In the last year or so, I have joined the 'New Friends of Bute Park', and help volunteer at the 'visitor centre' in the heart of the park.

The visitor centre, is a small office space in between the Secret Garden Cafe, and the Plant Shop/Bute Park Nursery. It is not often open. The most common thing we hear from those who visit is 'I never knew this existed!' (The second most common thing is 'do you have a toilet here?').

New Friends of Bute Park hope to use this space regularly as a tourism office for Cardiff. All the volunteers (8 of us) love Cardiff and Wales in general, and give up time on a weekend to chat about things to do in the park, or nearby.

Cardiff no longer has a dedicated tourist office, so on a Saturday you can pop by between 11-2pm to find the next best thing.

On this day, the other volunteer Jim and I were visited by the 'Cardiff French Group', along with many visitors from around the UK.

The visitor centre has lots of activities for children to do. You can come by and pick up a colouring book and crayons (free!), or a seasonal tree trail leaflet. The New Friends of Bute Park are aiming to help raise enough money to replace all the labels on the champion trees in Bute Park. This will certainly make it easier to follow the champion tree trail.