The last task day of 2016 was a chance for fresh air at the end of a festive week and it was great that so many volunteers made the time, especially while there seems to be a lot of colds and flu doing the rounds. We hope those under the weather will be better soon and we'd like to say a very big thanks to everyone who has helped in the park in 2016 - it's been a good year!
On this New Year's Eve task day we focused mainly on planting the last of the bulbs we were given by the council, which included bluebells and snowdrops planted in the woodland areas and 500 hyacinths planted in various beds. We also planted some whips donated by a local resident to fill some gaps in one of the shrub bed borders, carried out maintenance along the canal-side walk and picked up four bags of litter from all corners of the park. Instead of our normal refreshments in the park, at lunchtime we headed to Samuel Oldknow's for an early start to New Year's Eve celebrations and received a warm welcome and free soft drinks. We could certainly get used to this!
Park users placed over £20 in our donation bucket, which means more than £385 has been raised this way in 2016. This money goes into our general park maintenance pot and is a most welcome boost, thank you all!