Poppy Bridge Sparkles Again as Volunteers Keep Didsbury Park Thriving
LAST WEEK - THE COMPLETION OF THE REPAINTING OF THE POPPY BRIDGE
I am delighted to report that the artist Caroline Daly completed the repainting of Poppy Bridge early last week.
Picture 1 shows a 'work in progress' photo of Caroline whilst concentrating on her painting and picture 2 is an excellent picture of the finished bridge sparkling in the sunshine. We have had lots of positive feedback so far, so hopefully everyone is enjoying the new look of the Poppy Bridge. Thank you Caroline.
LAST WEEK - FRIDAY NIGHT 'S ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERING SHIFT
Although the dry weather continued throughout last week, the drop in the daily temperatures did enable us to scale back the daily watering regime we had undertaken the week before. We were able to just do a single additional watering shift on Friday evening.
A huge thanks to Sonia and Sandra for helping me to water the most vulnerable plants in the park on Friday evening. A big thanks also to Murray who took advantage of having access to the tools and equipment in the shelter, to finish off the concrete work on the new bench. Thank you all.
TODAY
As we move deeper into the school holidays it is great to see our support growing weekly from the young families in our community.
Picture 3 shows Mum Jacqueline and young Anya, back for a second week to litter pick across the park. Picture 4 shows Brenda's Gillbrook Road entrance cleaning team being boosted by young Alexander, Sebastian and their two friends. Lorna and son Luke did an amazingly professional job removing epicormic growth from one of our large trees in the park.
Picture 5 shows young David and Robert who came with Eunice and were actively involved in topping up the woodland trail with woodchip, as also were the team from BT shown in picture 6, and together they all made a tremendous difference to the maintenance of the childrens woodland trail. Especial mention must also be given to Savita, who came as a new volunteer last week, but this week had an appointment mid-morning which she needed to attend, so she came early, certainly before me at 8:30am, so that she could put in at least an hour or so before her appointment.
This was an amazing commitment Savita - thank you. We also welcomed a new local volunteer today called Elliott. Thank you also to all our 48 volunteers who worked so hard in the park this morning. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - SPECIAL CHILDREN'S EVENT - BIG BOARD GAMES
Today we also welcomed Sue Polshaw (our MCC Ranger). As a special event, Sue brought along a series of giant board games for the young children to play.
It proved to be a very popular event with the tiny ones and picture 7 shows Sue enjoying a well deserved coffee break surrounded by our regular volunteers Lorna, Luke, Allan, Taylan, Chris and Gill B. Thank you Sue.
TODAY - REPAIRS AROUND THE PARK
Unfortunatelyat the moment every week seems to bring along a new piece of vandalism in the park. This week the carpet under the older children's tyre swing seems to have been slashed and tonight it was reported that the tortoise in the tree in the Bird Garden has been bashed in.
Today we noticed that the section of railing around the sports field which we had temporarily repaired last week, with lots of plastic ties, was broken again and that the net support on the nearest goal to it had been deliberately broken. Luckily we purchased some spare net support about 6 months ago so we will replace the broken one next week.
Picture 8 shows the heavy gang of Carl N, Richard and Murray who had managed to attached a single new bolt to the railings and have identified some heavy engineering work which is needed to be done next week to re-secure the section of railing permanently. Well done guys.
TODAY - THREE NEW BIRD BOXES AND A NEW BAT BOX INSTALLED
Picture 8 also shows Elliott and Kevin on their way back from installing the new bat and bird boxes in the woodland. Having researched the recommended height, habitat and location for the robin box, tit box, starling box and bat box Kevin and Elliot carefully installed them up the trees in the woodland. These were the new boxes featured in a photograph last week and skillfully designed and made by Geoff.
Fingers crossed that this new Didsbury real estate installed in the park is regarded as suitable desirable residence by our feathered friends.
TODAY - HORTICULTURAL MAINTENANCE AROUND THE PARK
Despite the many projects taking place around the park there was still a lot of horticultural work going on as well:
Picture 9 shows 4 members of the team weeding the Flower Walk. From left to right are Lesley, Christine, Sandra and Anne. Missing from the picture but also working in the Flower Walk were Ilma and Gill B. Thank you all - This Flower Walk is looking absolutely stunning.
David and Robert also worked closely with Ilma to spread woodchip on some well weeded sections of the Flower Walk. Well done boys
Thank you to Sonia for weeding and tidying the flower beds near Buddy and Lucy
Louise and Hermes worked together with the water bowser and new super stretch hose pipe to make sure that the triangular bed and the middle rose bed were well watered today - thank you both.
Chris worked with Denise to make sure that the hose pipe from the wild flower meadow gave the other rose bed a good watering after being weeded by Denise. Thank you Chris and Denise.
Chris also watered the geraniums along the hedging inside the wild flower meadow. Well done Chris.
TODAY - TREE MAINTENANCE AROUND THE PARK
Following the recent heat wave some of the trees in the park are beginning to look a bit stressed and so today we paid especial attention to the younger and most recently planted ones. In particular Hermes did a great job using the new stretch hose pipe as he gave the 5 new trees near the cafe a good soaking and Taysan did an equally splendid job as he used the long hosepipe from the Flower Walk tap to water all the small trees on the main field.
Thank you both. This was a very necessary job.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Gill N and Grace re-filled all the doggy bag dispensers around the park. Thank you both once again for continuing to monitor and manage this activity so well. It is appreciated.
Murray tidied up the hard standing for the new bench prior to a new top-up of compact gravel being delivered on Friday. Well done Murray it looks so much better now.
Thank you to Eunice for sweeping the path near the roundabout. This made a huge improvement.
Thank you to the heavy gang and Elliott and Hermes for coming to the rescue of the cafe and DGN by assembling some of the new tables for the outside of the cafe. Great job - Expertly done! thank you!
In preparation for the forthcomiing next stage of the work in the wildflower meadow, Kevin began experimenting on a selective chopping back of the oxide daisy heads. More to come next week! Thanks Kevin.
Thank you once again for your amazing support.