Lauriston Farm – Walking without a donkey

There’s a piece of wasteland at 2 West Granton Road, Edinburgh ///dock.entertainer.lazy which used to look like this:

Then someone cleared all the naturally wilded plants as well as the rubbish and left it looking like this.

It’s been bothering me every time I walk past (most days). I wish it was a community garden, a beautiful place where we could grow things together and sit and enjoy each other’s company.

Then, I was at a poetry reading by members of 12, a collective of women writers at the National Library. They were reading from their book: ‘Spaces Open’ written in and about the lovely West Port Garden in the Grassmarket which was originally designed by Norah Geddes. I’d seen an exhibition about it at Central Library earlier in the year.

Spaces Open by 12 a collective of women writers

Making socially engaged art

A phrase in Tessa Berring’s poem ‘China Sheep’ caught my eye when I was reading it on the bus on the way home – ‘a wasteland leaning into a possibility’. It seemed so appropriate, that I went home and stitched it into a banner which I have put up on the Granton plot.

I used fabric from the Granton Scrapstore which used to be at Granton:hub.org courtesy of Toni Dickson, project manager of Lauriston Farm (an urban farm growing food for people and wildlife) fame.

Location

The site is next to Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts who are doing amazing work relieving poverty in Edinburgh by providing meals – made using surplus food – and follow-up support for people across the city of Edinburgh, free of charge and without judgement. Please note, they are always needing volunteers.

Thanks to Tom and Stuart for coming over from volunteering in their vegetable plot when I was sinking the bamboos into the ground and being so encouraging when I was putting in the final stitches. Tom took this photo

The images above show the stitched banner by Tamsin Grainger in place with the quote, ‘a wasteland leaning up against a possibility’ by Tessa Berring

It looks a bit small, doesn’t it, and may not last long given the weather we’ve been having and the history of vandalism in the area, but if it gives a few people some pleasure and something to think about, then I’ll be happy. It’s hand-made work made with care in an area that needs as much TLC as it can get.

Dedicated to my friend and socially engaged artist Natalie Taylor who is my inspiration. See her Scran Fir Bees and other work in the area.

Links

You may like to check out my other work nearby: The Wall on the Western Breakwater of Granton Harbour, No Birds Land in the Trinity Tunnel and Is there a place for REVOlution or Peace and Biscuits in the Ferry Road tunnel of the Chancelot Path of the Edinburgh Cycle Ways.

The Sound Walk Map shows their location.

Did you know that the Roseburn Path is under threat? If you support and use the Edinburgh cycle paths, you might like to check out this website: Save the Roseburn Path

My website

Documentation

A small group of us met for a Community Walk on Wardie Bay by Granton Harbour, and walked along the coast in the direction of the Forth Bridges. We slid on the ice as far as the Boardwalk Beach Club and then headed inland to Lauriston Farm.

Silverknowes coastal walk – taken a week earlier

We were scanning for eider, curlew and oystercatchers, birds which are all currently on the RSPB Amber List because they are under threat from ocean pollution and decrease in habitat and safe feeding grounds.

The second in my series of 30×30 Biodiversity (pen and ink on watercolour paper)

The UK’s breeding curlew population has halved in the last 25 years.
https://www.gwct.org.uk/action-for-curlew/about-curlew/

While we waited, I spent a considerable time removing this yellow fishing net which had become entangled with the seaweed on the beach

Straightaway, we spotted a few oystercatchers foraging on the Eastern breakwater with their red-orange bills and distinctive Balenciaga colouring. Unfortunately my phone camera cannot take good photos at a distance

Dogs were chasing the waders and we talked about how much energy the birds expend escaping them, energy they cannot afford to use up when the ground is frozen at this time of year and short daylight hours are filled with finding food.

The walk had to be cancelled the week before on account of the snow. This Saturday it was icy underfoot. Kim, Ewan and Jennifer

There were eider ducks floating, thank goodness, plus cormorants and herring gull, redshank, guillemot and turnstones, great crested grebe, mergansers, and grey plover.

Another poor quality long-distance shot, but I managed to capture the cormorant skimming away from the rock it had been sunning on

By the time we reached hot chocolate heaven with cold hands and full bladders, the rain was coming on and we admired the rainbow beside Cramond Island

As we walked inland, we spotted a kestral hovering with wings spread, listening to something it had spotted, plummeting, and then sitting in a tree nearby, perhaps digesting

Lauriston Farm have recently fenced off their lower field so that migrators can overwinter there safely – commendable work that will benefit us all. Jennifer, Ewan and Kim, trusty fellow walkers

Other sightings: crows, robins, magpies, blackbirds, fieldfare, a heron, and a flock of linnets.

Lauriston Farm, higher up, offers a glorious view of the Fife hills. We stopped to chat with Toni, one of the tireless team who run it, and Bob, a local birder who said the curlew “are definitely coming back”. Not ten minutes later as we walked to the bus stop, he was proved right. By the road was a group wandering and feeding, and again, taking off when they were disturbed, needlessly, by a jogger who ran through their midst.

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Tag: Lauriston Farm