A Pretty Perthshire Park
Plus painting with flowers and leaves, Ajuga 'Braunhertz' and the new Natural History GCSE
Hello there lovely person, I’m Vicky Wren and I run Wren and the Wild. Britain is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world so I use illustration, film, photos and words to enjoy, explore and encourage the protection and rewilding of our wonderful British Isles. Subscribe for free to enjoy monthly newsletters and in between posts from Edinburgh and the land and water beyond. You can also find me on YouTube, Instagram and my digital nature connection printables are over on Etsy.
Wild Wanderings
As part of my recent 40th birthday celebrations, my family and I stayed in the pretty Perthshire town of Crieff. On a rainy day we still wanted to get out and about so some of us headed to the local park and oh my goodness what a park it is! I’ve only driven past it before and longingly looked down onto a sweeping, impressive looking greenspace with views to Strathearn and Ben Chonzie in the distance, so I was keen to go and visit it myself.
The park is actually five adjoining areas - MacRosty Park (named so after the land was given to Crieff by James MacRosty, a Chief Magistrate of the town, in 1902), the central area of Taylor Park (gifted by Councillor Taylor in 1932) and then Mungall Park (gifted by Town Provost Walter Mungall in 1922), Recreation Park and finally Morgan’s Wood. However, the whole space is generally known as MacRosty Park. The valley shaped space homes a bunch of brilliantly imposing trees such as Douglas fir, noble fir, Norway spruce, cedar, Corsican pine and Lawson cypress. There are a stand of grand Douglas Firs next to the Victorian bandstand and that’s where my nephew and I played cricket (see above). The large space between the trees created a great place to stay dry!
There is also a cafe, a brilliant play area including a zipline swing (one of my faves!) and a water play area, a football pitch, multiple paths, a weir with a fish ladder and Turret Burn and a mill lade weaving away from it. The water from the lade (a manmade waterway) used to power corn and barley mills, one of which used to exist in the park itself. Both water ways have bridges crossing them and when I was crossing one of the lade bridges, I spotted the gleaming sun yellow flowers of marsh marigold - it was a welcome blast of brightness in the gloomy morning. Since then, whilst researching about Beltane for my most recent Wild Ruminations post, I found out that marsh marigold is a plant that is associated with Beltane here in Scotland.
If you’re ever nearby Crieff, or passing through on your way to the Highlands, I can highly recommend MacRosty Park to stretch your legs and to perhaps have lunch in one of the scenic picnic areas. There’s a bit more information about the park here and here.
Wild Watch
This year I’ve been diving into the world of nature journalling and I’ve discovered a British nature journaller called Alex Boon who has a plethora of great nature journalling videos on YouTube. I’ve most recently watched one called ‘Painting with flowers and leaves’. I thought it looked like such a meditative activity and loved how it captured and celebrated that first flourish of leaves and flowers in spring.
Wild Wares
This month’s wild ware is celebrating Ajuga (commonly known as a bugle) - available in all good garden centres now! (Check in the Alpine section). I love Ajuga’s as much as the bees do and have a couple of different varieties in the garden but the one pictured above is Ajuga reptans ‘Braunherz’ and has been such a good doer for me. It’s great at filling the front of a border as it creates a spreading mat and can tolerate shade, although it does best in partial or dappled shade. I just love the purpley blue of the spike shaped flowers mixed with the chocolate-purple leaves.
Wild Win
A new Natural History GCSE is to be rolled out across UK schools, hopefully as soon as this September. It has been created by OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) and the OCR Chief Executive Jill Duffy states that it:
‘…will give young people the skills to understand and protect the nature on their doorstep and beyond, whether they live in urban, suburban, or rural environments.’
I would have loved to have studied this when I was taking my GCSE’s!
It feels like excellent and extremely long overdue news and I really hope it makes a positive difference in terms of nature connection and stewardship for future generations. Charlotte from Land Agent Life here on Substack wrote a brilliant piece which will give you much more depth around what the GCSE will teach. She discusses the feeling of heartbreak that there is even a need to teach about the natural world but also hope that it has the potential to, as she puts it perfectly, spark real change, reigniting curiosity, responsibility, and care for the world around us.
With love and wild hope,
