You may never look at your garden forks and spades in quite the same way
The year that was, and what’s to come
The change of orientation in the community hall for the AGM may have flummoxed the technology, but it didn’t dampen your spirits and support for the work all the volunteers are doing to bring life to the Park. We’ve put the presentation on our website so you can see a summary of what was discussed, Apart from congratulating ourselves for surviving another year, there are a couple of important points to note.
- It was agreed that we would re-introduce the annual subscription for the Friends at £5 per household. The subscription is a response to the many of you who ask to join the Friends, and will raise money to be invested in the Park. If you want to join, you can do so on our website, or pop into the cafe.
- We have been informed by NNDC that, because of heritage concerns, the old bowling green isn’t the most appropriate place for the play park! We are putting this into context with the withdrawal of the car park proposals and taking the opportunity to reassess our strategy for the Park. Watch this space!
We are really grateful to NNDC for their works on the boating lake which now looks like new, and are looking forward to other repairs planned for a couple of shelters and the bridge. We are hoping these new investments and life for the Park, without the car park elephant in the room, will see NNDC working with the community and that we can look forward to a really positive time ahead.
Art in the Park.
On April 4th we unveiled Wildfoul II in the Rose Garden, a sculpture by local artist Bob Catchpole very kindly donated to the Friends.
Cllr John Lee, chair of the district council, did the honours on the day. “It’s amazing what the volunteers have achieved in the gardens”, he said, “Installing this sculpture on the empty plinth is a real achievement and I’m proud to be part of the project supporting the Friends.”
We hope you’ll take time to come and see the sculpture, and the work the volunteers have been doing in the Rose Gardens. The gardens aren’t finished (is gardening ever finished?) and the volunteers will continue their hard work. I know you will all join me in thanking all the volunteers for the hours and hours they put into making the gardens look good for us all to enjoy.
Some dates for your diary
- During the Easter school holidays we’re running a children’s treasure hunt round the Park. Come into the cafe to pick up a quiz sheet and then let your (grand)children lead you round the Park to complete it.
- Alongside the Cromer 60s day on April 23rd, we’ll be having 60s music at the cafe from 11.30.
- As part of the Folk on the Pier festival we will be hosting a couple of festival fringe events. In the afternoons of May 6th and 7th there will be music in the Park,
On May 14th we’re welcoming Bodham Croquet Club to the Park for a ‘taster day’. I apologise to those of you not familiar with Alice in Wonderland who misunderstood the flamingo reference in my last missive and thought we would be working with Amazona Zoo to bring flamingos to the Park. I can assure you no animals (or birds) will be harmed during the croquet taster day!
We’ve just signed a new licence for the cafe and are looking forward to welcoming a new coffee machine very soon so all our volunteer baristas can serve you even better coffee!
Barry Meadows
Flamingo Trainer (still)
