Easter Volunteering Triumph: Overcoming the Odds at Didsbury Park
Happy Easter!
TODAY
There were 3 challenging obstacles to volunteering this morning. Firstly it was a Bank Holiday, secondly it followed the weekend during which the clocks went forward and we all lost an hour's sleep, and thirdly it was raining and was forecast to rain more or less all morning. However, I am delighted to say that despite all these obstacles we still had a very respectable turnout of 22 volunteers.
It was very encouraging to be joined once again by Laurent (our ex- DoE volunteer) and Marie-Claude. Also it was good to see our ever enthusiastic supporters Alexander, Sebastian, Mum Sarah and Dad Dario (see picture 1 where Alexander and Sebastian are standing proudly behind the area where they have just planted some pea seeds and then staked them up in anticipation of a good crop!).
Thank you also to Alexander and Sebastian for generously sharing their mini-Easter eggs with all volunteers at the coffee break. Our numbers were also boosted by the attendance of Rebecca, Andrew, Daniel, Jack, Little Jax, Fay and Nicola from the Bolton family, who are sponsoring a new bench for the park. And last but not least, following his inaugural volunteering at the BIG Spring Clean it was great to see Niels once again. Everybody was made very welcome.
A special thank you also to our hero of the morning, Murray, who despite have had a major accident to his thumb during the week, put in a great shift to supervise all the work on digging the foundations for the hard standing of the new bench. A huge thank you Murray.
TWO / THREE NEW TREES
Thanks to the thoughtfulness and generosity of Felicity, a neighbour of the park, Sandra and Carl were able to collect 2 reasonably sized saplings and a tiny sappling, from Felicity's garden this morning. As 2 of the saplings were laurel (not a tree we would normally consider for the park) they were ideal for the perpetually shaded area behind the cafe where we are trying to grow other laurels. The 2 laurels were planted by Allan, Dario, Alexander and Sebastian. Thank you all.
As we were unable to immediately identify the third tree we have temporarily planted it in the woodland area where it can be moved from at a later date if we need to when we have correctly identified it.
Joyce was also working on trees in the park this morning. Picture 2 shows Joyce holding her newly purchased 'clicker - counter' in her right hand as she set off on an audit count of all the trees, section by section, in the park. This is part of a major new project led by Joyce, David and Greg, to firstly find out more information about all our trees which we will be able to publicise and share with park users. Thank you Joyce.
WORK ON A NEW BENCH BEGINS
Picture 3 shows Murray with members of the Bolton family, as work progresses on digging out the foundations for the new wooden bench which we are expecting to be delivered in about 3 weeks time.
This is a large project and excellent progress was made this morning - despite the early rain. Thank you all.
PRIORITY ACTION ON THE FLOWER BEDS LEADING FROM THE WILMSLOW ROAD GATE
With the weather gradually becoming warmer we are now in a race against time to remove the weeds in the flower beds along the path from the Wilmslow Road gate. So today the team of Laurent, Marie-Claude, Grace, Gill B and Carl M worked really hard to make a huge improvement to this area. Picture 4 shows Marie-Claude, Carl and Sandra busy weeding next to the Owl carving. Picture 5 is an example of the enormous improvement made by the team after a hard morning’s work.
Thank you all for working so hard and achieving so much!
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Picture 6 shows Allan hard at work tidying up the paths near the Gillbrook Road entrance. Thank you Allan.
Thank you to Tom for both his review of the proposed design for the CCTV solution and for his work on the bottom end of the Poppy Path. This is much appreciated Tom
Picture 7 shows Niels returning to the volunteers shelter following a thorough litter pick of the park.
REMINDER ABOUT THE GARDEN PARTY
Finally if you have not already replied to my email about the garden party to celebrate the Kings Award for Voluntary Service will you kindly do so this week so that we can be as accurate as possible about indicative planning costs etc. for the event.
Thank you once again for your amazing support.