Two Days, Dozens of Volunteers: A Big Boost for Didsbury Park
TWO DAYS VOLUNTEERING BOOST
I am delighted to report that we have managed to boost our volunteering effort in Didsbury Park in the last few days by hosting 20 volunteers from PWC on Friday and a further 6 volunteers from the Co-op Bank today. Many of these additional volunteers from business had worked with us before and had enjoyed it so much that they had requested to return and work with us again. So with some great support from Katie, Thanh, Sonia, Allan and myself we were able to number 25 volunteers for a full morning session on Friday. Today we had an even greater turnout of 40 volunteers. We were very pleased to welcome, Isabella and Malahima, two new local volunteers, who joined us for the first time today. See picture 1. Everybody was made very welcome.
As a matter of policy we are aiming in future to limit the number of volunteers from business we invite to our Monday sessions. If we have any requests for large teams from business then we will aim to bring them into the park on a separate day.
COMING SOON: SUNDAY 15th JUNE - MERRY OLD LAND OF OZ
Once again we are privileged to welcome the Stars Drama Academy to Didsbury Park on Sunday 15th June for the children's production of Merry Old Land of Oz. This is always a sell out event so if you want some great entertainment for your children / grandchildren then I would advise pre-booking. All details are included in the poster in Picture 2.
RECRUITING FOR A NEW CHARITY TRUSTEE TREASURER
Following the retirement of our treasurer, after 5 very successful years, we are now recruiting for a new FoDP Board treasurer. Thank you Dermot. If you are interested in applying for this position will you please contact fodp.info@gmail.com and we will supply further information.
FRIDAY - BRIEF REPORT
On Friday we got through a huge amount of work in the park when 20 young, energetic volunteers from PWC, led by Katie, Thanh, Sonia, Allan and myself, undertook the following projects: refining the shape of the new flower bed with turf from the edges of the wild flower meadow; pruning the hedging around the wild flower meadow; some significant maintenance on the Poppy Path; enhancing the woodchip path to the children's playground; repairing some of the vandalised tile edgings and lots of watering around our flower beds.
Picture 3 shows 4 of the PWC team part way through their project of trimming the hedging around the wild flower meadow. This picture also shows what a beautiful day it was on Friday!
TODAY - LITTER PICKING
As mentioned last week, this recent sunny weather is bringing the crowds to Didsbury Park in droves and virtually every evening the bins are overflowing with litter. We have visited the park in the evening and provided additional bin bags attached to each bin in order to help contain the situation but once again we are so grateful to Brian and the rest of the MCC team who come in early every morning to remove the full bags and enable us to start each day afresh. Today we had our regular supplementary litter pickers to tidy up any missed items of litter.
Picture 4 shows the lovely family picture of Andrew, Winnie and Brian the dog, on their litter picking round of the park. Picture 5 shows Lorna pausing by the rose beds to have her photo with Denise whilst also on her litter picking duties across the park.
TODAY - WATERING
Like the rest of the country, at the moment, the park is also suffering from lack of rain water. So today using both hose and water browsers we tried to give some sustenance to our most important plants.
Picture 6 shows Chris with Meryl watering some extremely dry sections of the flower beds alongside the Wilmslow Road path. Thank you to everybody who did some watering throughout the park.
TODAY - WEEDING, PLANT MAINTENANCE AND NEW PLANTS
We continued to wage war, this morning, on the abundance of weeds which the current fine weather seems to be bringing on in leaps and bounds. Thanks to Christine, Anne, Ilma, Jude and Lucy we did some great weeding work today along the Flower Walk prior to collecting a selection of plants donated by Ilma including phlox, euphorbia and many more which were later added to the Flower Walk. Picture 7 shows Jude and Ilma by the Flower Walk with some of the new plants in front of them. The Flower Walk this year is just looking outstanding and is being enjoyed (as they tell us) by lots and lots of visitors. Thank you all.
Thank you also to Denise and Louise who fed, watered and weeded the rose beds today. They are really looking great and full of buds!
TODAY - THE HEAVY GANG ARE BACK IN ACTION
It was great to see the heavy gang back in action today and recommencing the project to install a new bench along the long Wilmslow Road path. Whilst we do not yet have any new funding for the bench (our NIF grant to MCC was rejected) we have decided to fund the fencing and hard standing materials from FoDP funds to enable us to keep this project going.
Picture 8 shows Adrian and Murray in the foreground and Gary and Carl N in the background. The initial timber work in the picture shows the construction of the frame to hold back the varying levels of soil surrounding the location of the new bench. Thank you guys - this is a great start.
TODAY - THE NEW FLOWER BED
A team of Sonia, Thanh, Shashvat, Katie and Abbey continued the work started on Friday of shaping the new flower bed using additional grass edging from the wild flower meadow. This is really taking shape after a good watering and rolling with the heavy roller. Thank you team - this was a great job!
TODAY - THE BUG HOTEL
I am pleased to report that with the combined architectural and building skills of Kevin and Greg, we are now at the roof building stage of the bug hotel! Thank you guys this is getting to be very exciting. I do have a special request from the team - If any body has any broken ceramics or terracotta, will you please donate them to the Kevin and Greg who need them for the internal floor construction phase - evidently they are ideal for the bugs. I cannot wait to see the finished construction!
TODAY - SEASONAL PRUNING
Caroline, Tristan, Carl M and Meryl worked upon the seasonal pruning of pyracantha berberis throughout the park today.
Picture 9 shows Tristan tackling the berberis near the rockery. Thank you team. This was a lot of pruning throughout the park. Great work
TODAY - WHEEL BARROW WORK
I would like to say a huge thank you to the team from the Co-op Bank today for all their strength and stamina because they spent most of the morning moving wheel barrows of "stuff" across the park under Allan's leadership. Initially it was woodchip - as they re-laid the path to the children's playground. Then after the coffee break they moved top soil to the flower bed at the top of the park. They were assisted in the spreading stage by Isabella and Malahima.
Picture 10 shows 5 of the team on a return trip. Thank you all - these were 2 huge projects well done.
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
-Gary gave the cricket pitch a pristine mow and another excellent marking. Thanks Gary - this is looking amazing
-Brenda once again made sure that the Gillbrook Road entrance was looking clean and attractive. Thank you Brenda.
-Finally a special thank you to Gill N and Grace who repaired one of the lecterns by adding new perspex to replace the one which was stolen last week and at the same time bringing the notices up to date. Thank you.
Once again I would like to say a huge thank you to you for your amazing support.