Bank Holiday Volunteers Embrace the Heat in Didsbury Park
TODAY
On a Bank Holiday Monday when the temperature today was forecast to reach the highest ever recorded in May, and on a day when amazingly it was so hot that one of our wooden lecterns in the park combusted and set itself on fire, we still had a great turnout of 21 willing volunteers taking on jobs right across the park. Wherever possible we worked in the shade and most people wore hats.
It was also a pleasure to see two of our regular supporting families with children joining us once again today. We also welcomed a new volunteer called Felix for the first time. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - WATER PLEASE!
Both young families took the opportunity today to take advantage of the best job of the day - watering using the hose pipe! Alexander, and Sebastion arrived in the park ready to start at 8:30 am this morning and with help from Mum Mandy, watered the whole 100 metres of the Flower Walk. This was a job which they thoroughly enjoyed and as soon as they had finished watering the Flower Walk then Xin, Yan and children Zhihao and Jeremy took over and watered the flower beds on both sides of the path down to the Wilmslow Road gate. Several hours of watering which the plants really needed! Thank you all.
Picture 1 shows Sebastian (at the front) and Alexander, watering the roses at the beginning of the Flower Walk and picture 2 shows Jeremy and Zhihao having a break for a cold drink after they had completed their mammoth watering jobs. Thank you guys this was a fantastic job which will keep the flowers looking great!
TODAY - TREE MAINTENANCE
At this time of year, the young trees on the main field in the park often hang too low to enable Paul, from the MCC mowing team, to cut the grass near the tree trunk. Consequently, despite the heat, Steve took one of the hand mowers and made sure that the grass was cut and tided up around all the trees on the main field. This was a huge job and expertly done. Thank you Steve.
This work was then enhanced by 2 further teams. Picture 3 shows the team of Chris and Taylan as they cleared weeds and grass from the area around the base of the trees and picture 4 shows new volunteer Felix working with Patrick, doing a similarly important job. Picture 5 is another picture of Taylan and Chris as they collect some woodchip to use as mulch around the base of the trees. Thank you all. This work really improved the look of the main field.
TODAY - BIRD GARDEN
As the grass in the Bird Garden was becoming quite long, we have to thank Allan for giving it a super cut today with the sit-on mower loaned to us by Geoff. Thank you Allan this made a huge difference and the Bird Garden looks a lot more attractive as a result.
Picture 6 shows Allan standing by Richard who was also working in the Bird Garden tidying up the 2 ornamental stone sinks which contained decomposing leaves etc. Thank you both for bringing this area back up to scratch again.
TODAY - FLOWER BED WORK IN PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER BEDDING PLANT DELIVERY TOMORROW
There was a lot of work undertaken today, especially in the flower bed areas which were in the shade, to tidy up the flower beds and prepare them ready for the delivery of the summer bedding plants, originally expected next Monday. However the delivery date has now been brought forward by MCC to a new date of tomorrow morning. The plan is to store and water them in the volunteer's shelter until our next volunteering session next Monday when we will have a full contingent of volunteers to plant them out. A huge thank you to Allan, Steve and Chris who stayed behind today to make sure we had space in the volunteers shelter to store the plants when they arrive.
Picture 7 shows Lis and Sandra standing beside the flower bed containing the giant alliums where they had been working with Louise (who took the photo). Thank you all.
Picture 8 shows Allan and Denise in front of the triangular bed where Denise had been preparing the flower bed and Allan had been mowing the grassed areas bordering the bed. Thank you also to Gill B who worked on the new flower bed near Buddy and Lucy.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
A big thank you to Richard for every week checking the the status of the 4 football nets we have installed on the sports field. The good news is that our policy of mending any damage as soon as we see it seems to be working as this week there was not much to repair. Thank you Richard for keeping on top of this. Fingers crossed!
Thank you to Tom for doing a super job keeping the bottom of the Poppy Path under control and giving it a good mowing too.
Thank you also to Tom for not only spotting that his wheelbarrow had a flat tyre but for also immediately replacing it with the spare wheel. Well done Tom.
Thank you to Sandra who stepped in to look after the coffee order today, in Gill's absence.
Thank you also to Chris who very generously brought us all some special Cornwall humbugs from his holiday in Cornwall, for us all to enjoy at our coffee break. Thank you Chris.
Once again, a big thank you from me for your amazing support.