New Mill Artwork and Plant Sale.

     A double whammy this year for mid May. Today was the day for the new artwork in the mill to be launched. A project sponsored by Kings Charles School in Kidderminster, which took around eighteen months of planning, came to fruition to coincide with our plant sale day. So.....................we decided to celebrate, and the hard working committee contrived to organise a marvelous day in the park. We had the excellent dancing by the the 'Foxs Border Morris Dancers' from Cookley, and a Samba band which goes by the name of  'Someone at the Door'.
The sound and colour of both teams were excellent. A happy time spent with happy people.

Our new artwork

Everyone concerned, from the headmaster, Tim Gulliver to the extremely talented students who took part in the project with such enthusiasm, should be congratulated on a fine job of work.






 
The staff at King Charles should feel proud in being able to encourage youngsters to display their talents in such a positive way.
Their work is a fine addition to Broadwaters Park's wide range of attractions.

The brilliantly colourful artwork takes on a whole new form after dark. The existing colour changing lighting system enhances the new graffiti style installation with a dramatic, flowing colour and tone change.
Quite spectacular!

The plant sale was a great success. The final figure isn't in yet but the general feeling was that we  had sold many more plants than last year.

A planting

Three months ago, the 'Friends' decided to mark the upcoming Royal Wedding with the planting of a tree in the park. Conversations as to which kind of tree were fairly consistent in that its was felt that a 'blossom' tree would be appropriate.
              Research was undertaken via the internet and the choice of a native Wild Cherry was made. Further searching led to what appeared to be a good deal from Tree to my Door. In due course the tree arrived in a container inside a sturdy five tall heavy duty cardboard box. The tree looked in first class condition and promised to be an excellent addition to the park.
It was decided to make a bit of a 'thing' about the planting, and our two esteemed eldest members were invited to do the planting in time for the big day. At first we were going to plant the Cherry actually on the day of the wedding but it was felt that most folk would prefer to watch the wedding uninterrupted by a visit to the park. So the 28th of April (today) was chosen and sixteen members gathered to assist Fred and Cath Jennings to plant the tree  in the chosen spot. Flags and bunting had been added to the parks buildings to dress up the event.

So, on a bright and breezy day, the planting was done in the extremely hard and bone dry soil, and a drink or two of  sham Champagne was indulged in together with a slice of cake. As tired as were Fred and Cath, they enjoyed the hour or so chatting with friends and went home happily with a bouquet of appropriately coloured. red white and blue flowers.

A host of Golden Daffodils!

The roadside display of Daffodils has returned to it's former glory following a somewhat muted display last year. Very sporadic blooming led to a very uncolourful March.
This year however, the roadside bank once again is showing off the colour of our lovely park, with an alomost continuous strip of varied yellows and whites. A most welcome sight after a particularly dismal winter.

Spring!!??

On  a gloriously sunny afternoon, an ever faithful team of the 'Friends' gathered to do some much needed work in the park. On the agenda was the removal of the not very successful willow arch. Having been planted several years ago and had a deal of work done to it since, it was decided to take it up. Fortunately, there was a small team of council workers carrying out some repairs to the mill and they offered to take away all of the plant material for us. Very fortuitous!!.

Further work was done on the 'wetland' bed, which in reality is not wet at all. It was decided by our horticultural champion Stella to remove all of the existing plants and begin again. "We need colour" she insisted. So We set to and pretty soon we had removed most of the overgrown plants and handed them over to our friendly council team to take away for us. A pleasant and sociable afternoon spent in our lovely park, with the added benefit of coffee provided by Carol.

A first of the year

In the park yesterday we spied the first of this year's ducklings. A very robust pair they looked too. However, today there was just one. He/she seemed happy enough, and not in the least afraid of either me or the dog.
I also caught sight of a pair of Nuthatches, which is a first for me in Broadwaters Park.

Click the picture for a larger view

One of the added benefits of the Big Lottery grant in addition to the pathways etc. was the installation of an 'Audio Post' in the park. This has various messages about the history of the park, the background to the formation of the  'Friends' group, and a short description of the wildlife to be found in the park.
It is solar powered, and after a few hiccups, has settled down into a very well used piece of information technology.

It is obviously of great interest to a wide public, as the photo of one of our member's daughter shows her to be totally absorbed by the excellent audio information.