EXCITING TIMES - NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED

I am delighted to report that after some fantastic work by Phil Birchenall, our Digital Manager, and by James Conibear, who has provided a lot of our new stunning photographs, we have now launched this new FoDP website.

We are still looking for any obvious teething issues with the new site so we would be very pleased if you would check it out for us and let us know what you think of it. Phil has specifically designed the new website so that it can be easily navigable from mobile phones.

Thank you Phil and James. This is an amazing result and we certainly now have a new modern website we can all be proud of!

EXCITING TIMES - FoDP SOCIAL CURRY EVENING COMING UP

At the latest trustees meeting we discussed planning ahead to do something special socially for when we achieve 40,000 hours of volunteering work in the park. If we carry on at our current rate then this is a target we are hoping to achieve by the middle of 2024.

However having let this little genie out of the bottle, it raised the question of why do we have to wait until next year for an FoDP social. For obvious reasons our last social curry event was in 2019 but it is clear from conversations I have had that there is a lot of interest in doing something socially again this year.

I have therefore been in touch with the Sangam in Didsbury and pencilled in a booking in the diary for the large private back room in the restaurant for Thursday 23rd November. I will have to pay a deposit based upon the number of people who want to come along.

Can you let me know by 11th September 2023 whether you are likely to be interested and how many places you would like, subject to the final details of the event, which I will be able to negotiate once I have an idea of the numbers involved.

COMING SOON - THE DIDSBURY DOG SHOW - SATURDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER

It is now less than two weeks before we host one of FoDP's major events of the year - the Didsbury Dog Show. With some help from Kevin, Gill N managed to fix up the final advertising banner today, over the Gillbrook Road entrance. Thank you both.

We need lots and lots of volunteer help on the day to erect the gazebo's and set up the show arena's as well as volunteers to manage the show ticket sales and other stalls. We also need help to put everything away afterwards too. We plan to start setting up the gazebo's and show arena's at 11am and the show itself starts at 2pm. The putting away will take place from about 4:15 onwards (usually less than an hour).

If Gill has not approached you already, can you please let Gill or myself know if you can spare any time at all on the Saturday to help. There is lots to do, and it really does take a lot of help to make it a success. Thank you.

TODAY

With the temperature touching 28 degrees and with wall to wall sunshine all morning, we had a great turnout of 30 volunteers in the park this morning. Our volunteers included young Alexander and Mum Joanna (see picture 1) and Rob's young heroes Spike and Elvis (see picture 2).

We were also pleased to learn, at the coffee break that today was the 52nd Wedding Anniversary of our regular volunteers, Brenda and David. Congratulations to you both!! Please see the special anniversary picture (picture 3) of Brenda and David surrounded by well wishng volunteers at coffee break time.

TODAY - THE INSTALLATION OF THE RETAINING BEAM AT THE ROUNDABOUT

Last week's large 20ft donated wooden beam was given another coat of preservative this morning by Lis and Bettina (see picture 4), before a number of serious cracks were repaired by Adrian and Murray (see picture 5) and then the heavy gang of Richard, Carl N, Murray and Adrian installed it at the edge of the raised flower bed near the roundabout.

Thank you all for this great progress.

TODAY - THE WILMSLOW ROAD ENTRANCE

Picture 6 shows David, Sandra and Carl M, working at weeding the flower beds and preparing the gates and railings at the entrance, ready for repainting. The team were also helped and guided by Julie D, Kevin and Suborno in this activity.

This was a really challenging piece of work due to the preponderence of bindweed throughout this area. Thank you all - this was certainly a big improvement.

TODAY - THE FLOWER BED ALONGSIDE THE BIRD GARDEN

Once again, Greg and Tristan, did a fabulous piece of work continuing to weed the flower bed running alongside the Bird Garden. Thank you Greg and Tristan.

TODAY - THE AREA AROUND BUDDY AND LUCY

We had a big team of Sonia, Rob, Spike, Elvis, Joanna and Alexander weeding and mowing the area around Buddy and Lucy today. Picture 7 shows Alexander (fascinated with the lawn mower), Joanna, Rob and Sonia making a huge improvement to this area.

Thank you all so much.

TODAY - THE AREA AROUND GILLBROOK ROAD ENTRANCE

Thank you once again to Brenda for doing a fantastic job in spring cleaning the whole of the Gillbrook Road entrance area. Well Done Brenda!

THE WOODLAND TRAIL - TWO GOOD - ONE BAD

We had two separate teams working along the woodland trail today.

One team was made up of Dominique and Dan, who continued their mammoth task of keeping all the hedgerows from spilling over onto the path. This huge piece of work is finally coming down to the final stages. An amazing piece of work. Thank you. Picture 8 shows Dan and Dominique up to their knees in pruned laurel.

In picture 9, the other team, of Lis and Bettina can be seen in the dappled sunlight along the woodland trail where they are posing for a picture behind the owl carving, which they had just painted with preservative. Lis and Bettina went on to paint preservative on two further carvings along the woodland trail. Great work - thank you!

The bad news today, about the woodland trail, was that over the weekend, the mouse carving, which had been violently attacked several months ago, was once again damaged. The previously damaged ear was again broken. We do not know at this stage if it was an act of vandalism or just children treating it roughly; whatever the cause, Denise and Geoff are on the case and are investigating how best to repair it. The last time it was damaged, we were able to find all the damaged pieces and successfully rebuild it.

Unfortunately, at the moment, we are still a piece of the mouse's ear missing - so if you are in the vicinity, can you please have a good look around for the missing piece of ear, please?

TODAY - HORTICULTURAL EXPERTISE

A huge thank you to Kevin and Julie D, who supervised the work at the Wilmslow Road entrance and continued to expertly maintain the areas around the rockery and the Flower Walk. Thank you both.

PROMOTION FOR WILL

Picture 10 shows Will wearing his new volunteer vest, which he was awarded this morning following a number of very successful weeks’ litter picking around the park.

Well done, Will, you are officially one of us now!!

ROSE BEDS

Finally, thanks to Leslie's dedication to the rose beds around the volunteer's shelter, we have managed to keep them looking pristine all through the summer. Picture 11 shows Leslie mid-way through weeding one of the rose beds today. Thank you, Leslie - keep up the good work!

Once again, thank you all for your amazing support.