SOME GLAMOUR AND ROMANCE TO START WITH!

So many volunteers have been interested in what our fellow volunteer Julie chose to wear at her Gretna Green wedding last week that by popular demand, the first picture in the update this week records the happy event for posterity in the history of the Friends Didsbury Park!

Congratulations to Julie and her new husband from all of us!! - and we all agree you looked beautiful Julie!

TODAY 

With the weather forecast changing continuously in the run up to our start time this morning we were not sure how we would fair but as it turned out we were reasonably lucky and only had a brief rain shower. This was lucky for us because we had planned to finish off the painting of the children's large slide in the playground today. We had a good turnout of 10 volunteers from Mace, led by Zoe, Mia from Macquarie Bank, and Ahil as a new volunteer. We were also assisted once again by Andrew, daughter Winifred, and my namesake, Brian the dog.

Picture 2 shows Andrew and Winnie returning to the volunteers shelter with a large bag half full of litter after their excellent litter picking activity throughout the park. Thank you. We were also delighted to welcome Laurent once again who was able to join us due to half term holidays. In total we had 41 volunteers this morning and everybody was made very welcome. 

 We also welcomed William Eastwood from MCC and George (an MCC Contractor) this morning to discuss the next stage of the opening up of the wild flower meadow to the public. It was a very positive meeting so we are hopeful of some significant progress in opening the wild flower meadow to the public in the future.  

UNFORTUNATE BEGINNING

This morning got off to a really unfortunate start when Gill arrived having been stung by a wasp just under her eye on her way to the park. Alarmingly Gill's face had started to swell just under her eye and so we engaged the staff from the cafe to provide an ice pack which temporarily reduced the swelling and enabled Gill to go straight to the chemist where she was treated and the swelling reduced.

We later heard from Emma that the swelling had been controlled and Gill was in full recovery. Great news indeed and huge thanks to the cafe team for their prompt response. 

I am also pleased to report that Christine then immediately came to my aid to take over responsibility for collecting the drinks order and amazingly with such a large order we were pretty close to getting it right.  Thank you Christine - your rescue act was much appreciated.  

We also send our best wishes to Carl N who went home feeling unwell part way through the morning and to Sandra who was missing today due to having a cold. We hope you both feel better soon. 

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHILDREN'S LARGE SLIDE

I am delighted to report that under Tahir's expert supervision the team of 5 volunteers from the Mace Group completed the painting of the children's large slide today.

Picture 3 shows the team part way through the painting (Tahir is the volunteer in the cap).

Picture 4 shows the amazing final result - truly a big slide to be proud of for Didsbury Park. A huge thank you to Tahir (one of our newest volunteers) and the volunteers of the Mace Group team.  

LET'S CLEAR THE LEAVES FROM THE MOST DANGEROUS PATHS

Once again we have had a significant fall of autumn leaves this week. As a result of this leaf fall plus some significant rain during the last few days, some of our paths have become quite slippy. Consequently we divided the remaining volunteers from business into 2 teams of circa 4 people each and led by Allan they cleaned up all the leaves near the Sandhurst Road pedestrian entrance, around the roundabout, near the Gillbrook Road entrance and along the path to the Wilmslow Road gate. This was a major piece of work. 

Another path area which is always vulnerable to being slippy with leaves underfoot is the path in the park near to the exit to the poppy path. Thankfully today we had Gary working incredibly hard to clear up this dangerous section. Thank you Gary - this was real dedication and much appreciated. 

A big thank you to everyone who participated in these activities and who made the whole park safer as a result.   

LET'S GET SOWING

Unfortunately, due to my meeting with William and George mentioned above, I was unable to take any pictures of the huge wild flower seed project being undertaken under Kevin's supervision on the wild flower meadow this morning. This was an enormous task with the objective of sowing all the wild flower seeds before the coffee break and then the team moving on to plant all the ferns, polyanthus, hellebore, cyclamen, and pansies after the break.

Hence we needed a large team made up of Carl M, Christine, Tristan, Wendy, Gill B, Joyce, Laurent, John, and Leslie carefully sowing ever inch of the wild flower meadow and I am delighted to say that the whole area was successfully re-sown by the time coffee time arrived. Thank you everyone - a magnificent result!

LET'S GET PLANTING 

After our coffee break everybody who had been sowing seed on the wild flower meadow  or clearing leaves from paths, combined into one large team working across the park to plant the large number of winter bedding plants we had obtained to make the park look colourful this winter. Following Ilma's 'master plan' for planting the team's successfully planted all the ferns, polyanthus, hellebore, cyclamen, and pansies which had been temporarily stored on the grassed area around the wild flower meadow. 

Picture 5 shows Gill B, Lesley and Ilma busy planting cyclamens in the Flower Walk - Kevin is just out of camera shot. Picture 6 shows some of the Mace team planting ferns. Picture 7 shows Allan putting the finishing touches to a very clean path to the Wilmslow Road gate and picture 8 shows John, Ynan, Mia and Julie adding a mixture of plants to the beautiful flower bed near the owl carving. Thank you everyone - what a huge improvement these new plants have made to the park.

ROGER VERSUS THE CANINES

Picture 9 shows Roger returning to the volunteers shelter after once again continuing in his mammoth challenge of blocking up holes in the Bird Garden hedge to keep out the dogs which are not allowed in there.

This is a brilliant job Roger and one which ensures that this Bird Garden can be used safely by toddlers and young families without fear of interference from dogs. Thank you as ever and the best of luck next week when you bring your own dog along to test it more thoroughly! 

CATERING FOR THE BUGS AND INSECT POPULATIONS

Last week Greg treated us to a new bird box. This week were treated to a new insect hotel nesting box for the park.

Picture 10 shows Greg in the process of installing the new feature at the side of the volunteers shelter. Thank you as ever Greg for continuing to focus us on improving the wildlife in the park.

THIS SATURDAY - RSPB AND THE BIG LEAF CLEAR UP - BRING THE FAMILY

The message has gone out to the schools, it has gone out to a wide audience on social media and it is also on posters in the park. This will be the final reminder from me in the "update" because this coming Saturday (2nd November) between 10am and 1pm we are inviting everyone to come to the park for a fun session of clearing up all the leaves - of which we have plenty this year!!

Please come along and bring your family if you can. We also have an extra attraction this year too because the RSPB are coming along to talk to everyone about wildlife - it should be really interesting and very relevant given the major issues with climate change!

Finally thank you once again for your fantastic support.