A Busy Day in the Park: Post-Garden Party Volunteering
TODAY
After the excitement of last Monday's garden party in the sunshine with the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester and the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester as our guests of honour, it felt a bit flat this morning as we returned to a normal volunteering day in the park. Despite the intermittent drizzle though, we still had a good turnout of 35 volunteers. Our volunteer numbers were boosted by a large contingent of 14 volunteers from RBS (See picture 1) and by Sophie joining us. Everybody was made very welcome.
CONGRATULATIONS GRANDAD!!
We offer our heartiest congratulations to Allan on becoming a grandad for the first time at the end of last week! Mother and baby Ava are both doing well!
LAST MONDAY'S GARDEN PARTY TO CELEBRATE THE KING'S AWARD FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE
We had an amazing and totally enjoyable day at the garden party last Monday. Everything went exceptionally well thanks to some great support from lots of people. We have just received the proofs of the photos from Amanda and we now have to choose the 50 official photographs we would like to have. As soon as these are available we will work out how best to share them. Thank you for making it such a special day! Once we have the photographs I will put out a special update specifically on the garden party.
POST GARDEN PARTY ACTIVITIES
Thank you to Allan and Sonia for coming to the park on Tuesday to help take down the bunting and for doing a final tidy up of all our remaining gear. Thank you to Geoff for collecting the amazing easel which he made for the unveiling of the plaque. Thanks to Jamie for allowing us to keep the easel and plaque in the DNC for a few days, and for encouraging us to do a presentation, using it, to the DGN breakfast morning attendees. An especial thank you to Gary and Allan who joined me on Friday morning to dismantle the stage. Thank you all.
INDIVIDUAL KAVS CERTIFICATES - VERY LAST CALL !!
We have had a number of late / after the event, additional requests from about 6 volunteers to ask if we are still able to provide any more individual certificates? We are looking into how we can best get them printed and then signed by the Lord Lieutenant. IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED A CERTIFICATE AND WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE ONE CAN YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY FRIDAY OF THIS WEEK AT THE LATEST - VERY LAST CALL!
TODAY - THE PATH TO THE WILMSLOW ROAD GATE
During the last month we have been totally focused upon making the park look 'at its best' for the visit of the Lord Lieutenant and the Lord Mayor to the KAVS garden party. As a result certain parts of the park have dropped down our maintenance priority list. Such an area of the park was the path to Wilmslow Road. So today was the day when we aimed to rectify this. A large team of Allan, Sonia and 6 volunteers from RBS made an amazing transformation of the path from the Wilmslow Road gate. Picture 2 shows 2 of the RBS team in the foreground with the other 4 further down the path, all working hard to achieve the transformation which can be seen more clearly in picture 3. Thank you all. This path now looks fantastic.
TODAY - PLANTING THE NEW GERANIUMS AND PRIMROSES
Thanks to a delivery of primrose plugs from William White from MCC and a collection of geraniums from Heather Stemp at the Parsonage we were able to add some additional plants to our stock in the park today.
Initially Jude led a small team of Christine, Jane, Tristan and Myro to plant out the primrose and a selection of other bedding plants near the children's playground. Later this small team was supplemented by Wendy and Carl M as the geraniums were planted in sunnier positions in the rose beds and the triangular flower bed. Picture 4 shows Carl and Wendy planting the geraniums in the trangular flower bed and picture 5 shows Tristan ready to plant a geranium in one of the rose beds. Thank you all - these plants will add yet more lovely colour to the park.
TODAY - FINISHING THE RE-SEEDING OF THE FOOTBALL PITCH
A couple of weeks ago we did not quite finish the re-seeding of one of the football pitches - so today was our day to finish it. Picture 6 shows the team of 7 RBS volunteers who worked hard to till the soil in the remaining bare patch on the football field into a fine tilth before reseeding it. This was a great job everyone and we were also lucky that the rain came this afternoon and gave the seeds a good watering too. A huge thank you.
TODAY - OTHER ACTIVITIES
Picture 7 shows Gill N filling up the doggy bag dispenser by the Wilmslow Road. These bags were part of a new supply of bags very generously donated by Allan. Thank you both Allan and Gill.
Thank you to Lesley for once again tidying the edges around the rose bed near the wild flower meadow and the adjacent flower beds.
Picture 8 shows Jeremy - one of our latest recruits who worked his father Xin, very proudly displaying all the litter he had collected from around the park. Well done Jeremy!
Jude and Ilma worked on the rockery today and gave it a thorough weeding and tidy. It is looking so much better as a result. Thank you.
Phil from RBS and Sophie worked together to prune the hedge around the Bird Garden. It is looking so much neater and tidier now - thank you both!
Alan once again continued his crusade to rid the tress in the park of epicormic growth. This is a fabulous piece of work Alan - thank you!
Kevin and Ian meanwhile took on the challenge of removing the grass growing in the hardstanding around one of the benches along the Flower Walk. Thank you guys - this looks so much smarter as a result.
It was great to see Aristote and his job coach from Bridge College working on doing some litter picking for us across the park this morning. Thank you Aristote.
And finally thank you to Tom for bringing along a spare piece of the KAVS cake (which had been kept frozen ) for us all to enjoy today with our coffee. For me this was the first time I had tasted it and it was delicious. I also have a piece which has been frozen - in my freezer & I can't wait to bring it along next week for us all to share!
THE WEEK BEFORE THE KAVS GARDEN PARTY
You may recall that prior to the KAVS garden party we were very concerned about the uncompleted job started by the team of stonemasons which was looking quite an eyesore in the park . Thankfully Steve C came to our rescue and worked one afternoon and evening in the week prior to the party to make sure the situation was rescued. With a bit of labouring from myself, Steve C single handedly completed the laying of the granite sets at the corner of the path junction. Picture 9 shows the amazing result achieved by Steve! We just want to say a huge thank you Steve and that the Lord Lieutenant was also impressed!
HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO IMPROVE YOUR IDENTIFICATION OF PLANTS AND BIRDS? - HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT!
Manchester Adult Education are running a course at the DNC this Wednesday 3rd July and next Wednesday 10th July starting at 10am and ending at 12:30pm. It's a free course and aims to teach you how to use your smartphone to identify plants and birds. I have booked to attend this Wednesday. If you would also like to go please just let Jamie know at the DNC telephone 07749 504298.
Thank you once again for your amazing support.