The Lord Mayor Officially Opens Didsbury Park's Wild Flower Meadow
TODAY'S SPECIAL EVENT:
THE LORD MAYOR AND LADY MAYORESS VISIT DIDSBURY PARK TO FORMERLY OPEN THE WILD FLOWER MEADOW
We were honoured today by the attendance of Councillor Shaukut Ali, the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester and the Lady Mayoress, who came to Didsbury Park to formerly open the wild flower meadow.
Picture 1 shows the Lord Mayor using some garden shears to cut the ribbon of flowers created by Sandra to declare the meadow open. Picture 2 is a lovely picture, taken a little later, as the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress relax in the wild flower meadow. We were also very pleased to welcome Councillor Basat Skeikh, MCC Executive Member for Neighbourhoods. Picture 3 shows Councillor Sheikh posing for a picture with Denise and Louise. It was also good to welcome Councillor Leslie Bell from Didsbury East and Councillors Richard Kilpatrick and Debbie Hilal from Didsbury West.
Picture 4 shows all our distinguished guests posing for a picture with myself, Allan and Sonia. In addition we were also very pleased to welcome some of our colleagues from the MCC who regularly work alongside us, including Will, Caitlin, Sue and Sally. Picture 5 shows a group photo of most of us who were at the opening event today.
The whole opening event was held in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
A huge thank you to Ged, who took these (and many more) fantastic photos at today's event
TODAY - VOLUNTEERING ACTIVITIES
In addition to all our guests and MCC colleagues we had a great turnout of 50 volunteers this morning. We started early, at 8am, with the arrival of Oliver and Ryan from MBC Building Contractors who came to finish all the bricklaying work involved in the repair of the long, low garden wall behind the Bird Garden. I am absolutely delighted to report that after nearly 12 years we have finally been able to find the skilled bricklaying resource to rebuild the whole of this wall which runs the length of the Bird Garden.
Picture 6 shows Oliver proudly standing alongside the new low garden wall which has taken many weeks to complete - but it has been well worth it. Thank you Oliver and Ryan.
There was clearly a lot of last-minute work to be undertaken this morning to prepare for the opening event. We had to set up the gazebo, finish of the flower garland ribbon, collect the food from M&S and most importantly collect the centre piece cake (covered in a beautiful decoration of flowers), and drinks from the cafe in the park. Under the careful management of Gill, Sonia, Louise and Jo from the cafe, everything went incredibly smoothly and we were all very well catered for as a result. Thank you all so much.
In addition to our regular volunteers today we also had another team of 6 volunteers from Armstrong Fluid Technology, 3 volunteers from Carrier, Al once again from Network Rail who did a fabulous job tidying up all the hedging poking through into the bowling green side of the fence and Fidelia for the first time. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - WOODCHIP
Picture 7 shows a large team of volunteers doing an amazing rescue job on the ice-cream van's parking area. Unfortunately, in the last few days, our friendly tree surgeon supplier of woodchip had inadvertently deposited the latest huge load of new woodchip onto the hard standing space designated for the parking of the ice cream van.
In picture 7 we can see the rescue team of the 3 ladies from Carrier in the foreground, and Shashvat, Fidelia and Taylan at the back. The challenge for the team was to move the large pile of woodchip about 2 metres further back and in so doing clear the ice cream van's designated parking space! And the amazing thing was that the team worked really hard and did it! Thank you everyone - this was a great result.
As soon as the team from Brentwood college arrived they also helped by moving some of the woodchip down to the Wilmslow Road path as mulch. Thank you all.
TODAY - LOOKING AHEAD TO THE RHS JUDGES VISIT ON 16TH JULY
As we only have 2 more volunteering days to go before the visit of the RHS judges on 16th July, some of our team today began to focus upon the horticultural needs of the Flower Walk. Thanks to Tristan's 8am early start he was able to thoroughly water the whole of the Flower Walk before he moved on to the needs of the moss garden. This meant that when Jane, Joyce, Wendy and other volunteers were ready to begin working on the flower beds, they were much more workable, and a lot of progress was made.
We also placed a lot of focus today upon the state of the paths and the hard standing areas around all our benches. The whole of the team from Armstrong took on this task as did Allan and the two Steves. This work made a huge difference to how smart the park started to look. Thank you all.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Picture 8 shows young Emeline and Winnie with Ben and Andrew about to embark on a major litter pick of the park accompanied by Brian the dog! Thank you guys. Later on this team was joined by Sigad and Sheeba. The park was looking so much better after all this litter clearance activity - thank you
Thanks to Brenda the Gillbrook Road entrance had a good clean today - thank you.
Picture 9 shows Allan and Tony moving the paving slabs from storage ready to be re-laid at the Gillbrook Road entrance. Thanks guys.
LAST WEEK - SETBACK
Today has been a great day. There have been lots of good feelings and positive reaction to both the Lord Mayor's and Councillor Sheikh's speeches. Days like today, really help to balance the set-backs such as the one we received mid-week when we found some wanton vandalism and violent destruction of a major piece of the well loved circular bench in the park.
Picture 10 shows the damage but the good news is that we do believe it is repairable - it will be a lot of work but we think we can do it.
Thank you once again for your amazing support.