It was a bit cold today but one way to keep warm is to get stuck-in and our volunteers certainly did that!

New shrubs were planted in the toilet bed, some serious pruning was done around the council offices and there was lots of maintenance on the flowerbeds. Another big job was clearing leaves and detritus from the gutters and pathways along Memorial Park Drive. A small group of Marple Scouts and their leaders helped with this too but unfortunately they didn't have permission to photograph the kids, so we can't show them joining in.

We also had the annual clear-out of our tool store, painted the chains at the park entrances and picked litter too.

The public showed great support for what we do again, with just over £17 donated in our collection bucket plus a £40 donation made by a very generous gentleman who loves what we do in the park. Thank you!

New shrubs in Toilet Bed.

Toilet Bed

Shrubbery trimmed around Hollins House.

Hollins House

Lots of work on the flowerbeds.

Flowerbeds

Clearing gutters on Memorial Park Drive.

Park Drive

A before and after on Memorial Park Drive.

Park Drive

After a very windy night thanks to Storm Callum, we spent much of the day clearing up fallen branches from the park, including one that had damaged a fence down near the canal. We'll repair the fence soon. It was still pretty windy in the park so, so we also focused on pruning in the Bandroom Garden, where it was a bit more sheltered. We also managed to strip some nettles behind the library and install the last set of paving slabs in front of the skatepark benches.

Fallen branches throughout the park after high winds.

Fallen branches

Fallen branches throughout the park after high winds.

Fallen branches

Fallen branches throughout the park after high winds.

Fallen branches

Pruning in the Bandroom garden.

Bandroom

Final set of paving slabs installed at the Skatepark.

Benches

A glorious Indian summer day saw Friends of the Park focusing mainly on the beds alongside the offices and the car park, which were long overdue a good tidy-up. We also added paving slabs to another of the skatepark benches to create a hard-standing to keep the mud off peoples' feet. We ventured outside of the park again to complete the painting of Lock 17 and while we had the paint out it seemed a good idea to do a bit of touching up in the park too.

We like to keep on top of Lock 17 as it was our project.

Lock 17

Paving slabs added to another skatepark bench.

Benches

Maintenance of office / car park beds.

Office Beds

Maintenance of office / car park beds.

Office Beds

A little bit of painting touch-up makes all the difference!

Painting

A sad task today was to remove part of our Midnight tree sculpture that was becoming unsafe. We created this wonderful addition to the park in 2007, when the tree from which it is carved was declared unsafe. It was great to bring something positive from the demise of this mature Copper Beech that has lasted more than 10 years but unfortunately as the carving was still rooted in the ground in the long-term its decay was inevitable. We have asked Myers Tree Care to remove the rest of it as soon as they can and we hope to find a way to replace it with something new in the future.

Other tasks included lots of work on the park's flowerbeds, the addition of paving slabs in front of one of the skatepark seats to create a hard-standing and work in the Bandroom garden. We also ventured outside of the park today to begin repainting the Lock 17 gates. This is another local feature that we helped to create in 2007 and is now maintained by our volunteers.

Removing an unsafe section of Midnight.

Tree Sculpture

Adding paving slabs to Skatepark seating.

Skatepark

Working hard on Memorial beds.

Memorial Beds

Working hard on Memorial beds.

Memorial Beds

Strimming of Bandroom garden.

Bandroom

Back in the park, visitors dropped just over £15 into our collection bucket to in appreciation of our efforts.

It was great to see kids playing on our latest addition to the park - the new Ocean See-Saw in the Infants Play Area.

Read more about the creation of Midnight the Tree Sculpture.

Too damp for painting the Infants Play Area fence this time, so most of our volunteers got stuck into a tidy-up of the Breathing Places Reading Circle behind the library. There was also some hedge trimming done at the Bandroom cottage and maintenance of park benches continued. Later on we also managed to get a coat of gloss on the Bowling Pavilion door.

Looks like we had the best of the Bank Holiday weather for our efforts!

Thank you to generous park visitors, who popped just over £17 into our collection bucket.