A Record Turnout, Sunshine, Cake and a Brilliant Morning in Didsbury Park
TODAY
It was a bit of a special and fun day in the park today!
So far this month, every Monday morning has seen a steady increase in temperatures, and this has also coincided with a steady increase in volunteers. Previously this month we have seen attendances of 34, 45 and 49 volunteers. But today, we had the best weather of the month so far, and combined with the promise of a large cake, to celebrate St George's day, we had an amazing turnout of 66 volunteers!!
We were delighted to welcome Grace once again for the second week running and we were also pleased to see John returning once again following his 2 month tour of South East Asia. We had 2 lots of visitors from business today: Al joined us from Network Rail and a large contingent of 17 volunteers came from BT.
We welcomed Shigad and Sheeba from Bridge College and after an absence of 3 weeks we were delighted to see all the students and staff from Brentwood College back with us once again. We also had a new local volunteer called Adam join us today. Everybody was made very welcome.
I would also like to say a special thank you to all our younger volunteers today. In addition to Winnie and Emilene, accompanied by their dads, we also had 2 special visits from Millie and her Mum. On her first visit Millie just called in to say hello before returning home to get on with a secret project. Much to all our surprise, Millie insisted on returning to the park with a piece of art which she had created at home as a special present for me.
So after an hour or so she returned with her Mum to present me with the painting captured in picture 1 of Millie and me among the beautiful flowers in the park. I was very impressed with the fact that we are both coloured in hi-vis yellow but I was even more impressed with the fact that she has taken years off me, by giving me back my black hair. Thank you so much Millie.
Picture 2 shows the new painting on display at the volunteer's shelter and as I crouched down to thank little Millie you can see that she is also mimicking my stance. What a lovely thing to do and so encouraging that the park is being appreciated by the up and coming generations. We just now need the council to recognise how important it is to commit to preserving Didsbury Park for future generations in perpetuity for the likes of Millie, Winnie and Emilene.
Thanks to some great organisation by Gill N and Sonia and some great catering by the cafe staff we were able to put up our new gazebo and tables on the wild flower meadow and enjoy a superb St Georges cake and St Georges cup cakes today as we relaxed in the sunshine during our coffee break.
Picture 3 shows Brenda sampling a piece of the delicious cake, with Gill B and Gill N watching on. Thank you also to MCC for the St George's celebration grant that allowed us to make this happen.
TODAY - POPPY PATH
With so many volunteers in attendance today we took the opportunity to take on some work on the Poppy Path too.
Picture 4 shows our team of Joyce, Sandra, Gill B, Wendy, Anne W and John all having fun in the sun and doing an excellent job tidying up the Poppy Path and sowing more poppy seeds. Thank you to Lis, also part of this team, who took the photo. Thank you all, and fingers crossed that all the poppy seeds germinate this summer.
TODAY - BUDDY AND LUCY
The team of students and staff from Brentwood College, carried out a great little project today when they firstly cleaned out all the old woodchip around our Buddy and Lucy carving before replacing it with a fresh supply of new woodchip. The difference was amazing. Everybody certainly earned their cake today! Thank you.
TODAY - REPLACING BARE PATCHES OF GRASS
The task of one of the BT teams today was to use the sections of turf we had recovered last week, when digging the drainage channels, to replace bare patches in the grassed areas of the park.
Picture 5 shows 5 members of the BT team alongside the repaired area of worn grass just opposite the rockery. This was an amazing improvement on how this area had previously looked. Thank you all.
TODAY - TRAINING AND NEW TOOLS
Thanks to support from MCC we were also able to continue our training on the use of power tools today. It was the turn of the power strimmer this morning. We were delighted to welcome Roger Morris once again to guide us through the training programme. First up today was Allan and myself - and I am pleased to report that we both passed! After us it was the turn of the 2 Steve's.
