After all the hard work of this past two months, it finally came to the day itself – the new garden area at the Edwardian Baths which our community charity runs in Withington had its launch day!
Constant rain has meant slower than planned progress (when does summer actually arrive this year?!) but honestly, to see sights like the one above with kids leaping around the new slate floor to Spanish salsa music and almost stealing the show from the official dancers made it all worthwhile 🙂
The new pergola is painted posh paint white, the slate slabs colour enhanced and a plethora of sensory planting now adds life to what was once a pretty drab and sad area. See what it used to look like here and then part way through here. There’s still work to do: more fixed seating, raised beds and plants, but the difference is already spectacular. For all my plans however, I never for one moment expected to see salsa dancing on there 🙂
See the two ladies grooving around a handbag? That was them transported back to their twenties by You’re The One That I Want from Grease and they were in their element – brilliant!
Cakes were eaten and Pimms was quaffed before our ceremonial ribbon was cut by local MP Jeff Smith, fresh from the chaos of Parliament – we offered him a season ticket to our new calming sensory garden as an escape from all the current political madness 😉
Pauline from Old Moat Greenies might well have her thumbs up – it was a wonderful day!
For me, these two have been the stand out heroes -Brian and Helen above – such energy and commitment to the project, as well as a back breaking amount of work. Superstars, without whom it simply wouldn’t have been done. And 120 cakes wouldn’t have been baked – yep, Helen can cook as well, is there no end to her talents?! Cakeage talent noted by my dad below, the diabetic who ‘just sort of accidentally’ found the cupcake stall….
Huge thanks from me also go to Mandarin Stone, EDecks, Lithofin at Casdron Ltd, Bentleys builders merchants and Searchlight Electrical for support, assistance and excellent service throughout the project. I love my suppliers, nearly as much as I love our new garden!
