Another Busy Week of Volunteering in Didsbury Park
A FEW PICTURES FROM LAST MONDAY'S CELEBRATION OF 50,000 HOURS OF VOLUNTEERING IN DIDSBURY PARK
Last Monday our volunteer photographer Ged, took lots of great photographs. We are just in the process of sorting through these for a wider circulation but here are some example pictures of our original set of volunteers who started up our volunteer group in 2014:
PIcture 1: Shows Sonia meeting with the Lord Mayor, Councillor Carmine Grimshaw
Picture 2: Shows Gill N guiding the Lord Mayor in the cutting of the 50,000 hours celebration cake
Picture 3: Shows Gary being presented to the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester and MCC Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods. The picture also contains Charles, who had travelled by train from Anglesey very early on Monday morning to make sure he would not miss the celebration. Well done guys.
Picture 4: Shows Emma being presented to the Lord Mayor and Councillor Igbon,
Picture 5: Shows Lorna and the Lord Mayor enjoying an amusing discussion.
I must admit the feedback from the celebration has been excellent. Everyone I have spoken to seemed to enjoy the occasion. Thank you once again to all our volunteers for such an amazing achievement and to all our helpers who made it such a lovely occasion.
TODAY
Whilst the weather started off 'dry but threatening' first thing this morning it was not long before the expected rains did become somewhat of a downpour. Nevertheless we still had a very good turnout of 38 volunteers this morning. We were pleased to welcome a new regular volunteer Shagun for the first time, as well as Alessia and her mother Annalisa (visiting from Milan). We also started a trial today of hosting a team of 9 volunteers from Brentwood High School.
Under the leadership of Anna and 2 other members of staff we were delighted to be joined by 6 SEN students who did a super litter pick for us right across the park.
We were also joined for the first time this term by Sigad and his job coach Sheeba from Bridge College who both joined in and also did a very productive litter pick. After an absence of a few weeks it was also great to see Ilma back volunteering with us once more. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - SPLITTING PLANTS, REPLANTING AND TIDYING BORDERS
With the onset of autumn, we took the opportunity to trim back, tidy up and split some of our more abundant perennials this morning in the flower beds from the rockery to the Gillbrook Road entrance.
Picture 6 shows the team working on the flower bed opposite the rockery. In special Tiller Girl poses (that is showing my age. - note the hands on the left hips!) from left to right are Lucy, Brenda, Shagun, Ilma, Jude and Julie. This was an amazing improvement and revealed lots of excellent plants that could not be seen properly before. In the background of the picture you can see Gill B in red and Alessia working on another flower bed. Thank you all.
Picture 7 shows Christine and Jane working on the rockery plants and picture 8 shows Annalisa and Alessia working a little further along the flower bed (with Sandra and Gill B - not shown) all busy making the flower beds so much tidier and ready for the winter plants to be planted. These are due to arrive in a few weeks time. Thank you.
Across the park Denise was doing a similar great piece of work on the flower beds near Buddy and Lucy and picture 9 shows Anne and Lorna, looking a bit wet, returning from re-planting some of the split plants up near the newly planted hawthorns. Fingers crossed that all these new plants take for next year! Thank you.
TODAY - NEW LOOK BIRD GARDEN
One of the issues about having information lecterns in grassed areas or flower beds is that it is extremely difficult to grow anything under them (except weeds!)
So today we made the decision to trial putting coloured stones under the framed area below the large lectern in the Bird Garden. Joyce, Chris and Gary even put in a "bit of overtime" to finish this off today. Firstly the area was weeded, then a weed prevention membrane was laid, and then finally a layer of white pebbles was laid over the top.
Picture 10 shows the project team of Joyce, Gary and Chris proudly showing off the results of their work. Thank you guys, This is a great improvement!
TODAY - THE HIGH SCHOOLS ARE BACK! THE ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR RETURNS
It is an unfortunate reality which we have experienced over our 11 years of our volunteering, that it is impossible to predict just how loutish the latest high school intake is going to be. We had a reasonable year last year but it looks like this term has started badly. Term started again last week and unfortunately we have already had some foul and obscene juvenile graffiti drawn up on the equipment in the children's playground.
Following a number of reports from parents I am pleased to report that Alan tackled and removed all the obscenities this morning. Thank you Alan - this was a great response.
However this evening Alan has reported what looks like deliberate damage to one of our younger trees some time between 3pm and 5pm today. We will investigate further in the morning.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Augustine and Chris did a super job moving all the residual green waste from behind the volunteer's shelter into today's green waste skip. This means that after weeks of trying to catch up - we now have all the green waste in the skip! Super job guys.
Augustine then worked with Allan to tidy up all the path edges near the volunteers shelter. This made a huge improvement. Thank you.
The heavy gang of Richard, Adrian and Esme revisited the installation of the new goalposts on the sports field and put more securing ties around the nets. It looked like this equipment had also received some anti social attention since they were erected last Monday. Thank you all
The heavy gang then went on to help Kevin to build more wild life friendly structures in the woodland areas. Thank you.
Brenda and Lucy checked and refastened the membership recruitment banner which had become loose at the Wilmslow Road entrance. Thank you.
Gary mowed the cricket pitch and re-marked it once again. Thank you Gary - not long to go now before the end of the season!
TODAY - GOODBYE NICO
Sadly we had to say goodbye today to Nico who will be returning to Birmingham University later this week. Nico has been volunteering with us throughout the Summer and has made a major contribution to her go to project of 'bug hotel construction'. We look forward to seeing you again at the end of term Nico and we will try and keep the hotels in good shape until you return!
TODAY - EXCELLENT NEWS TO FINISH WITH - THE KAVS FLAG IS UP!
The more observant among us may have already noticed that, thanks to the MCC team, the FoDP King's Award for Voluntary Service flag has now been installed on the flag pole at the Wilmslow Road entrance!! I have not taken a picture yet because it has been raining most of the time since it was raised but hopefully we will get a good picture soon!
Thank you once again for your amazing support.