Picture 6 shows both Steve's wearing protective head gear as Roger takes them through their paces with the strimmer (off picture). I am pleased to report that both Steve's also passed. We used the overgrown grass around the edges of the cafe garden to both train on and improve.
We also acquired a new manual edging tool today and picture 7 shows Denise, Louise and Sonia, all busy familiarising themselves with the way it worked. By the end of the morning it had certainly helped to improve all the flower bed edges.
TODAY - AMAZING PROGRESS WITH KICK FENCE PAINTING
A large team of volunteers from BT, with our new volunteer Adam and Al from Network Rail, set about the huge task of painting all the kick fencing along both sides of the 100 yard Wilmslow Road path and by the end of the morning they had not only completed the whole length of the pathway, but had also turned the corner and completed the even longer single stretch of kick fencing along the Flower Walk.
In fact they were so fast and thorough that every time I went to take their photographs in the act of painting they had finished and moved on elsewhere. This was truly a great result. Thank you all. Sorry about the lack of photo.
TODAY - MULCH, MULCH AND MORE MULCH
One of the other big projects we undertook today was a project led by Sonia who organised for some of the BT volunteers to remove some excellent mulch from the rotted down leaf pen behind the bowls hut. The BT volunteers did so well in digging out the mulch for the rose beds that Denise and Louise had a backlog of about 10 full wheelbarrows, full of mulch.
In the end Patrick, Taylan and Chris came to the rescue and helped spread the mulch such that it was all completed by the end of this morning. Thank you to everybody who was involved in this big task.
TODAY - FROM MASTER TO APPRENTICE
Most people who read this update will know just how much dedication Gary puts into improving the cricket square every week. So if ever Gary is not going to be available any week, it is important for him to know that we have an understudy who can take over. So today as Gary worked on the cricket square he also took the opportunity to show the ropes to Carl N.
Picture 8 shows Gary's new apprentice Carl, being shown the expert way to mix the white paint to mark out the wicket. Great work guys - thank you.
TODAY - UNSUNG HEROES - CONTINUOUS WEEDING AND MAINTENANCE
At this time of year it is often the case that as soon as you turn your back on a flower bed it begins to sprout weeds again. We have a large number of volunteers who every week dedicate themselves to ridding the flower beds of weeds. These are our real unsung heroes.
Picture 9 is a good example where Kevin can be seen weeding the edges of the roundabout which, overnight now seems to be stocked with an abundance of beautiful blue flowers. Thank you Kevin. Picture 10 is another good example. It shows Tristan deep in the heart of the rockery where he is busy weeding. Earlier he had been helped by the 2 Steve's. Thank you all.
Thank you also to Ilma, Julie, and Jane who were all working on the flower beds on the Flower Walk or the Wilmslow Road Path near the rockery.
Thank you also to Lesley who is dedicated to the flower bed to the left of the Volunteers shelter.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Thank you to Gill N and Grace for filling up all the dog bag dispensers with more dog waste bags. It does so much to keep our park clean. Even I had to use one this week in an emergency with my son's dog.
A big thank you to our 3 litter picking teams of Sigad and Sheeba, Winnie and Andrew and Emilene and Ben, who all did a great litter pick across the park this morning.
Once again for their endurance, tenacity and sheer hard work I would like to thank Taylan, Patrick and Chris for finally completing the challenging task of emptying all the raised beds in the cafe and topping them up with woodchip so they do not look so untidy whilst they await demolition. This was a great job guys - thank you.
Thank you to both Lorna and Gill N for making updates to the lectern material today. This was much appreciated.
Thank you once again to Brenda for tidying up the Gillbrook Road entrance.
UPDATE ON SECURITY NUMBER
Following my update last week I received an email from Joanne Wakeman (Head of Parks - South) asking if we could use the following number to report any ASB or vandalism activities in the park.
0161 234 3685. Joanne is also interested in hearing about any feedback we might have when we use this number.
Thank you once again for such a very enjoyable and productive day in the sun today.