Local Greenspaces - Part 2: Gorgie City Farm

 I did originally intend to include photos from Gorgie City Farm in yesterday's blogpost, but got distracted, so here are the photos now! 

Gorgie City Farm has been around for as long as I've been in Edinburgh, but has been under the management of LOVE Gorgie Farm for the past few years after the original management went under. 

The new management have brought in some new animals, including these alpacas

and these Vallois black faced sheep

Olive, a duck who used to live on the farm, who famously once met Queen Elizabeth II (read more about her in this blogpost) now has a grave marker 

and a path named after her 

The trees of North Merchiston Cemetery are visible above the top wall of the farm

We ended our trip with a cup of tea and a slice of cake in the cafe and were amused by this notice outside the cafe:

LOVE Gorgie Farm

Today Crafty Green Boyfriend and I visited Gorgie Farm, possibly for the first time since lockdown began! The farm is now known as LOVE Gorgie Farm and is now operated by education and social care charity LOVE Learning. The charity supports vulnerable children, young people and adults, using innovative ways to engage them in learning.

There are some new animals on the farm including these sheep, i know they're a special breed, but there was no information on the farm to say which breed they ar, nor does there seem to be anything on the farm website! If you recognise this breed, please let me know what they are in the comments below! 

and alpacas 

But there are still some of the old favourites, including rabbits Lily (the white one) and Thumper

You can help support LOVE Gorgie Farm by adopting an animal (though oddly, neither the rabbits nor the sheep are available for sponsorship). 

An area of the farm is still managed as a wildlife area and now includes a lovely box of nesting material for birds to use when it comes to the next nesting season 

It's nice to see that one of the tracks through the Farm has been named Olive's Walk, after the farm duck who met the Queen:

Gorgie Farm is just next to North Merchiston Cemetery and you can look up to some of the trees in the cemetery 

UPDATE: Last ditch attempt to save Gorgie Farm

 Really sad to read that Gorgie City Farm is going to close. Crafty Green Boyfriend and I have had many happy visits to the farm, enjoying the animals from bunnies to pigs

and Olive, the duck who met the queen -

and it's lovely little wildlife garden

The farm has been open for 40 years, during which time it has helped connect children, families and young people with farm animals and the outdoors and has been a wonderful green oasis in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh.

You can read my blog posts about the farm here.

It would be wonderful if the farm were able to find a way to remain open, but this time it seems unlikely. They are looking for homes for all the animals. I don't know what will happen to the site, it would be nice if it could remain some sort of open green space, given this is a very built up part of Edinburgh.

UPDATE: the farm nas now set up a GoFundMe Page in a last ditch attempt to save the farm, you can donate here. 

Meeting the Duck who Met the Queen

A few days ago the Queen visited Gorgie City Farm where she walked alongside Olive the Duck for a while.

Today we visited the farm and Olive seemed quite at ease with her new found fame

She's a four year old duck who thinks she's human and has very definite likes and dislikes

She has an enclosure and a lovely little house all to herself

In the enclosure next to Olive's are the farm's resident rabbits including Thumper

the other rabbits remained more or less in hiding and I couldn't get photos of them.

The farm sheep seemed very happy

 and this one was happy for Crafty Green Boyfriend to zoom in for a close up

The pigs also seemed very happy 

as did the cows

while the goats just kept eating

The wildlife garden in the farm is looking beautifully lush at the moment

 and is full of bird tables and bird boxes (look carefully in the phto below)

The lime (linden) trees are in full bloom and smell wonderful

and these large poppies are starting to bloom

The farm has created some special bee friendly flower tubs which are scattered around the area

Sadly, there weren't as many insects around as you might hope for on a sunny day but we did see this little solitary bee who Crafty Green Boyfriend caught on camera

and this small tortoiseshell butterfly (also photographed by Crafty Green Boyfriend)

Gorgie City Farm is open every day and is a great place to learn about farming and a lovely green space to enjoy walking round.

Hoppy New Year!

Hoppy New Year from Thumper and his friends!

In Scotland we get two public holidays for the New Year and today we visited Gorgie City Farm where we got a lovely welcome from Thumper, his friend Lily and the other animals.

Both Lily and Thumper were rescue rabbits and are now well cared for in the farm. Thumper is blind in one eye but runs around quite happily.

Also hopping around the farm are the wee goats Skye and Breagh, who have developed a habit of jumping over the fence that surrounds Goat Mountain on the Farm (raiding the neighbouring gardens I suspect!) and are now housed in the stable block, given how cold it is at the moment, they probably don't mind too much.The farm is currently working on how to make goat mountain a more secure home for them!

Also in the stables are two adorable teenage lambs

they are very friendly with visitors and seem to have great fun in the straw. Starlight and Rosemary are two beautiful calves who live in the cowshed

There are more goats in the fields, who are currently demonstrating one of the uses for an old Christmas tree

There's also a nice new painting up on the cowshed

Gorgie Farm is always a lovely place to visit, and they offer volunteering and education opportunities for people of all ages. There's a nice cafe too, though it was shut today. This cafe is open most days and will also soon become a venue for monthly co-working Wednesdays for Gorgie Creative Network (starting 13 February) so if you're a creative freelancer in the local area that's something worth thinking about going along to!

Thumper the rabbit and friends at Gorgie City Farm

We had a lovely trip to Gorgie City Farm yesterday. There are lots of new animals to get to know including Thumper, a large, fluffy bunny who is blind in one eye

and his friend Lily

Nest door to the rabbits are the micro pigs who are still young but even when fully grown will be less than knee high..... These are specially bred to be pets and they're very cute

The farm also has two young cows that seem to have lovely natures, enjoying being petted by the visitors

and the goats seem very happy in their enclosure

while this jackdaw was hanging around

Hidden around the farm are several scarecrows, children are invited to wander round the farm and find all of them

Adults may be more interested in the new 'Build Your Own Veg Box' idea where for a suggested donation of £5 you can put together your own vegetable box

The farm is a brilliant place for city children to learn about farming and also about nature. The beautiful flowers round the farm attract many insects, including these two small white butterflies which were engaged in a courtship display (or at least the male was!)

several species of bee including early bumble bees (that's their species name, though here they seem to be later in appearing than most other bumble bees!)

and this that looks like some sort of cuckoo bee

and of course hoverflies including several marmalade hoverflies

If you've never visited Gorgie Farm, I can definitely recommend it! If you're outside of Edinburgh and want to find your nearest city farm then hop over to the website of the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens.