyment of the Garden?

St. Mary's Primary School Environmental Project
Thank you to pupils from St. Mary's PS who did a massive clean-up of the Garden on Monday 14th June; it is really heartening to see young children getting involved in the protection of our local green spaces.

Summer Grasses & Wild Flowers
The grasses and wild plants are growing strongly and the following were identified by Tim Puntis on 9th June 2004
Grasses
Cocksfoot, Goose Grass (Sticky Willie), Barren Brome (Bromis sterilis), Common Bent, Rye Grass, Crested Dogtail, Meadow Grass.
Other Wild Plants
Bluebells, Buttercups, Red Campion, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Meadow Cranesbill, Common (or Hedgerow) Cranesbill, Cow Parsley, Hogweed (NOT Giant), Common Dock, Curley-leaf Dock, Thistle, Greater Stichwort, Rosebay Willow Herb, Wood Avens, Vicia Cracker, Stinging Nettle, Dandelion, Garlic Mustard, Chickweed.
*have a look at this web site ��http://www.first-nature.com/ *

30th May Clean-Up
What have we done to deserve such good weather yet again for our monthly Clean-Up? Maybe it's a reward for virtue for those of us who turn out month after month to keep the Garden in a state we can all enjoy. Certainly, it was wonderful to see a Blue Tit feeding her young while we were doing our bit in the Garden . And thanks again to the Hopetoun Inn for refreshments afterwards.

STOP PRESS !!!!!

On the evening of Wednesday, April 28th a young wild rabbit was seen leaping out of the Garden, crossing Annandale Street and going into the green patch at the corner with East London Street. Let's hope the local urban foxes don't read this!

and MORE SIGNS OF SPRING.......

The bluebells are really springing up as are several more species of the wild flowers planted in the late 1990s by children from our 3 local primary schools - with some help from local adults and the Council.

And a ladybird was spotted during the Clean-up.

April 25th Clean-Up

What a glorious day for a gathering in the Garden and how nice to be joined by one new local resident and another person (not very local) who walks through the Garden on his way to and from work. We made an attempt to decrease the number of dockens but............. Thanks to all those who regularly pick up litter as they walk through the Garden because today we found less litter and dog crap than usual. Afterwards we enjoyed the hospitality of the Hopetoun Inn.

GREAT NEWS - the PAPER BANK!

I hope you have all heard about (and have started to use) the Paper Bank at the McDonald Road end of Hopetoun Crescent. It is great to have this facility in the Hopetoun area and it will make it a lot easier for us to recycle our newspapers. We can even drop in unwanted 'Sections' on the way home from the paper shop!

March 28th - Clean-Up

A very good turn out on the last Sunday in March; we used the "Clean Up Broughton" banner as a advertisement for what we were doing - and it did attract some attention. (The Clean Up Broughton campaign was effective over a period of months in the Broughton Street area and all streets off - stretching as far as the roundabout at Annandale Street). The sun shone earlier in the morning but it wasn't quite so warm by noon and the wind was certainly a bit of a problem! Afterwards a small group partook of sandwiches and coffee at the Hopetoun Inn.

March 12th 2004 - the Dr. John Hope Memorial Plaque

On Friday, March 12th 2004, the Hope Trust achieved a long standing ambition for a Memorial Plaque to be erected in the Hope burial plot in Greyfriars Kirk graveyard to the man generally recognised as the founder of the first Royal Botanic Garden (sited between the present day McDonald Road and Annandale Street). John Hope was the Regius Keeper from 1761 - 1786 and it was in 1763 that he moved the Physic Garden (from the present day Waverley Station) to the "out of town' Leith site, where it stayed until 1823, (For more information see the History page,) The Minister of Greyfriars gave the dedication and among the guests present were members of the Hope family including Ann Hope (widow of a direct descendant), members of the Hope Trust including Margaret Street who unveiled the plaque, Dr. Broda from the Sibbald Trust (RBGE) and Eileen Dickie representing the Friends of Hopetoun Crescent Garden. So 218 years after his death, Dr. Hope has finally been given a public memorial. It is amazing that, in all this time, there has been no memorial to this incredibly important Enlightenment man.

Signs of Spring

February 29th - Clean-Up
Another glorious spring day made the monthly clean-up a pleasure. (Slight exaggeration as a lot of dog crap was picked up and unfortunately not one dog owner came to help.) Having said that, it is a friendly, community activity and a good way of getting to know your local neighbours. Afterwards 6 of us enjoyed coffee/tea and sandwiches at the Hopetoun Inn.

February: Replacement tree

the Quercus rubra planted last year unfortunately did not survive the lack of rain despite regular watering by members of the committee. Thanks to the Parks Department for replacing it and also planting a Ginkgo Biloba.

February 1st 2004 - Festival of Eid ul-Adha
Those Friends who are on e-mail received an invitation to the Annandale Street Mosque to attend prayers on Sunday 1st February to celebrate the Holy Day of Eid ul-Adha. This is the commemoration of the Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son and also marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. We are sorry that not all members will have heard about this but given the time scale, it was impossible to let everyone know. Six of us arrived at 10.30am and were made very welcome by members of the Mosque.

January 28th - Management Committee Meeting.
Our first meeting of 2004 took place on Wednesday 28th January at the Mosque. You will be delighted to hear that we have successfully applied for a grant from the LDC for the Interpretation Board and the plans have been set in motion. The grant of just over £5,000 is to support the design and construction of the interpretative board, associated planning fees, supply of Botanical labels and provision of a notice board for the enhancement of the public garden at Hopetoun Crescent. There has been very close liaison between the the Parks Department, the Botanics and FHCG as to the style,design, content, etc etc of the Interpretation Board and we are pretty confident that not only will everyone approve of it but it will be a very valuable asset in the Garden. With guidance from the Botanics, we are also getting botanical labels for all the trees in the Garden and these will be of great value to all users of the Garden.

January 25th - Clean-Up
Sunday 25th January found Friends celebrating the birthday of Rabbie Burns in the Garden with litter pickers, plastic bags, hoes and spades for the clean-up. Not an awful lot of litter as such but a fair amount of broken glass and the ubiquitous dog crap. It would be really encouraging if some of the dog owners came to help with these clean-ups. Most of us went along to enjoy soup and coffee at the Hopetoun Inn afterwards - courtesy of and thanks to - the Manager, Andy.

Hopetoun Crescent Garden
You will have noticed our nice new Garden signs! You may remember that the original ones said "Hopetoun Cres. Park". The Council then changed the name of the smaller parks to 'Garden' so we asked for the more accurate 'Hopetoun Crescent Garden' signs instead. The old ones were recycled into the ones you see now so - thank you to the Parks Department.