Having arrived back from Australia at the weekend, it was great to be able to return to the park this morning, loaded with lots of Lamingtons and Tim Tams (favourite Aussie tucker) for us all to enjoy at the break.

Thank you once again to Sonia, Allan, and Kevin, who did an amazing job overseeing everything while I was away.

NEXT SATURDAY - 11th NOVEMBER - POPPY PATH ACT OF REMEMBRANCE

Every year, since we restored the Poppy Path and sowed 3 million poppy seeds in 2017, we have held a very short Act of Remembrance by the Poppy Bridge on the Saturday of Remembrance Weekend. This year is no exception.

The poster above (picture 1) advertises the short event, which consists of the bugler playing the 'Last Post' on the Poppy Bridge promptly at 11 am, followed by some short poignant readings and the opportunity to plant small crosses and sow poppy seeds by the newly laid wreath of poppies. Afterwards, everybody is invited to the cafe in the park for a cup of tea or coffee.

It is a short but moving event, and it will be held this coming Saturday from 11 am next to the Poppy Bridge. Please do come along if you can make it.

TODAY

We had an amazing turnout of 45 volunteers working in a dry and mainly sunny park this morning. Our volunteers included 4 new volunteers from Kellogg's, 6 new volunteers from NatWest Bank, and Helen from ITV who has been doing her annual 2 days of volunteering allowance with us for at least the last 4 years. We also welcomed Qazim from Albania for the first time, and it was also great to see Bill making a welcome return to the park, especially as he came bearing lots of new plants. Everybody was made very welcome.

FLOWER WALK RE-PLANTING CONTINUES

Picture 2 shows Bill carefully transplanting some plants from his own garden into the Flower Walk beds, assisted by Kevin in the background. Picture 3 shows a later picture of Julie D, and Ilma (with Lucy in the background) continuing to plant up the newly composted flower beds alongside the recently repaired Flower Walk wall. This section of the Flower Walk is really starting to fill up beautifully once again. Thank you all.

LOTS AND LOTS OF NEW SPRING BULBS

Once again, this year, we have set ourselves an ambitious target of adding thousands of new spring bulbs to the park. Consequently, today we had 3 teams planting spring bulbs in a number of different locations across the park.

Picture 4 shows Gill N and Grace planting daffodils along the path from the Wilmslow Road entrance. Picture 5 shows Greg, Qazim, Suborno, and Wendy with some of the volunteers from NatWest planting daffodils near the Sandhurst Road entrance, and picture 6 shows Sandra and Carl M planting daffodils in the flower beds between the roundabout and the children's playground. Gill B and Joyce were also part of the team planting daffodils in this area too. Thank you all - we made some great progress with the bulb planting today.

NEW WINTER BEDDING PLANTS

Picture 7 shows the team of Allan, Debbie, Lis, and Sonia, who did a fabulous job tidying up and planting new winter bedding plants in the flower beds near Buddy and Lucy. Thanks also to Helen, who was part of this team but missing from the photo. Thank you all.

Picture 8 shows Mike C nearby - also planting new winter bedding plants. Thanks, Mike.

POPPY PATH

With such a large number of volunteers this morning, we were able to assign a sizeable team of volunteers from Kellogg's to work with Robin and Dan on the Poppy Path. Great progress was made as the area was given a good tidy-up before the Act of Remembrance on Saturday. Thank you, everyone.

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL MENTIONS

There were a variety of vital additional jobs undertaken today in the park, including:

• Tidying up the area around the Gillbrook Road entrance (see picture 9) - Thank you, David.

• Qazim and Ian made a great start to the morning by moving a large number of cobble sets to a tidier place in the shelter - thank you both.

• Ian later went on to sweep the paths clear of leaves near the bowls hut - thank you, Ian.

• Geoff returned the sit-on mower after completing a major gasket repair on the engine - a huge thank you, Geoff.

• Carl N did a great job cleaning out many blocked drains along the top of the park - thanks, Carl.

• Gary and Murray worked together to mark out one of the football pitches on the sports field. (see picture 10) Thank you both.

Thank you once again for your amazing support.