Potholes, Planting and Pooches: A Busy Week of Volunteering in Didsbury Park
GREAT NEWS
I would like to start this week's update with the great news that thanks to some fantastic repair work by Geoff and Denise, our woodland trail 'mouse carving' has been expertly repaired this week and is once more back in operation. In fact, it has been repaired so well, I think it looks as good now as it ever has. (See pictures 1 and 2). A big thank you also to Kevin who found the missing piece of ear whilst walking his dog. Having the missing piece certainly made Geoff's job so much easier.
During the repair work we also came to the welcome conclusion that the damage had not been caused by more vandalism but it was almost certainly caused accidentally by some over-enthusiastic attention by its young admirers. So good news all round. Thank you Geoff, Denise and Kevin.
THE OTHER GOOD NEWS - THE REPAIR OF THE FIRST SECTION OF THE HISTORIC WALL IS COMPLETE
The other good news this week is that the repair work to the first section of the historic Flower Walk wall has been completed by the MCC contractors - and it looks magnificent! Please see picture 3. We are now working with Will from MCC to order up the plants required, (which we hope will really do the wall justice) in accordance with the new planting plan masterminded by Ilma, Julie D and Kevin.
However the removal of the building site fencing on Friday gave us a couple of immediate problems. The first challenge was that the removal of the contractors fencing exposed a dangerous section of the footpath - full of large potholes. The second problem was that there were large bare patches of grassed area left by the storage facilities used by the contractors. At a rapidly convened meeting on Friday with our ranger Tony Melody and JP, the site manager, we concluded that a joint MCC and FoDP volunteers project needed to be set up to begin today (Monday). - see later.
TODAY
Despite a mixture of sunshine and showers today we still had a good turnout of 27 volunteers. Our numbers included 2 new volunteers Jude and Ian for the first time, as well as Spike returning for the second week running. We also welcomed Tony Melody from MCC to work with us on the pot-holed path. Everybody was made very welcome.
A special thank you to Kevin who displayed all his culinary skills today by making a delicious lemon drizzle cake which we thoroughly enjoyed at our coffee break! Thanks Kevin.
TODAY - THE BIG CHALLENGE - POTHOLE REPAIRS
Our main priority this morning was to repair the dangerous footpath as soon as possible. Consequently it was 'all hands to the pumps' with the large team of Murray, Carl N, Greg, Tristan, Rob, Spike and Tony from MCC concentrating on the job of digging out the sunken ceramic edging tiles and re-setting them so that tarmac could be sensibly laid on the path up to these new straight edgings.
Picture 3 shows some of the tiles just about visible along the path edge. Picture 4 show Tristan and Greg starting to lift the edging tiles at one end of the wall. Picture 5 shows Murray, Tristan, Spike and Rob later in the morning when all the tiles had been lifted and we were ready to start relaying them. This was a huge piece of work. Thank you all for making this amazing progress. We will continue with this project on Thursday (see below) when 36 volunteers from Autotrader will be joining Murray, Allan, myself and Tony from MCC to finish it off.
TODAY - THE OTHER BIG CHALLENGE - REPAIRING THE GRASSED AREA
Picture 6 does not really do justice to the size of the problem of the large bare patches and long uneven grass areas left behind by the contractors when they removed all their fencing around their storage areas, last Friday. So the challenge today was for Debbie, Sandra and Jude to prepare as many of the bare patches as possible for re-sowing with grass seed. Picture 7 shows Sandra and Jude posing for a picture as they turn over the bare patches ready for sowing. This was a huge task, exceptionally well done - thank you Debbie, Sandra and Jude.
The challenge was also for me to mow all the long grass. Whilst the grass is nowhere near short enough yet, after two cuttings at differing heights it is beginning to look a little more under control - to be continued on Thursday.
TODAY - HORTICULTURAL TEAMS
We had quite a few teams focused upon important flower bed maintenance today:
Julie D, Kevin, Ilma and Lucy worked on weeding and planting newly donated plants along the Flower Walk. Picture 8 shows Lucy and Julie searching out the bindweed. Thank you all.
Diane (see picture 9) worked in the extended flower bed. Thanks Diane
Dan and Dominique continued their trimming activities along the woodland trail and after many weeks of hard work have successfully completed the whole length from start to finish. This has been an amazing piece of work - thank you!
Leslie continued her work on keeping the rose beds looking well cared for. Picture 10 shows Leslie proudly showing off one of the rose beds. Thank you Leslie.
Picture 11 shows Anne carefully pruning in the rockery flower bed. Great job Anne - thank you
TODAY - KEEPING OUR PATHS CLEAN AND SAFE
It was very noticeable when we entered the park this morning that, for whatever reason, we had had a very early fall of a lot of leaf material upon certain paths. Consequently the team of Allan, Ian, Brenda and David worked really hard today to ensure that many many wheelbarrows of leaf debris were removed and the paths left pristine as a result. Thank you all
TODAY - POPPY PATH
Picture 12 shows Tom returning the electric lawn mower to the volunteers shelter following his mowing of the overgrown grass verges at the park end of the path. Thank you Tom. This is much appreciated.
COMING SOON - AN EXTRA VOLUNTEERING DAY - THIS THURSDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER
This coming Thursday we are expecting to host 36 volunteers from Autotrader. Allan, Murray and Tony from MCC are planning to help me manage the day. We are hoping to repair the potholed path, finish the preparation of the bald patches and re-seed with grass seed and scythe the wild flower meadow. If you would like to help too please just let me know.
COMING SOON - THE DIDSBURY DOG SHOW ON SATURDAY - BETWEEN 11AM & 12AM AND/OR BETWEEN 4PM & 5PM
Gill N may have already spoken to you about helping out at the Didsbury Dog Show between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday. However this is a request specifically about needing your help to set up the arenas & gazebos before the show starts and taking them down again afterwards. This activity is really quick if there are enough of us so if you can possibly spare an hour or 2 it would be appreciated.
We are planning to put everything up between 11am and 12pm and take everything down and put away immediately the dog show finishes at 4pm.
FINALLY - JUST IN CASE YOU FEEL INSPIRED TO GO INTO PRINT
When the Town Hall reopens, a brand-new visitor exhibition will celebrate the history of the building and the people it belongs to. So, an opportunity is being provided for everyone to contribute to the display!
So if you feel inspired to write something about what we all do in Didsbury Park either from your own personal or our group perspective then please do grab this opportunity (I have a almost 10 years of archive photographs if you need any) . More details are provided at Your Manchester - places : What's your Manchester?
Thank you once more for you amazing continued support.