Volunteer Spotlight and Winter Efforts: Magnolia Trees, Bird Boxes, and More at Didsbury Park

TWO PIECES OF BREAKING NEWS!

The DIDSBURY POST has been amalgamated with the other 4 'POST' newspapers across South Manchester to become MANCHESTER SOUTH POST, and on the front page of the first edition are the feature headlines "KING'S HONOURS FOR FRIENDS OF DIDSBURY PARK".

To access the online version of the newspaper, please click here. A huge thanks to our 'press officer' Louise for all her hard work to make this happen!

The second piece of breaking news reflects the multitude of talent amongst our volunteers. I am informed by Suborno that his band, known as Velvet Sun, are performing at The Crown in Heaton Mersey, on Friday 26th January. The band is expected to be on stage about 9pm. Please do go along to support Suborno if you can.

TODAY

Considering the forecast temperature for this morning was a high of only 1 degree Celsius, it was amazing that we had such a large turnout of 32 volunteers. This total included new volunteer Jonathan from NatWest and Laurent (our ex-Duke of Edinburgh Award Volunteer from several years ago), who had a free day from school and so came back again to help us out. Everybody was made very welcome. Picture 1 shows our regular litter-picking duo of Andrew and Winnie as they returned to the shelter with a rubbish bag containing their spoils from a thorough litter pick right across the park. Thank you - good balancing, Winnie!

WOODCHIP 'TOP UP' ON THE WOODLAND TRAIL

Picture 2 shows some of the large band of volunteers who wheeled lots of wheelbarrows full of woodchip right across the park to provide a good thick layer of new woodchip along the children's woodland trail. This was not only a great exercise for keeping everybody warm but it also made a huge improvement along the woodland trail too. From left to right in picture 2 are Jude, Dominique, Anne, Jonathan, and Sandra. Bettina was also part of the team but out of shot. Thank you all. This was an excellent piece of work.

HEAVY GANG NUMBER 1

Richard, Carl N, and Adrian did some great work today in Heavy Gang number 1. Initially, the drainage around the roundabout was given its after-Christmas maintenance clean out to ensure that it continues to work effectively during the next few months. The team then moved on to use the new roll of tree guard wire which Tony from MCC delivered to us to replace a number of missing or poor tree guards on the trees on the main field. This was a super job. Thank you.

HEAVY GANG NUMBER 2

Picture 3 shows Heavy Gang Number 2 consisting of Carl M, Gary, and Greg posing behind the number 22 post which they had just set in concrete in the repaired section of the Flower Walk. In all, they re-instated numbers 22, 23, 24, and 25. Great work, guys! Thank you.

NOT SO HEAVY GANG - GOAL NETS

While not being quite a heavy gang, but more of a nimble cruiserweight team, the combination of Gary and Laurent was just what was required to make the goal nets on both sets of football pitches good this morning. Given that these pitches have been used for many hours every day over Christmas, some minor repairs and maintenance were needed. This was a much-needed piece of work which was expertly undertaken by Gary and Laurent - thank you, guys.

NEW MAGNOLIA TREE

I am delighted to report that we were donated a new, healthy, beautiful purple-pink Magnolia tree today. So our expert team of Dan and Tristan carefully planted, fed, watered, staked and protected it with a new tree cage which was made from the wire roll provided by MCC. Thank you, guys. This is a great addition to our trees in the park and it will look sensational when it blossoms.

THEY SHALL NOT PASS

It was great to see Roger, once more dedicated to our ongoing challenge of wiring up gaps in the Bird Garden hedging caused by some of our more adventurous four-legged friends. It was particularly impressive that not only was Roger determined to find all the gaps but he also brought along his dog to test to see if there were any which had been missed! Very impressive, Rog! A big thank you.

A NEW BIRD BOX!

Picture 4 shows Greg pointing at the new bird box which he donated and installed in the park this morning. Fingers crossed that this becomes a very nice "des res" for a new family of birds this spring. Thank you, Greg.

EDGING AND TIDYING UP PATHS

Today we continued with a lot of the work we began last week of clearing up the paths and flower bed edges.
Allan continued his marathon work on the flower bed edges from the roundabout to the old compost bays. Thanks, Allan - great work!

Following on from last week's success along the path between the volunteer's shelter and the cafe, this week Gill B made a huge improvement by working on the edging of the grassed area next to the Bird Garden. Fabulous work, Gill - thank you.

David and Brenda once again made a huge improvement on the paths near the Gillbrook Road entrance - thank you both.

Mike C and Roger also worked alongside the MCC man blowing leaves off the bowling green to make sure all the paths were cleared on the path in the park running parallel to Sandhurst Road. Thank you both.

Picture 5 shows Dominique admiring the super edging job undertaken by Leslie on the flower bed near the volunteers' shelter. Great work, Leslie!

LORNA RETURNS

After a gap of quite a few weeks, it was great to see Lorna working back with us again today. Picture 6 shows her trimming one of the bushes near Gillbrook Road. It just shows how cold it was this morning because Lorna was using every means possible to keep warm, including keeping her cycling helmet on.

Thanks, Lorna - it is good to see you back in the hi-vis!

Finally, thank you all once again for your continued amazing support in all weathers.