Friends of Memorial Park Task Days in 2010
Here are details of our task days in 2010.
A bitterly cold day kept the numbers down but it was amazing how quickly we warmed up after grafting away at clearing leaves from under the hedges along Station Road and Garth Road. That was our last task day of 2010 and we can look back on a busy year with some satisfaction and hope for more of the same in 2011.
We were joined by 1st Marple Beavers and parents on a glorious autumn day to plant 2,000 purple crocus bulbs around the apple and pear sculptures near to the library. 1,000 of the crocuses were provided by New Mills, Marple and District Rotary Club as part of their nationwide campaign to promote awareness about vaccination of children in India against Polio. Children are are marked with a purple spot to show that they have been vaccinated and we planted the crocuses in circles to represent this. A plaque will be provided by the Rotary Club to explain this in the spring, when the bulbs are in flower.
We also continued painting the Bowling Green buildings and had a bit of a tidy-up of the grass verges in the infants play area.
At last the weather allowed us to make a start on painting of the Bowling Green buildings - but will it let us finish this year? We also managed, thanks to Patrick, to get a coat of wood treatment on the stocks, Midnight and all the ground sculptures. A special thank you to Ken from the Bowling Club, who also joined us today to help with the painting. With not enough tins of paint to go around we also gave the Bowling Green itself a good tidy-up - a most productive day.
A miserably wet morning didn't bode well for our French Boules Tournament in the afternoon and all we managed was a bit of weeding around the ornamental flowerbeds in between the showers before getting set up for that. By 12.30 pm we had gazebos up but it was lashing down and looking very bleak. Typical August weather! Thankfully as people started to arrive things started to look a bit better and as it turned out it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. To read more about the tournament visit the French Boules Court Project page.
A damp summer day but thankfully it didn't chuck it down until after we'd finished. The Pear sculpture was returned to its rightful place next to the apple at the back of the library. The ornamental beds are looking lush and bright after plenty of rain and now look even better following weeding and dead-heading. We also managed to do some more lopping and pruning in a couple of the shrub beds. A productive day!
Proper June weather at last allowed us to get on with the job of sanding down and treating the sculpture behind the library, which we'd put off from the May task day. In addition, more of the Friends joined in with pupils from Marple Hall to weed and mulch the shrub bed nearest the entrance and also to do part of the bed alongside the cinema.
Sadly Marple Hall will miss the next two task days due to the school holidays but we look forward to welcoming them back in September as they have been a huge help in maintaining the park already this year.
This month, as well as our normal task day on the last Saturday, two members helped to plant up the ornamental flower beds in coalition government colours (we're assured it's a coincidence) before Carnival Day.
