Record-Breaking Volunteer Turnout and Park Improvements This Week
TODAY
I am delighted to say that it was great to be back volunteering in Didsbury Park again this morning after returning from Australia yesterday. A huge thank you to Sonia and Allan for looking after everything whilst I have been away and for Kevin for drafting the weekly volunteer updates.
Talk about arriving back with a bang!
Amazingly we had a record breaking Monday morning turnout of 78 volunteers who all worked hard on a lovely sunny morning in the park today. In addition to our 35 regular volunteers we also had 31 new volunteers from NatWest and 12 new volunteers from Kellanova (formally known as Kellogg's). Everybody was made very welcome.
Picture 1 is a team photo taken today of most of the volunteers after our coffee break. A huge thank you to Gill N and to Jo and her team at the cafe for successfully managing the huge drinks order for our coffee break today. We also took the opportunity to sample the traditional Australian tucker of Lamingtons (named after Lord Lamington - Governor of Queensland) and a few Tim Tams as well!
EASTER SATURDAY - EASTER EGG HUNT
Whilst I was away in Australia we also held a very successful Easter Egg Hunt in the park on Easter Saturday. This event was run by the Grove Church in partnership with ourselves. According to Reverend Tom from the Grove Church:
"We had a great time thank you! We had over 350 people attend and we think the time worked well as it meant the spread of people was more manageable for us. Rather than having big queues right at the beginning it picked up gradually through the morning. We couldn’t have done it without you guys and the gazebos were particularly helpful! We were able to get some extra tables from the Good Neighbours Centre too which was great so we didn’t need to bring any major equipment ourselves. Feedback from people was great - it ran probably as smooth as it has ever run"
This was a great feedback from Tom and I would like to say a huge thank you to Sonia and Allan who provided the co-ordination and on-site support on the day. Tom summarised it by saying "All in all it was a great event."
TODAY - DIDSBURY VILLAGE PLANTERS
The first of the volunteers to arrive at 09:00am this morning were immediately allocated to work with Alison from the Didsbury in Bloom team. Alison took our volunteers into the village to empty the planters, in preparation for the delivery of the summer plants from MCC. Any plants which looked like they still had some life left in them were collected and added to the flower beds in the park.
Picture 2 shows Denise (later joined by Louise) working with the NatWest team replanting some of the better plants in one of the rose beds. In the rear of the picture on the right hand side, Alison can be seen discussing the quality of the plants with Jude. Any plants which were not suitable for re-planting were added to the compost bays where Chris was waiting to mix them in with the decaying compost. Well done everyone a really great job!
TODAY - THE CHILDREN'S WOODLAND TRAIL GETS A MAKEOVER
Picture 3 shows a large contingent of NatWest Volunteers about to begin putting a new layer of woodchip along the children's woodland trail and at the same time removing any low hanging or dangerous branches to ensure that the path remained safe. It has been really frustrating this year trying to obtain woodchip but in the end Will White from MCC came to our rescue with a last minute delivery. Thank you Will.
The volunteers soon made short work of all the woodchip and had finished the relaying of the path by the coffee break. Thank you everyone!
TODAY - CANNAS - IMPRESSIVE TENDER PeRENNIALS WITH DRAMATIC FOLIAGE AND FLOWERS
Picture 4 shows Alan turning up to the park with a large cardboard box full of straw and containing cannas bulbs which he had overwintered and which were now ready for planting.
After much discussion it was agreed that these dramatic plants should be planted in the rockery. I cannot wait to see them when they grow! Thank you Alan.
TODAY - LETS GET WEEDING
As the early spring flowers start to die back they are beginning to expose new weed growth throughout the park. So today we undertook a widespread campaign to address this problem. Picture 5 shows Ilma, Anne and Sandra, weeding on the Flower Walk with 3 volunteers from NatWest. Picture 6 shows Jane and Christine working upon the flower bed next to the rockery with Lesley Mc, (not in picture).
Elsewhere throughout the park, Gill B was working near Gillbrook Road, Lesley Mi did a great job working on the flower bed next to the shelter, Rebecca weeded in the beds near the wild flower meadow, Julie took a large contingent of volunteers including Lucy, to weed the flower beds near the old compost bay area, and Tristan worked on the area near the Sandhurst Road, pedestrian gate. Thank you to everybody who participated in this huge task.
TODAY - AN OPPORTUNITY TO TIDY UP THE PATHS
The Kellanova team rose to the challenge of clearing up the paths in the park today. They decided to split into two competing teams to see who could make the most improvement.
Picture 7 shows the team working on clearing up area in front of the Bird Garden entrance gate. The second team working along the side of the Bird Garden hedge next to the bowling green. Both teams a fantastic job. Thank you
TODAY - FINISHING THE SOAK AWAY EDGING
Following the delivery of another ton of gravel last Friday, Allan led the team from NatWest to finish of installation of edging soakaways along the Flower Walk path, all the way up yo the DNC.
Picture 8 shows Allan, with two of the NatWest volunteers, standing beside the large bag of gravel. Thank you all for finishing this length of gravel stretch. This was an excellent job.
TODAY - LITTER PICKING
We had two of our regular teams of two people out litter picking across the park today.
Picture 9 shows Winnie in what Andrew said she had chosen as her best litter picking outfit for today and Picture 10 shows Aristhote and his helper Jennifer from Bridge College. There seemed to be a lot of litter in the park this morning following a warm weekend. Thank you all fo doing a great clean up.
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
-Thank you to Brenda for once again doing an excellent clean up around the Gillbrook Road entrance
-Lorna came to the rescue today when she took one of the water bowsers around the park to give some newly planted hawthorn and pyracantha plants some much need watering following many days of dry weather. Thank you Lorna.
-The team of Kevin, Greg, Richard and Carl N, continued their creative development of the new 'bug hotel' for the woodland area. Thank you guys. We are looking forward to revealing a picture in a few weeks time.
-With the cricket season now underway, it is great to see Gary's dedication, to week by week, cutting and marking out the cricket square for the local children to use. Well done Gary - the pitch is looking excellent.
Finally thank you once again for your amazing support - it really was an huge amount of work we achieved today - and my apologies for the slightly later issue of this week's update, as I am afraid 'jet lag' finally caught up with me before I could finish it!