Rain, reunions and remarkable teamwork in Didsbury Park

LAST WEEK

I am afraid there was no update email / website blog last week, because Margaret and I were on holiday on a river cruise in the South of France. I would like to say a huge thank you to Sonia and Allan who stepped in to manage a very successful volunteer session in my absence. According to Sonia there were over 35 volunteers in attendance including 6 volunteers from BT.

Picture 1 shows some of the volunteers enjoying their coffee break in the beautiful sunny weather last week. Thank you everyone. 

THIS WEEK

By complete contrast, and not in accordance with the weather forecast, we were completely taken by surprise this morning when we had heavy downpours of rain on at least 4 separate occasions. Picture 2 shows Allan checking the overflowing water from the blocked gutter on the volunteers shelter during one of these heavy downpours. Later in the morning we managed to successfully unblock the gutter which was full of leaves. Thanks Allan.  

Despite it being a Bank Holiday and an exceptionally wet one at that, we still had an amazing turnout of 33 volunteers today. There was also an emotional element to this morning's volunteering as we welcomed back our good friends Tristan, and Mariela, who are only able to volunteer with us on a Bank Holiday. We also had to say good bye at the end of this morning to Shashvat who is returning to Leeds University to continue his medical studies and to Hermes who is starting his upper sixth form at Loreto. We wish you both the best of luck in your continued academic studies.

Today was also the last Monday appearance, for some time, for our ever present Winnie and Emilene, as they now both start primary school later this week!  

Picture 3 shows Winnie and Emilene with dads Andrew and Ben, Emilene's elder brother Franklyn and of course Brian the dog. Despite getting soaking wet, they still managed an amazing litter pick across the park. Thank you. All volunteers today were made very welcome. 

THIS WEEK - THE GROUND IS NOW WORKABLE AGAIN

Just as little as one week ago the grass in the park was parched and the ground was effectively so hard it was undiggable. Thanks to some recent rain, the grass has recovered well and is now green again. The ground has also softened so much so that today it was workable enough to enable us to continue with the re-location and redesign of the new flower bed.

Picture 4 shows Steve and Shashvat doing an excellent job skimming the turf off the site of the new flower bed and re-locating the turf into the old flower bed under the trees. This was an excellent piece of work - thank you guys.  

Meanwhile a large group of volunteers including Jane, Anne, Felix, Lesley, Tristan, Mariela and Sarita worked on the flower beds near the Wilmslow Road entrance. In particular the team worked hard to remove the self seeding whitebeam shoots sprouting throughout the flower bed. This was not easy.

Picture  5 shows Tristan standing by the removed whitebeam with a 10 foot long root lying next to him on the path. The removal of these self seeded tree shoots along with the removal of the prolific bindweed was a major task of this team. Thank you everyone this was an excellent piece of work.  

Later on, Lesley and Mariela did some excellent maintenace work around the "oasis" flower bed recently created opposite the new bench. Picture 6 shows Lesley and Mariela working around the daphne which is the centre piece of this area. Thank you Lesley and Mariela. 

Thank you also to Denise and Louise who once again did some excellent maintenance work on the rose beds. They are looking very well cared for - thank you both. 

THIS WEEK - NATURAL HEDGE MAINTENANCE

It was great to welcome Greg back to the team today and to see him working with Richard on the maintenance of the large natural hedge at the end of the woodland trail. This was a big job to add some structural supports to the hedge, in order to make it more robust. Thank you also guys for doing some running repairs on the nets on the football goals.

THIS WEEK - LIFTING TREE CANOPIES 

Given the recovery of the grass, and the current spell of warm wet weather, we are expecting a spurt in the growth in the grass very soon. In anticipation of a visit from the grass cutting team from MCC we reviewed and maintained the trees on the grassed areas today to make sure that the lowest branches were high enough for the large mowing machines to pass under. 

Picture 7 shows Patrick, Thomas and Taylan using loppers to lift the canopy on low some hanging branches. Thank you all - this was a great job. 

THIS WEEK - STORE ROOM ENHANCEMENT 

Of all the volunteering jobs this morning there was no doubt that Murray had the best! This was simply because Murray was working on a project inside the volunteers shelter the whole time and never once got wet! However having said that, Murray did a magnificent job in re-organising the storage facilities, particularly for the power tools.

Picture 8 shows Murray standing in front of the new shelving. Thank you Murray. 

THIS WEEK - LECTERN UPDATES

Thank you to Gill and Grace for making sure that all the information in the lecterns was completely up to date today and belated thanks to Louise who updated the lecterns last week with the latest front page of the Manchester Post containing the article about the Lord Mayor's visit to open the Wild Flower Meadow. Thank you all.

Picture 9 shows Louise and Grace at the coffee break today with some very wet volunteers in the background.  

THIS WEEK - CRICKET PITCH MAINTENANCE  

Picture 10 shows Gary posing in front of the volunteers shelter during one of our sunny breaks in the weather this morning. Gary has once again completed a mowing and re-marking of the cricket pitch on the sports field.

Thank you once again Gary - the availability of the cricket pitch has been inspirational this year for the local children who love cricket!

Thank you once again for your amazing support.