Time for Remembrance and Progress in the Park
HISTORICAL UPDATE - TIME FOR REMEMBRANCE
Thanks to some very interesting information from Mike Casey, one of our long time members, we have made some great progress this week in our historical research into the date when Didsbury Park was created - but more of this next week.
This week the historical focus in this update is upon historical items related to our forthcoming Act of Remembrance which will be held in a few days time on Saturday 8th November at 11am on the Poppy Path.
Thanks to some research undertaken by Louise, picture 1 shows the scene in 1920 when the Didsbury War Memorial was unveiled for the first time. The picture contains some interesting features such as the raised platform for the clergy and dignitaries, the huge crowd, the splendour of the library building, the gas street light and the complete lack of traffic, apart from a cyclist, on Wilmslow Road! Picture 2 by contrast is a picture taken in 1914 of the Red Cross medical staff, ready to deal with casualties at the Red Cross hospital in West Didsbury.
If you would like to help us to ensure that we do not forget all the sacrifices make by previous generations in horrific wars then please support our short but poignant Act of Remembrance on the Poppy Path this Saturday. The attached picture 3 is a copy of the poster containing all the details.
LAST WEEK - A START DATE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WILDFLOWER MEADOW FENCING PROJECT HAS BEEN AGREED
We had some really good news this week. On Wednesday I met with MCC and the contractor who will undertake the implementation of the modifications to the fencing around the Wildflower Meadow which will enable us to finally open it to the public. The contractor confirmed that he has ordered the new fencing and is currently awaiting delivery (ETA is a minimum of 2 weeks). He also said the work is expected to take 3 or 4 weeks and his company will be closed over Christmas.
To avoid the problem of the project being half complete over the Christmas period we have all agreed that it would be sensible to start the implementation on 5th January 2026. This date will also give us time during the next few weeks to complete the work we will need to do to relocate sections of the hedge away from the new entrance areas.
LAST WEEK - DIDSBURY BEER FESTIVAL
A huge thank you to Louise, Allan, Sandra, Joyce, Pauline, Greg and especially Murray, who helped us to promote the Friends of Didsbury Park at the Didsbury Beer Festival on Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week. I am delighted to report that we had a rota of representatives at every session.
Picture 4 shows the Thursday evening team of Allan, Louise and myself surrounded by our marketing material, whilst sampling the delights of the festival - well it would have been rude not to!
LAST WEEK - CLEANING THE ROOF OF THE VOLUNTEERS SHELTER
Last Monday the MCC Estates staff started the task of cleaning the moss from the roof of the volunteer's shelter so that we could harvest the rain from the roof in our 400 litre water butt located in the shelter. Work continued throughout the week and we were very pleased to see this morning that it had been successfully completed.
Not only did the roof look good but, as requested, the guys doing the work left us a load of moss to enable us to get our new moss garden established Thank you MCC. This will now enable us to move forward and decontaminate the water butt and improve our sustainability achievements.
TODAY
What started off as a wet and windy day did not put too many volunteers off this morning. In fact as the morning wore on, we reached a total of 43 volunteers working in mild and sometimes sunny weather in the park. We were delighted to welcome some of our younger volunteers who were still on half term leave.
Picture 5 shows 'newcomers' Josh and Benji, and picture 6 shows 'old timers' Alexander and Sebastian helping us out by clearing away the leaves from the grassed areas. Thank you. Our 'slightly older young volunteer' Luke, worked on some more advanced activities today. Picture 7 shows Luke helping by holding the wood steady as Mum (Lorna) and Kevin construct an elaborate section of one of the new bug hotels. Well done Luke. We were very pleased to see that Grace was also feeling well enough to join us today. Picture 8 shows Grace with Gill N just about to set off round the park to re-fill all the dog bag dispensers and update all the lecterns with Act of Remembrance posters.
We were also pleased to welcome the students and staff from Brentwood High School who did a fabulous job cleaning up the paths around the roundabout. Thank you all. We were also joined by two new volunteers from industry - Ashley once again from NatWest and Amiee. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - ADDITIONAL WINTER BEDDING PLANTS
Following our concern about missing cyclamen winter bedding plants from the MCC delivery this year we decided that in order to provide some additional colour in the park throughout the winter we needed to purchase some additional plants ourselves. Hence this week Allan and Louise have been visiting the local stores and garden centres and buying lots of healthy plants. Consequently today we had three teams busily planting them throughout the park.
Picture 9 shows Allan, Caroline and Aimee busy planting cyclamen on the Poppy Path.
Sonia, Christine, Wendy and Gill B planted cyclamen in the flower bed next to Buddy and Lucy
Denise, Louise and Gill B planted cyclamen in the rose beds
Thank you all - this splash of colour should make a great difference to the park during the coming winter months.
TODAY - THE MOSS GARDEN
Picture 10 shows Tristan and Ilma in amongst the newly designed rock arrangement in the new moss garden. This is really starting to take shape now.
Well done to you both. Thank you.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Some really significant progress was made today when Adrian was joined by David, Augustine and Gary to dig out the remaining footings for the new bench. The digging work is now complete and it is now on to the installation of the concrete edging next week. It is all systems go now to complete the installation of the new bench. Well done everyone - excellent progress.
Ashley from NatWest did some amazing work clearing leaves from the grassed area. Thank you Ashley
Jude, Chris and Tristan also worked together to plant some new plants in the Flower Walk which had been donated by Jude. This flower bed just gets better and better. Thank you.
Joyce did an thorough litter pick throughout the park - thanks Joyce
Lucy did some additional weeding along the main path to the Wilmslow Road gate - thank you Lucy
TODAY - NEWS ON THE PRICE OF COFFEE / TEA FOR VOLUNTEERS
I am delighted to report that thanks to the kindness and generosity of Sue Thurston, (the original manager of the cafe) the price of the coffee and teas for volunteers will remain at £1 until the New Year. This will give us some time to consult with our volunteers and for our trustees to consider the many suggestions which have been made already, as to the best way of progressing this issue.
I would also like to thank all those members who have been in touch with very kind and generous offers to help. We will keep everybody up to date on developments.
REMINDERS
TOMORROW - SONIA AND SANDRA WILL REPRESENT FODP AT THE VIADUCT VISIT AND TOUR
WEDNESDAY - I WILL ATTEND THE BRITAIN IN BLOOM AWARDS IN BOLTON - WISH ME LUCK FOR A GOOD RESULT
SATURDAY - PLEASE COME ALONG IF YOU CAN TO THE ACT OF REMEMBRANCE AT 11AM
CURRY NIGHT - WEDNESDAY 19TH NOVEMBER - SONIA HAS NEARLY 30 NAMES SO FAR - PLEASE DO LET HER KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND
Once again I would like to say a huge thank you for your amazing support.