TODAY

Today was our last Monday of volunteering before our Garden Party event next Monday 24th June. We once again had a great turnout of 38 volunteers and today nearly all of our efforts were devoted to making the park 'look at its very best' before the visit next Monday of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester and the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester and other distinguished guests.

Our volunteers today included Diane H once again from NatWest Bank, Aristote and his job coach from Bridge College and Joanna and young Alexander. We were also delighted to welcome back Julie T. Everybody was made very welcome. 

PARK MAKEOVER - NEW PLAQUES

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the amount of support we receive from many different areas of our community. One of our big supporters is Craig who owns Impact -Signs. Craig is always willing to help when it comes to new signs for the park.

PIcture 1 shows one of the seven new plaques which Craig has donated to be installed on each of the gates into the park.Thank you for your continued generous support Craig. The plaques look fabulous!   

PARK MAKEOVER - WILD FLOWER MEADOW

Picture 2 shows the wild flower meadow slowly fighting back from the sowing of wild grass seeds last year and looking the best it has looked this year thanks to a mowing of the surrounding lawn area by MCC this morning. Thank you - this makes a huge difference.

Having said that - it is a huge pity that after 5 years of hard work by the Didsbury Park Volunteers to design and develop the wild flower meadow, plant 10 specialist trees and fund and install 4 large benches into this area - that MCC have still not found the budget to enable the high fencing to be modified to enable this beautiful area of the park to be used by the public. 

PARK MAKEOVER - PATH EDGING REPAIR

Having completed the installation of the new bench and the modifications in the DNC garden ready for the garden party, the heavy gang were able to return today to another pressing job in the park of finishing the work undertaken by the stonemason volunteers from the Town Hall.

Picture 3 shows the heavy gang of Richard, Steve, Carl N and Gary digging out the area ready for new concrete sets to be laid. The heavy gang were also hugely helped by Kevin and Ian who did all the labouring of moving the cobble sets to the site. Thank you all this was a good piece of work. In an attempt to complete this work before the garden party next Monday we have arranged an additional volunteer session on Wednesday evening at 5pm. If you would like to help Steve C and me at this work then please do come along. 

Earlier in the morning today, the heavy gang including Adrian had tried out the new carpet covering for the stage which we are going to use for garden party. We will make a few final adjustments later this week and complete the installation on Sunday evening. Thank you guys - great job. 

PARK MAKEOVER - DEAD HEADING ROSES 

Grace and Julie T did a super job this morning dead heading the roses in the two rose beds either side of the volunteer's shelter. Picture 4 shows both Grace and Julie hard at work on the second rose bed. Thank you both - this was a super job!

PARK MAKEOVER - FENCING COMPLETED

Having re-seeded a part of the grassed area near the cafe for the third time in the last 6 months, we are trying an experiment to install a small section of chain fencing to encourage the public to try and use the path to the cafe rather than create a new mud path, again!

Picture 5 shows Gary and Greg about to install the final stretch of fencing. If this method is successful, then we will consider whether a different style of chain fencing, rather than the cheaper red and white plastic fencing, might be more appropriate for the park. Thank you Gary and Greg.

PARK MAKEOVER - BUDDY AND LUCY

Having created and prepared a new flower bed as a border around Buddy and Lucy last week, it was the turn of a large team of volunteers to populate it with Lobelia Bush mixed plants this week. The team of Sonia, Lis, Wendy, Sandra, Tristan, Joyce, Diane H, and Debbie all worked really hard and had this all planted up before the coffee break. Thank you so much everyone. Fingers crossed that they survive until next week without being trampled on by the children and dogs.

PARK MAKEOVER - GERANIUMS PLANTED

The few remaining geranium bedding plants stored on the wild flower meadow from last week were carefully planted in some strategic places today to add a splash of colour to a number of key flower beds. Thank you to Jude, and Diane. This team then went on to work on the Flower Walk beds with Tristan, Kevin and Ilma. Thank you all - the park looks so much better as a result of this work.

