A series of posts from our volunteers … Diana Wilkinson I’m Diana, a former civil servant who worked as a social scientist in the Scottish Government, finally retiring…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Laura Gunstensen – Library Volunteer The ‘Botanics’ have always been a very special place for me since I arrived, fresh…
Henry Noltie Some years ago, as part of the barter economy, I acquired a handsome, but all but empty, early nineteenth-century album, its calf spine lettered in gilt…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Helen Bennett A period of secondment from Scottish Arts Council in 2006 confirmed my ambition to volunteer with Royal Botanic…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Jane Gardner My name is Jane Gardner and I am retired. I have lived in Edinburgh for nearly six years…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Brenda White – A Photography Volunteer Long ago, when the world was simple, and taking photos involved no more effort…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Simon Muirhead – Trawling through the Archive For some years I have been a member of EDFAS [Edinburgh Decorative and…
At the Botanics we discover new species – it’s one of the things, in addition to growing plants and telling people about them, that we have been doing…
Henry Noltie Introduction In 1823 Robert Brown published an account of the plants collected on Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic during the first voyage (1819–20) commanded by…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Peter Middleton I’m a retired journalist, cum corporate communications director. Ok, so I was a sort-of spin doctor working for…
A series of posts from our volunteers … Paul and Ruth Maxwell We came to be Volunteers at RBGE quite by chance in that while attending a Fine…
In March 2020, in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, the RBGE Library, Archives and Photography staff, along with most of our colleagues, found ourselves working remotely from home….
Henry Noltie In pursuit of interesting facts for some captions I was recently asked to write I turned to David Pearman’s fascinating account of the first records of…
In January 2020 Manshu Xu, an MSc student at Edinburgh College of Art began a work placement in the RBGE Library that involved creating an initial finding list…
A Cottage Volunteer My Introduction to the Botanic Cottage The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has always had a special place in my heart, especially since my son proposed…
Once a fortnight we hold a cook club at the Botanic Cottage. Anyone is welcome to join us to learn new cooking skills and to enjoy a healthy meal that’s been freshly prepared by the group. Sadly, the garden is now closed to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic, but we won’t let that stop us! Cottage Cook Club tutor Ailsa has prepared some great recipes from store cupboard ingredients to encourage us to keep home cooking and keep eating right. Over to Ailsa…
As with all other aspects of our lives, the Coronavirus pandemic has impacted on the scholarly communication process. With most libraries closed, a number of publishers have made…
March 2020 came in like a rather timid lion, rather windy but not nearly as stormy as February, and went out like a lamb. Weather-wise it was a…
In a time of such unpredictable global conditions, we can’t pull ourselves away from thinking about the timely delivery of RBGE’s newly adopted artwork Early Warning Signs. Taking up a prominent position at the entrance to Inverleith House at the beginning of this year, it seems only too fitting that the spinning ‘climate/change’ (‘change/climate’) sign arrived during a particularly stormy January.
As we all try to manage as best we can through these challenging times both personally and professionally, it’s worth reflecting on the criticality of team work within…