Rain, Leaves, Compost and 48 Volunteers
TOMORROW- 10PM BBC4 - THE CORINTHIANS
If you are interested in local history then there is a new film being shown on BBC 4 tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 10pm which you might be very interested in watching. It is called "The Corinthians" and is about the original rebel girls of football, who defied the FA ban on women, and whose home ground was Fog Lane, in Didsbury. They achieved remarkable success, not just in the UK but abroad as well.
Personally, having played football once in my youth on the pitches at Fog Lane I am full of admiration for anybody who could play football at all, on such a muddy quagmire. The story goes, that after the game the ladies used to clean the mud off themselves by washing in the duck pond! I hope you enjoy the film!
TODAY
Sonia, Allan and myself all arrived around 8am at the park this morning expecting an early start from the volunteers from MBC Building Contractors NW Ltd who had very generously offered to return for a second week running to complete the re-building of the wall near the Bird Garden.
Unfortunately, the predicted weather forecast of heavy showers later in the morning meant that this work had to be postponed at the last minute. So, with an hour and a half before anybody else was due to arrive Allan and I cleaned out the gutter of the shelter, which was blocked with leaves, and Sonia got on with weeding the flower bed near Buddy and Lucy.
Eventually by 9:30am we were joined by our regular volunteers plus a large team of 13 volunteers from Siemens. Shortly afterwards we also welcomed once again the students and staff from Brentwood College and Shigad and his job coach Sheeba from Bridge College. In all, we had a good turnout of 48 volunteers this morning. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - MULCH AND COMPOST AND PREPARATION FOR THE DELIVERY OF THE SUMMER PLANTS
Today was the day we finally got around to filling the newly constructed large leaf pen with last Autumn's crop of fallen leaves from our circa 500 trees in the park. We needed a large dedicated team to tackle this physical task of creating mulch for us. The team from Siemens made a great job of it.
Picture 1 shows the 'before picture' with 7 volunteers from Siemens standing in the leaf pen and leaning on their shovels ready to start. Picture 2 shows the 'after picture' with 6volunteers proudly admiring their amazing 1+ metre high pile of leaves in the leaf pen, at the end. This was a fantastic piece of work but I just could not help thinking that someone must be missing somewhere!!! Thank you all.
Today was also the day the 1 tonne bag of compost arrived. Thanks to Tom for storing it on his drive this week, we were able to take our pallet truck, collect it and push it into the park. Picture 3 shows Jude in charge of the team of strong young men from Siemens, who distributed the compost in wheelbarrows to many of the flower beds in the park. Thank you all for this excellent work.
Picture 4 shows Denise, Louise and Allan posing beside one of the rose beds which had just received a generous layer of compost. Thank you all.
Picture 5 shows Lesley, Christine, Sonia and Kiwi who were preparing the flower bed near Buddy and Lucy ready for the delivery of summer bedding plants on Monday 1st June. First of all, some space was created by transferring some plants from this bed to the larger one further along the path. Picture 6 shows Patrick and Taylan busy replanting in this larger flower bed. Then both flower beds were given a good supply of the new compost. This was a great piece of work by everyone involved. Thank you.
Meanwhile, a further piece of excellent preparation work was being undertaken in the flower beds near the Wilmslow Road gate where Jude led another small team from Siemens to thoroughly weed this area. We will use the new compost in the compost bays to feed this area next week.
Carl M also led a small team to do an excellent piece of weeding in the area near the rockery where Tristan was also working. Thank you both for doing such a thorough piece of work.
TODAY - BENCHES
Whilst we were planning to do a good deal of maintenance work on our benches in the park today, I am afraid the heavy rain showers severely constrained what we could do. Luckily, we had some preservative that was very quick drying and which could be applied when the bench was wet. So, Steve and Joyce did a great job applying a coat of preservative to the new bench near the cafe before moving on to the circular bench around the giant redwood tree.
Picture 7 shows Joyce and Steve getting very wet at the circular bench, just before abandoning the bench work for the day. Thank you Joyce and Steve for soldiering on in such adverse weather.
TODAY - BIRD GARDEN
Picture 8 shows Wendy and Anne doing a superb maintenance job in the Bird Garden as they tackle the sudden growth in the hedging caused by the warm but wet conditions of the last few days.
The work done on the hedging this morning (before the rains descended again) made a huge improvement. Thank you both.
TODAY - RECONSTRUCTING THE CHAIN FENCING NEAR THE ROUNDABOUT
Last week, when we discovered that 4 of the fencing posts in the chain fence near the roundabout were loose, we replaced them with new longer posts and reset them in concrete. So this week Murray and Carl N set about re-attaching the chain fence back to its original state.
Picture 9 shows Carl N and Murray standing alongside the newly re-assembled chain fencing prior to them filing any sharp edges smooth and painting all the posts with a new coat of preservative. This was a great job guys. Thank you both.
TODAY - THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS WHO REGULARLY CLEAN AND TIDY UP THE PARK
We are so lucky to have a team of volunteers of all ages who every week are dedicated to making our park look pristine.
Picture 10 shows two of our regulars, Ben and young Emilene, who have picked up their equipment and are just about to set off litter picking across all parts of the park looking for litter. Our other two regular intrepid litter pickers today were Shigad and Sheeba and of course our regular champion of the Gillbrook Road entrance is Brenda who every week, makes a great job of sweeping and tidying this area to make it as welcoming as possible to park visitors.
And last but not least, we have to say a huge thank you to the staff and students from Brentwood College who do a variety of work every week to help us improve the park. This team makes a big difference to our park.
I wonder how many times in the past our park users have brushed up against the mildew on the bowling green railings and come away with marks / stains on their clothing? Well, thanks to the work of the team from Brentwood College this will hopefully now be a thing of the past because this week the team completed washing the final part of all the grotty mildew coated railings around the bowling green.
Well done to the students and staff from Brentwood College - we are proud of you!
NEXT WEEK - BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY
Just a quick reminder that we will be volunteering as usual next Monday even though it is a Bank Holiday. If possible, why not bring the rest of the family along too if they are free?
Thank you once again for your amazing support.