TODAY

I am pleased to report that despite the 'yellow' weather warning of heavy rain this morning, we still had 19 brave volunteers who turned up ready to do the necessary work to keep the park looking great. We were especially pleased to see Grace returning after illness, and Laurent (one of our original Duke of Edinburgh Awards Volunteers) returning once again today. Picture 1 shows Will, one of our new Breakfast Club members who had called into the park to re-stock on bin bags.

Everybody was made very welcome.

TUESDAY -  ALLAN AND THE KELLOGG'S TEAM

By complete contrast, last Tuesday was a lovely sunny afternoon on which we were pleased to welcome 16 volunteers from Kellogg's. Picture 2 shows Allan and two Kellogg's volunteers proudly displaying the newly planted fatsia which had been donated the previous day.  Apart from the fatsia, our main focus last Tuesday was on applying preservative paint to benches and kick fencing.

Picture 3 shows 4 members of the Kellogg's team painting preservative on the circular bench. Picture 4 shows another 3 volunteers painting the kick fencing along the Flower Walk. Amazingly the kick fencing along the whole length of the Flower Walk was completed by the end of the afternoon.

Picture 5 shows another 4 volunteers giving the new grass seed a thorough watering.

A huge thanks once again to Allan for supervising much of the Kellogg's team work.

TODAY - IDEAL SOWING WEATHER - WET AND WARM!

Once Debbie and Grace had re-filled the doggy bag dispensers situated at all the parks entrances, they turned their attention today to sowing more grass seed on a large bare patch of grass where the excavation work had taken place for the installation of the electricity into the volunteers shelter.

Picture 6 shows Grace and Debbie (looking a bit wet) in amongst the areas of bare grass where they had just prepared the ground and then sown it with grass seed.

Thank you Debbie and Grace - these were 2 great jobs.

TODAY - TIDYING EDGES AND PATHS IN THE RAIN

Being somewhat hampered by the weather, we still did some fine work today on tidying up the paths and path edgings. Thank you once again to Brenda for working around the Gillbrook Road entrance. Picture 7 shows Leslie in the final stages of cleaning up the green waste following a super job on the edging near the rose beds. Picture 8 shows Carl N working in a different part of the park, behind the Buddy and Lucy carving, and picture 9 shows Allan tidying the paths edges near the children's playground. Thank you Brenda, Leslie, Carl N and Allan. Excellent work in awful weather

TODAY - WEEDING

We had 4 main teams concentrating on weeding in the rain today. First thing this morning Robin, Laurent and Allan all headed off to the area around the Wilmslow Road with fantastic results. Thank you all - this entrance area is much improved. Greg continued his solo activities by the Sandhurst Road pedestrian gate and Mike C continued his solo weeding and planting of donated winter jasmine near the Sandhurst Road vehicular gate. Again there were very noticeable improvements in these areas too. Kevin, Julie D and Ilma all worked together both on the rockery and on the extended bed opposite the rockery.

Thank you everyone for your dedication today. This was great work towards keeping the park looking at its best.

TODAY - SPORTS FIELD ACTIVITIES

Meanwhile today's heavy gang of Adrian, Gary, Steve, Richard and Murray worked on marking out the football pitches on the sports field. This was a fairly urgent job today, as the MCC grass cutting team are due in the park later this week and if possible will create more permanent markings over the white lines measured and marked out today. Thank you guys. Picture 10 is quite an amusing picture as it captures Murray, Richard, Gary and Steve all making sure that Adrian (out of picture) is mowing a straight line!    

PEOPLE NEWS UPDATE

On behalf of all the Friends of Didsbury Park volunteers, I would like to say a huge thank you to Lucy, the cafe manager, who will be leaving her role at the end of this week.

Lucy has been an absolute delight to work with over the years and has always been welcoming and accommodating. We all wish you the very best of luck in your new adventures Lucy and please do come back and see us whenever you can.

Finally a huge thank you once again for your amazing support.