PARK MAKEOVER - ELSEWHERE

Elsewhere in the park today there were lots of other improvement jobs being undertaken:

-Joanna & Alexander and Aristote & his job coach all did some great litter picking throughout the park. Thank you.

-Gill N topped up all the doggy bag dispensers located at every gate in the park and Gill also updated the posters in the notice boards containing the annual events programme. Thank you Gill this was a great couple of jobs.

-Allan used his strimmer to tidy up many of the path edges and grassed areas around posts. This made a huge improvement to the look of the whole park.  Thank you Allan

-Ian and I trimmed the hedging at the Sandhurst Road entrance. This entrance looks so much smarter as a result. Thank you Ian. 

-Tom tidied up the Ralston Drive end of the Poppy Path and mowed the grassed areas. Thank you Tom

-Gary took advantage of this morning's dry weather to mow the cricket pitch for the first time this year. Let's hope that we have some more dry weather so that we can establish a reasonable wicket for all the keen young enthusiasts throughout the summer. Well done Gary. 

ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERING DAY - LAST WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday last week, Allan and I took advantage of the offer from the Co-op of a team of 35 volunteers to work with us in the park. How could we refuse!!

Picture 6 shows about 10 of the team preparing one of the football pitches for reseeding. Another large group of volunteers worked incredibly hard in the Bird Garden where they made a huge improvement to the hedging.

A third large group worked in the DNC garden levelling the flooring and helping to erect the new marquee. It was really interesting that we recognised most of the Co-op team from last year when they did a similar day with us - it was lovely that they wanted to come back again! 

STARS DRAMA ACADEMY - LAST SUNDAY

Thank goodness for at least one sunny Sunday this summer. I am delighted to report that as the weather steadily improved during the day yesterday so did the crowds coming to see the children doing the production of Alice in the Park in the Bird Garden. The final show at 3pm was a sell out. Well done to the children who put on this lovely production. Everybody had a great time. Especial thanks to Sandra, Allan and myself for getting up early to help set up the gazebos etc. and then to return again to take them down in the afternoon. Thank you 

KING'S AWARD FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE PRESENTATION - GORTON MONASTERY - LAST TUESDAY

Picture 7 is a picture of Allan, Sonia, Brenda, Sandra and myself dressed up, and representing Friends of Didsbury Park, for the special occasion of the presentation of the KAVS Award crystal and certificate signed by the King. It was a very moving event, as we listened to the citations being read out of all the other worthy winners of the award.

But then when it was our turn,  we had to stand as our citation was read out by Charles Kwaku-Odoi. He did a tremendous citation for us and we were all so proud to be standing there representing everybody at Didsbury and what we had achieved as a group - it was extremely hard to keep a dry eye before we then had to go forward as a team to collect our awards. It was certainly a never to be forgotten experience. Thank you all for making this possible.

GARDEN PARTY REMINDER 

SUNDAY 23rd June- From 4pm we can have access to the DNC to do preparations - put up bunting, finalise the stage, deliver glasses plates etc, set out the rooms etc. If you can help - please come along

MONDAY 24th June- 8am finalise preparations at DNC, set out food tables in marquee, get deliveries of food, put up bunting in the park (volunteers shelter, Sandhurst Road gate, Gillbrook Road gate). Again if you can help then please come along.

MONDAY 24th June - By 10am (or if we have finished earlier) all leave to get changed    Dress code: Dress / lounge suit / smart 

MONDAY 24th June - All arrive by 1130am at latest. 

MONDAY 24th June - 1200 Lord Lieutenant arrives. Welcome speech, Lord Lieutenant Speech, Unveil plaque, hand out personal certificates to volunteers who have requested them, cut the cake, buffet food, meet the Lord Lieutenant and the Lord Mayor and chat on an individual basis. At about 1330 we will have group photographs. The Lord Lieutenant will leave circa 2pm.

If you have any questions about anything to do with the garden party then please do not hesitate to ask me or any of the organising team of Louise, Sonia, Emma or Phil.

It has been a very busy week this week and once again I would like to thank you for your amazing support.