In the lead up to Laudato Si Week, the parish of Holy Cross has been seeding small areas of wildflower meadow next to it's parish in the north west of Edinburgh.

They said: "It is a gesture towards addressing the biodiversity and climate change crisis lamented in Laudato Si. In a tiny but symbolic way, this reverses some of the loss of 97-99% of our UK meadows since the 1930s.

"To sow the meadow, donated wildflower seeds were split between over two hundred small packets and given out to parishioners...(they) were invited to sow the wildflower seeds and say a prayer, similar to lighting a candle in church.

"Meadow allows many diverse plants to grow and provides improved habitat for the small wildlife of the parish, including bees, butterflies, moths, frogs and birds.  We are also lucky enough to have a family of badgers (see below image), a fox and at least one very crazy squirrel to enjoy the habitat.

"Looking after the meadow areas should be no more work than the previous grass and, all part of ‘caring for our common home’, where we respect and care for nature, as well as ourselves.