SPECIAL CONGRATULATORY ANNOUNCEMENT  

Today was a very special day for the Friends of Didsbury Park because when Julie arrived this morning she announced that she had been to Gretna Green over the weekend and got married!! What was even more special was that she had rushed back to make sure that she did not miss her Monday morning volunteering!!

Congratulations from us all Julie! We wish you every happiness for the future. Thank you also for our special treat of Scottish (it had to be!) shortbread which you brought back from Gretna for our coffee break today. 

TODAY

We took full advantage of the fine weather today to do a lot of jobs around the park which needed to be undertaken when it was not raining. I am pleased to report that we had another good turnout of 41 volunteers which included 20 volunteers from Lendlease, Emily from First Central Insurance (FCIM) and Lee from the Co-op. As it was half term we were also delighted to welcome Lorna and Luke who did some fantastic litter picking for us, all around the park (see picture 1). Everybody was made very welcome.  

PAINTING AND PRESERVATIVE APPLICATION

We undertook the following 3 main painting projects today:

The bench dedicated to Barbara Dixon: Picture 2 shows a couple of members of the Lendlease team giving 2 coats of Hammerite black paint to the metal bench dedicated to Barbara Dixon. This bench, which is one of the oldest in the park was given a new lease of life and it now looks as good as new. Thank you. 

Joyce's bench: The wooden bench sponsored by Joyce was carefully sanded down before being given 2 coats of Ronseal preservative by a team of 3 volunteers from Lendlease. Picture 3 shows the Lendlease volunteers part way through the sanding activity. The bench looked absolutely stunning after it had been treated. Thank you.  

The children's large slide: For many years the oldest piece of equipment in the children's playground (the children's slide) has looked somewhat sad in relation to all the newer pieces installed when the playground was upgraded. Today was the day when we started to bring it back to life again.

Picture 4 shows Sandra with 3 other Lendlease volunteers pausing for a picture whilst in the middle of applying a bright red paint to the sides of the slides.

We will carry on with this job on the next dry volunteering day! Thank you all - this is a great start!  

PLANTS, PLANTS,  PLANTS AND MORE PLANTS

We have been very lucky this year to have received so many donations of ex-supermarket plants to help us to stock up the park with interesting and colourful plants. Once again last Monday evening I received another phone call and once again Allan volunteered to travel over to Trafford Park with me to collect them first thing on Tuesday morning. This time we filled both cars with ferns and tete-a-tete daffodil bulbs.

Picture 5 shows Allan watering 3 wheelbarrows full of ferns ready for planting today. Picture 6 shows Julie and Diane midway through planting some of the ferns. Later Julie and Diane were joined by Ilma and they added some white cyclamens to this area. As a result this entrance area has been completely transformed into a beautiful flower bed display. Thank you everyone.   

Thanks to MCC's generosity, organised by Will White, we also received a delivery of winter bedding plants for the park today. Picture 7 shows Gill B,Carl M, Jude and Tristan planting up the area around the roundabout with an abundant supply of polyanthus, pansies and tete-a-tete bulbs. The team did a fantastic job on this flower bed and as a result it now looks stunning. Thank you Gill, Carl, Jude and Tristan - this was a super job!

At the other end of the path near Sandhurst Road, Sonia expertly led a team of volunteers who tidied up the borders and planted tete-a-tete bulbs in the flower beds behind Buddy and Lucy. Picture 8 shows the team happily posing for a photograph. Thank you all.  

REBUILDING THE STEPS TO THE OWL CARVING

The heavy gang was reduced to just 2 members today - Richard and Adrian. However as both Richard and Adrian were up for the challenge of continuing the construction of the new steps up to the owl carving, they set about the job with determination and successfully completed it by the end of the morning.  

Picture 9 shows a picture of the Richard and Adrian half way through the project with the right hand half of the step still to be built. Well done guys. Thank you.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT PROJECT - MAKING THE PATHS SAFE FOR PEOPLE WALKING IN THE PARK

As a result of the strong winds and heavy rain during the last week, the park has developed a couple of areas where the heavy leaf fall on the paths has made the wet leaves underfoot very slippy for park users. In particular the two areas around the Sandhurst Road pedestrian gate entrance and the sloping path from the park to the Poppy Path needed people to be very careful.

As a result we focused a couple of teams on clearing up both of these areas today. The amazing improvement can be seen both in picture 10 which shows the resulting impeccable paths at the Sandhurst Road pedestrian gate and in picture 11 it shows the super clear sloping exit path to the Poppy Path.  Thank you all. This was a superb job. 

POPPY PATH PREPARATION FOR THE ACT OF REMEMBRANCE ON 9TH NOVEMBER

Once the exit path to the Poppy Path was safe to use, some of the team moved on to help Allan tidy up the Poppy Path near the Poppy Bridge. In particular Lee from the Co-op (see picture 12) cleared up a lot of the bramble and nettles which had been cut down by Allan using his strimmer. 

Without doubt one of the heroine's of today's volunteering was Emily from FCIM. Emily single handedly washed the whole of the Poppy Bridge from end to end and in so doing transformed it from a scene covered in a fine layer of dirt to a sparkling poppy field scene once more.  

Picture 13 shows Emily just over halfway through her task, proudly showing the difference between the side she has finished (her right hand side) compared with the other side yet to be completed. This was an amazing job Emily - on behalf of everybody who uses the Poppy Path - thank you!

BIRD BOX MAINTENANCE

A huge thank you to Greg, pictured carrying the ladder in picture 14, for not only noticing that one of our bird boxes in the Bird Garden had been damaged but for having a new one made and installing it this morning.

Picture 15 shows the new bird box in situ - fingers crossed for new residents in spring!

REMINDERS

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING UPCOMING EVENTS: 

SATURDAY 2ND NOVEMBER: THE BIG LEAF CLEAR UP 

Didsbury Park 10am to 1300. All members of the public are welcome especially families. I guarantee that we will have lots of leaves this year. Please spread the word. RSPB will also have a gazebo and stand and they will be promoting information about wildlife and Didsbury Park. It should be interesting. 

SATURDAY 9TH NOVEMBER: POPPY PATH - ACT OF REMEMBRANCE 

On the Poppy Path - starts promptly with the Last Post played by the bugler at 11am. Please arrive by 10:50. Teas and coffees provided afterwards in the Didsbury Park cafe.

THURSDAY 21ST NOVEMBER: CURRY NIGHT SOCIAL 

Sangam Didsbury at 7pm - the good news is that this week we have had a surge of last minute requests to come to the curry night and the numbers have now grown to 42. It will be another great night. If you have not done so already please do let me know if you would like to attend either singly or with a partner.

Finally thank you once again for your amazing support.