A few days ago DGWGO posted a story about a wonderful bit of fun at the Crichton grounds at Dumfries .
Since Last October a wee Monkey ( Statue) had been sitting in a hole in one of the Trees at the main gates of the Crichton. Over this last 7 months only a few people had noticed this Monkey which had been christened ” George” by the Gardeners who take care of the grounds .
As it turns out they are the secret behind the appearance of ‘George’ who had been donated to them by a rep , so for a bit of fun the groundsmen placed him in the hole in the side of a tree , and apart from family and friends they told no-one , just to see how long it would take for George to be spotted . It seems from posts on the DGWGO page over the last couple of days a few of you had spotted George and he had brought smiles to your faces , and lots of people that had walked past the tree many times in the months since he had ‘APEared’ had no idea he was there, until we posted about him. We even had people say they went to spot him today and they were disappointed not to be able to find him , but now we know the reason why.
Tonight we had a sad report from one of the Gardeners’ wives that ‘George’ had vanished , so we helped launch an appeal for his return . Unfortunately the Monkey Puzzle has been solved . It looks like a case of mindless vandalism , George has been found smashed to bits at the base of the tree , and there and dents in the tree around the hole which George sat in which look to be of made while stones have been thrown .
George was made of plastic and painted to look very real. A spokesperson for the Team of gardeners at the Crichton told DGWGO this evening “My husband found the remains of the smashed monkey, whoever it was has thrown stones etc to get him down; the tree is all marked and he is in bits, my wee five year old girl is so upset we cannot calm her down ” ( This same wee lassie had written to DGWGO on Friday to say for everyone not to scare George but leave him where he is settled and happy and to give him a banana every so often )
The Ground Keepers at the Crichton have a plan though , and will not be beaten by the thoughtless behaviour of whoever was behind this act, and the wee 5 year old lassie who is very sad and cried herself to sleep tonight will hopefully be smiling again soon .
