A Community Effort: Enhancing Didsbury Park Together
CATCH UP PHOTOGRAPH
I am pleased to report that we have now received a photograph (with parental permissions) showing 3 of the 26 Beavers who volunteered with us in the park on Saturday 2nd March. See picture 1.
I must admit the Beavers had a great time while also learning how to manoeuvre a wheelbarrow - volunteers of the future perhaps?
TODAY
Today we had a great turnout of 41 volunteers on a dry but overcast morning in the park.Our volunteers today were boosted by 9 very helpful young volunteers from Autotrader. See picture 2.
With such a large number of volunteers we were able to undertake some great projects. Everybody was made very welcome.
THE REPAIRED PICNIC BENCH IS RETURNED TO THE PARK
With a strong turnout of the heavy gang today we were able to complete the installation of the new hard standing area and anchor in the repaired picnic bench which had been stored in the wild flower meadow area over winter.
Picture 3 shows the defining moment of the installation as the 4 bench holders of Murray and Steve (with backs to the camera) and Carl N and Gary, slowly undertaking a precision lowering of the bench into the central position on the hardstanding. In the picture they are being guided into position ("to the left - to the right") by Richard behind the bench and Adrian (off camera) in front of the bench. Alan at the right hand side of the bench can be seen performing the equally important "back a bit - forward a bit" role. This was a great team effort and we now have another great addition to the number of benches in the park. Thank you to everyone who was involved!
HUNT THE BELL CLAPPER!
We had a bit of an emergency today when Sandra accidentally lost the clapper from the large school bell which she was ringing for our 11am coffee break. So at the end of our break, all volunteers spread out in a line across the park and slowly (police hunt style), and steadily, retraced Sandra's route. Amazingly the clapper was spotted by Lis. Well done Lis!
Picture 4 shows Tom on his way to his workshop later, to fix it securely. Thank you Tom and Lis.
PAINTING THE WILMSLOW ROAD GATES AND RAILINGS
Following last week's successful painting of the Wilmslow Road gates, the team of Wendy, Sandra, Lis and Carl M continued this week to paint the railings at the same entrance.
Picture 5 shows Lis and Carl at the preparation stage. I am pleased to report that all the railings at the entrance were really well painted and now look splendid. Thank you all - this was an amazing improvement!!
INSTALLATION OF SOAKAWAYS
Work continued today on the introduction of soakaways at the top end of the park near the children's playgound. This area has been the subject of much flooding and mud covered paths during the recent wet weather.
Picture 6 shows the large hand-picked team of 5 volunteers from Autotrader led by Allan as they firstly dug out the drainage trench and then refilled with gravel. This are is looking so much better already. Thank you everyone - a great improvement!
HORTICULTURAL FOCUS - WEEDING
As the weather is starting to warm up, so our weeds are starting to re-appear. Consequently today we set up a large team of Greg, Jude, Tristan, Ilma, Lorna, Kevin and Lucy, and along with couple of Autotrader volunteers everybody concentrated on weeding sections of the Flower Walk.
Picture 7 shows Greg, Jude and Tristan pausing for a moment for a photograph. This was an excellent piece of work. Thank you all.
POPPY PATH
Once again today we allocated a small team of volunteers to continue the maintenance work on the Poppy Path. It was great to see John working with Robin and 2 Autotrader volunteers this morning, especially as we were able to remove a new patch of the dreaded ground elder before it could really take hold. Thank you all for your hard work today.
LITTER PICKING
We were fortunate to have 2 teams of litter pickers giving the park a good spring clean today. Picture 8 shows the lovely family scene of our regular weekly litter pickers Andrew and Winnie who this week had persuaded Mum to come along too (and of course accompanied once again by Brian the dog).
In addition for the second week running we were again joined by Aristhote and his job coach who also put in a good shift of litter picking throughout the park. Thank you all and especially for the work in removing the litter from the football pitches.
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
TRAINING / SKILLS TRANSFER: Picture 9 shows Gary giving a short course to Joyce in the use of the white line marking equipment. Unfortunately the football pitch proved to be too wet to complete the full pitch but the 20 metres completed looked pretty straight! Thanks Gary and Joyce.
THE MOWING SEASON BEGINS: Picture 10 shows Peter tackling the first grass cut of the year in the Bird Garden. This was quite a challenging piece of work but nevertheless Peter did exceptionally well. Thank you Peter.
GILLBROOK ROAD ENTRANCE: Thank you once again to Brenda who continued her dedicated work of tidying up the Gillbrook Road entrance area to the park. We all pass on our very best wishes to David - and we hope he starts to feel better soon.
EPICORMIC GROWTH: A big thank you must go again to the dedication from Alan who continued his quest of single handedly removing the epicormic growth on all our trees. Excellent progress Alan - thank you
Finally thank you once again for your continued amazing support.