TODAY 

Although we had a large number of volunteers on holiday today, we still had an encouraging turnout of 23 volunteers. Because it was a Bank Holiday, we had no volunteers from business, but we were joined by Eunice and son David who not only did a great litter pick throughout the park but after our tea break they moved on to spreading more woodchip along the woodland trail. Thank you.

We were all also delighted to welcome Brenda, who was able to join us this morning. Picture 1 shows Brenda tidying up the Gillbrook Road entrance and showing off the new shovel designed to help avoid too much bending. Well done Brenda! Everybody was made very welcome.

GERANIUM ROZANNE   

Thanks to a delivery of several trays of very healthy geranium rozanne plants from MCC during last week (thank you to Will White) we were able to plant them out in a number of carefully selected places in the park this morning.

Picture 2 shows Lesley, John and Sandra , who with Tristan, had planted a number of the geraniums in a newly weeded section of the flower bed alongside the path to the Wilmslow Road entrance.  Tristan then went on to add some plants to the flower bed alongside the Bird Garden. After our tea / coffee break the team planted the second tray of geraniums, under Ilma's direction, along the Flower Walk. This was a great addition of new healthy and colourful plants to the park. Thank you Ilma, Lesley, Sandra, John and Tristan. 

TREE MAINTENANCE 

We were relatively lucky last week, that the storms did not do too much damage in the park. Thanks to some mid-week work from Allan a lot of the fallen branches were quickly tidied away into the skip. Thank you Allan.   However, upon closer inspection of the trees along the top of the park today the heavy gang of Richard and Murray discovered that there were some damaged branches which needed to be removed to make the trees safe. Richard and Murray also inspected the safety of the trees along the chiildren's woodland trail and did some necessary cutting back to make the whole trail safe again. Thank you. Richard and Murray. 

IT WAS A DRY BANK HOLIDAY TODAY - SO LET'S PAINT!

Picture 3 shows Patrick and Carl M busy painting preservative onto the squirrel carving and lectern carving at the Gillbrook Road entrance. The contrasting preservative paints have given some real definition to these beautiful  carvings. They (the carvings) were both looking so much better after this treatment. Thank you Patrick and Carl. 

Picture 4 also shows the huge improvement made by Allan today, to the area surrounding the woodland carving at the Wilmslow Road entrance. Allan treated the wooden surrounds and steps with preservative.

Thank you Allan. 

THE SENSORY GARDEN

Picture 5 shows Robin doing an excellent job tidying up the overgrown area at the rear of the sensory garden and in the course of which removing the rampant mint.

Thank you Robin - this is a great job you are doing.

THE WILD FLOWER MEADOW

After helping me to mark up new tools and tidy up the volunteers shelter  (see Gill B in picture 6), Joyce and Gill B went on to help Wendy and Greg to trim the overgrown hedge around the wild flower meadow.

Picture 7 shows Joyce, Wendy and Greg all busy pruning the hedge. Thank you all - this hedge looks so much better now!

THE CRICKET PITCH 

Picture 8 captures the amazing job which Gary has done on the new cricket pitch. Not only has Gary created an excellent surface for the children to play cricket on but he also keeps it exceptionally well marked out with whitewashed creases as well.

Thank you Gary. Excellent work!

THE POPPY PATH  

Picture 9 shows Tom returning with a wheelbarrow full of green waste after working on tidying up the overgrown sections at the bottom of the Poppy Path. This was a much needed piece of work to keep this section of the path open and looking cared for. Thank you Tom.

Picture 9 also shows Gary returning from marking out the cricket and football pitches, and me, getting in on the act again. (Emma took this picture). Thank you guys - great job!

A FUTURE DATE FOR YOUR DIARY - DIDSBURY PARK VOLUNTEERS 10TH ANNIVERSARY

Last November we had a hugely enjoyable Curry Night in the large upstairs private room at the Sangam, which also coincided with the announcement  of our Kings Award for Voluntary Service. I have canvassed a good number of volunteers and there is a lot of enthusiasm to have another Curry Night this year too.

Co-incidentally November this year will also correspond to our tenth anniversary of volunteering in Didsbury Park. I am pleased to say that I have been able to book the big room in the Sangam again for 7pm on THURSDAY 21st NOVEMBER on the assumption that there will be at least 30 of us.  As it is our tenth anniversary it will be nice to also open the invitation to past volunteers and trustees who have made such a great contribution over the last 10 years too. 

There is no rush, but if you think you would like to come along will you let me know please. I will confirm all the numbers nearer to the event. 

Thank you once again for your fabulous support on a Bank Holiday.