Getting the bed up by the canal ready to welcome people to our community. Looking much better already. Lots of plants and flowers to come. 🌸🌺

Can be seen flowering in the park edges at present and along the water of leith. gallowaywildfoods.com/lesser-celan...

Not just a weed! 😎 Lesser celandine is a UK native wildflower, widespread in woods, hedgerows & on the banks of streams. It is a valuable plant for pollinators, providing an early source of pollen & nectar for emerging bumblebees 🐝, small flies🪰 & small beetles.🪳

First couple of peacock butterflies 🦋 enjoying the sun and daffodils in Hailes Quarry Park. Friends of Hailes Quarry Park and lost count of the number of ladybirds 🐞🐞🐞on hedge at the top of Redhall Drive.

What wildlife does it benefit?🦋
The Biological Records Centre lists numerous beetles, leaf miners, butterflies & moths that feed on ground elder, including frosted orange moths & rare swallowtail butterflies. Provides habitat and shelter for various creatures, including ground-active invertebrates.

Do your homework first before foraging as carrot family has some of our best tasting, but also some deadly relatives. gallowaywildfoods.com/ground-elder...

Not Just a weed! 😎 Ground Elder 😋
"This is one of the safest of the carrot family to identify, and certainly the most common. Its serrated leaves are oval with a point and always grow in 3 groups of 3 from a grooved stalk, close to the ground, before sending up their flowering stems."

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Stinging nettles are great wildlife attractors: caterpillars of the small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies use them as foodplants; ladybirds feast on the aphids that shelter among them; and seed-eating birds enjoy their autumn spoils. www.wildlifetrusts.org/.../wildfl.....

Herb Profile: Nettle - My WordPress Botanical Names: Urtica dioica, Urtica urens Family: Urticaceae (Nettle Family), formerly Cannabinaceae (Cannabis Family) Common Names: Nettle, Stinging Nettle. U.urens –Dwarf Nettle, Small Nettle, Do...

Nettles are a free & complete natural vitamin & mineral supplement: high in protein, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, and Calcium – with levels far outstripping many of our common vegetables. grassrootsremedies.co.uk/.../07/herb-...

Not just a weed 😎 - A very edible and very nutritious plant! Nettle leaves have an old reputation as a pot herb and can be included in many dishes as a spinach substitute. They were often part of traditional kail in Scotland – a vegetable soup eaten as the main meal of the day.

Learn much more with the local, excellent, Grass Roots Remedies. grassrootsremedies.co.uk

Growing everywhere, this early season favourite, 'Cleavers'/'Sticky Wille' as most folk know it, is a great lymphatic cleanser. Fresh spring growth is perfect to add to smoothies, soups, infuse in cold water overnight for a cucumbers flavoured drink, or in hot water for an asparagus soup stock hit.👌

Spring bulbs responding well to the sun yesterday, and the bees coming out to find them. 🌷🌹🪻🌸☀️☀️☀️

And lots of flowers starting to emerge and bringing joy to the community.

Out with the crew giving the park some springtime love and attention. A good number of bags of rubbish removed. Thanks folks.

A welcome sight for any early season pollinators venturing out with it being a bit milder. Crocuses starting to shift up a gear now as the snowdrops peak. Daffodils next 😁

A very red fungus on some very green moss on some sticks.

Like an exotic punctuation mark. 🍄

Lovely rainbow over the park earlier today 🌈🌈

The crocuses we planted a couple of years ago just starting to come into flower up by the war memorial. So nice to see some vibrant colour again. ❤️

A Big Garden Birdwatch bingo card with the following squares: House Sparrow Nice cup of tea Any pigeon Phone OFF Door goes during your count Any gull Blackbird Blue Tit Great Tit Goldfinch Magpie Starling Robin ID debate Biscuits A profound appreciation of nature Coal Tit Bird song Any bird of prey A oneness with birds Slice of cake A sense of enormous well-being Crisps Wren

Who'll be doing the #BigGardenBirdwatch this weekend?

And how many of these do you think you'll cross off? 😁👇

We are up & trucking for the year ahead. First snowdrops appearing in the park. Value to wildlife? As they flower so early, snowdrops do not rely on pollinators to reproduce. Instead, they spread via bulb division, though they may still be visited by bees & other insects on a particularly warm day.

Investment for future generations

Out tree planting with some of the crew and giving previous years saplings some TLC. Many starting to establish well now despite the brutal drought last year. 👍

Not good. Please don’t do this 👎🏼

If you are lifting and splitting any plants, we'd be happy to find a home for them. Lots more bulb planting for the new area to come.

Out with some of the crew & @longstonecc.bsky.social giving our planting areas a bit of TLC & preparing a new area for next season. Some giant red crocosmia donated by a fan from Craiglockhart, and a few additional from fans on Redhall Drive.

Lest we forget. They shall never grow old.

A thank you to Rev Bob Henderson, Chaplain to the Forces, for a moving and thoughtful memorial service this morning. It was lovely to see such good attendance with everyone paying their respects. Ray Donnelly laid a wreath on behalf of LCC and looked impeccable doing so.

Out with some of the crew and one of our favourite Park Officers, Andy. Planted up another big section of the banking with daffodils and added some more by the tunnel. Bring on spring! 🌷🌼🌸🌺🌹🌷