Busy Week, Great Achievements

This week has been an incredibly busy week as we have fought the heatwave to try and present the park in the best condition we could for the RHS judges visit last Thursday.

I am delighted to say that the support shown by FoDP members and volunteers has been amazing. People have given up their time at 8:30am or 5pm each day to water the drying flowerbeds suffering under the 30 degree temperatures.

I would like to say an especial thank you to Allan, Sonia, Paul, Jo, Steve, Christine and husband, and myself for undertaking additional watering sessions performed during the week. A huge thank you to Jude, Louise, and Ilma who helped me to guide the judges around the park on the day and to Greg for all the briefing notes on the woodland projects.

The judging event itself was not without its trauma!

The day before the judging, MCC had not emptied any of the rubbish bins in the park and there were overflowing rubbish bins right across the park on the Wednesday evening before the judges were due to arrive on Thursday morning at 9:30am. We went to bed on the eve of the judging with the park in a right mess but with promises from the parks team that it would be all cleared up before the judges arrived early the following morning.

Especial thanks to Jo who started a litter pick at 7am, to Allan and Sandra who turned up early to see how they could help and to the MCC team who arrived at 7:30am. Together with MCC we just about managed to get it all cleaned up before the arrival of the judges.

With this year's RHS competition theme being 'back to nature' we were able to proudly show the judges the newly opened wild flower meadow and the woodland area, and we even took the opportunity to show the judges the 'work in progress' on the repainting of the Poppy Bridge. Pictures 1 and 2 provide a snapshot of how the repainting of the bridge was progressing. It is very different to how it used to be.

It will probably appeal more to naive painting enthusiasts and children but Caroline (the painter) assures us that she has received lots of very positive feedback from people passing by, so far. It will be finished off this week when we apply a coat of varnish so please do let me know what you think?

We also showed the judges our latest bird boxes and bat box skilfully made by Geoff. Picture 3 shows from left to right, the expertly designed 'robin' box, the 'tit' box, the bat box made from old recycled wood, and the starling box. Each bird box has a rather splendid roof made of Welsh slate, with the 'tit' box designed to enable the roof to be raised and the inside to be cleaned out at the end of each year.

Another design feature is the reinforced metal entrances to prevent predators from expanding the entrance and attacking the inhabitants! An amazing attention to detail - A huge thank you Geoff!

One of the strangest and funniest things about the RHS judges visit was that as we showed the judges around the park, members of the public kept thanking us for all the work we do in the park. In fact, one lady called Mary was so effusive that after she had gone one of the judges did ask us if we had staged it!

We now have to wait until the end of October / beginning of November for the RHS to feedback results - so please do be patient.

TODAY

Today we had a beautiful sunny morning and a great turnout of 43 volunteers. Our volunteers included returning second time volunteers Simone and Hermes and a new local first-time volunteer called Shuge.

One of our first volunteers to arrive today was Jacqueline and daughter Anya. They came along as a result of observing an organised water balloon fight in the park on Sunday evening, which had left the park full of lots of bits of tiny balloon pieces. Picture 4 shows Jacqueline and young Anya in the early morning sunshine about to do a great litter pick and remove all this rubbish. A huge thank you!

Shortly afterwards they were joined by Alice and young Felix and Pabs who also worked really hard for several hours litter picking across the park and also by Ben with his son and daughter Emilene (see picture 5). What a great response of helpers from the first week of school holidays! We were also joined today by a team of 7 business volunteers from Autotrader. Everybody was made very welcome.

A special thank you today to Sandra who baked a delicious banana cake which we all enjoyed at our coffee break!

TODAY - ANOTHER GREAT ACHIEVEMENT - A NEW BENCH FOR THE PARK

We were delighted to take delivery today of a beautiful new bench for the park donated by Marion and dedicated to the Philbin family. Picture 6 is a picture of Marion being the first to sit on it in situ.

Thank you Marion - this new bench will be an enormous benefit to the elderly who enter the park via the Wilmslow Road gate and who need to pause to rest for a short while before tackling the long 100 metre path into the main part of the park. I know my mother would have made good use of it had she still been alive. Thank you.

I am sure it will be put to great use, especially as it has been sited directly opposite the newly created flower oasis created by Ilma, Julie, Jude and Lucy.

Picture 7 shows Carl N, Steve and Murray measuring up, before setting the bench anchors in concrete. Thank you guys.

TODAY - LET'S GET BACK TO NORMAL

With the RHS judges visit behind us we were able to refocus a little on some other areas of the park today.

Wendy, Jane, Sandra, Simone and Lesley worked on improving the end of the Flower Walk near the Sandhurst Road pedestrian entrance. Thank you ladies. Picture 8 shows Gill B, Ilma and Savita, weeding and applying mulch to the roses at the other end of Flower Walk. These large roses are getting better every year. Thank you.

Picture 9 shows Denise doing a great tidy up in the T flower bed opposite the rockery. Thank you Denise. Louise did a splendid job on the rose beds - thank you Louise. Kevin worked in the woodland area and wild flower meadow. Thank you Kevin. Julie and Lucy concentrated on the path to Wilmslow Road. Thank you both.

Everywhere needed water today and so the team of Hermes, Patrick, Taylan and Chris, supervised by Allan did an incredible job with both hose pipes and bowsers right across the park. You guys certainly saved quite a few plants today. Thank you.

TODAY - A BIG JOB ON THE WOODLAND WALK

Picture 10 shows an action shot of some of the 7 members of the Autotrader team, as they filled their wheelbarrows with woodchip to do a huge maintenance overhaul of the woodland trail.

They not only cut back overhanging branches and any overgrown bushes along the path but they also re-laid woodchip along almost the whole length of the path. This really was a great job. Thank you!

TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK

Thank you to Allan who helped me temporarily re-attach a panel of railings around the sports field (using plastic ties) which had not been re-attached after a recent event at the park. Thank you to Patrick, Chris and Taylan for repairing the nets on the goals on the sports field.

In Gary's absence, Steve took over grass cutting duties on the cricket square and then mowed the lawned areas of the wild flower meadow. Excellent work Steve. Thank you.

THIS COMING WEEK

Looking at the weather forecast for the week ahead, although it looks like it will not be heatwave conditions it still looks like it will dry. I am proposing to do some watering in the park on Friday evening at 5pm. If anybody would like to join me, you will be very welcome.

NEXT MONDAY - SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT - GIANT BOARD GAMES IN THE PARK

Next Monday, in conjunction with our regular volunteering session, MCC are making available some GIANT BOARD GAMES for the park. This is part of the MCC LOVE PARKS WEEK INITIATIVE. It is scheduled to take place between 09:30 and 12:30. Let's give it our best support!

Thank you once again for your amazing support.