On Friday 5th April, Guides past and present joined to help plant new cherry trees in the Park.
The original trees were planted in November 1935 by 5000 Guides, Rangers and Brownies, for the Silver Jubilee of King George V. They were planted in a trefoil shape, the emblem of the Guide movement.
In 2002 some of the original planters returned to help plant new trees and daffodils, and were made life members of the Friends. Then, in 2008, cherry trees were planted by some of them and present Guides, Brownies, Rangers and Rainbows for the centenary of the Guide movement.
This time around, we were able to contact Anne Morham, who as a Brownie Leader helped children from her pack at Douglas House to plant a tree on that cold day in 1935, and Elspeth Brown, whose mother assisted back then. Elspeth has herself been involved in guiding all her life; blind from birth, she is a leader with the guides at the Royal Blind School.
They were joined by present day guides, including Eilidh Nelson Davidson. (Left to right: Elspeth, Eilidh and Anne.) One break with tradition: it was a warm, sunny day, unlike previous occasions with snow on the ground!
We thank Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust for their support: they sourced the trees, accessed funding from Transpennine, and indeed did all the hard work, as well as being so helpful in organising the planting of two trees by our Guides!