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Good afternoon and welcome to the latest goings on within the volunteer world of Alex Ashworth. This morning I arrived at Ashton Park at 9.45am. Senior park ranger Steve Smith was dealing with some phonecalls so I made myself a brew then within the next 10-15 minutes we were both outside cleaning up Ashton Park in our litter picking eco-friendly way. In an excellent team building way Steve collected the parks debris from the roadside and I dealt with the inner park. Over the past few weeks of doing this dilligent work we've had the fortunate opportunity to meet the nice folk of Preston. One man regularly walks his dog and we've got to know him and he has since given us some good accolades for our litter picking ways.:) After an hour of litter duty we both had a well earned 10 minute brew and rest. Steve knew I was a fan of chocolate biscuits so I was pleased when that accompanied my coffee:) The last quater of an hour or so was spent planting six daffodils in the area closest to the pavilion base. I learnt something new about Steve today too. As well as being a friendly and encouraging person he also knows some well versed poems and he shared one with me whilst we were planting the daffodils, a classic William Wordsworth one which, infact was about daffodils:) His humour was well received as is his easy going nature. Well, the clock struck 12noon once again and it was time for me to say goodbye to Steve once more. With the easter break next Monday ( March 28th ) it'll be some time before we have our usual banter and cameraderie. This is Alex Ashworh signing off for the most recent and up to date blog about my volunteering at Preston Parks.

Good afternoon and welcome to today's latest update regarding the Let's Grow Preston team. Today we all met from 12noon -3pm at the Communuty Garden at Ashton Walled Garden. We were all ready for action and, with the help of an additional colleague, we had a series of daffodils and bulbs to plant. Thankfully, the weather was on our side and after a period of delegation we all set to the task of planting, in the newly made raised beds that were created at the tail end of last year ( 2015). Trowels and spades were put to good affect. I, with the aide of another volunteer planted the daffodils then we got onto to some serious digging to plant the bulbs. A fellow volunteer came up with idea of creating a trench area in the raised bed then gently planting the bulbs into them. This was an excellent idea, saved time and was extremely resourceful:) During our time together this afternoon we talked,in part, about the development of the peace garden and how we could make it unique yet have that personal touch that the public and workers nearby would feel a sense of warmth and solitude about it. After a couple of hours digging and planting we all required a much needed rest and a reflection on our work. Paul Greenwood made us all some well earned brews and a chocolate biscuit and we all agreed when and what time to meet together in the ongoing development of the peace garden and overall scope of Let's Grow Preston. This is Alex Ashworth signing off for the Let's Grow Preston latest update and informative bulletin.

Hi my name is Alex and I'm going to be volunteering for 'Let's Grow Preston'. This means I'll be posting regular blogs to the website and keeping everyone up to date with the latest goings on at 'Let's Grow Preston'. As well as volunteering at LGP I also volunteer at Preston Parks on Monday mornings with Steve Smith ( senior park ranger) We do a thourough litter clearance of the park and/or some planting bulbs. Fortnightly on Tuesdays I volunteer at Leyland Day Centre. This involves serving tea and coffee for the clientsand soon I'll be venturing out in the garden to do some work there. Fortnightly on Wednesdays I volunteer for the Bees, Butterflies and Bikes group. We meet at the Anderton Arms, Fulwood. It is managed by Chris Taylor at Lancashire Wildlife Trust and he gives a practical demonstration of the work we'll be carrying out then he leaves us to it for a couple of hours. We mostly do plug planting, wildflower planting and scrub clearance. Every Thursday morning I volunteer at Green Gym in Blackburn. This is a conservation based group that carries out work across Witton Park in Blackburn. Since being there last October (2015) I have done rhododendron clearance, created log piles and learnt how to make trenches and plant trees. Yesterday I had a meeting at INTACT in Ingol and I'll be volunteering for them every couple of weeks from Tuesday 29th March, working in the garden. Friday - Sunday is a well deserved rest! Please keep an eye out for my blogs on here, I hope you find them interesting.:)

Let’s Grow Preston in conjunction with the Workers Educational Association (WEA) are running a 2 day ‘Introduction to Permaculture’ course at Ashton Walled Garden next month. It is also planned that a further 14 day course will follow shortly afterwards. If you wish to attend the course please be quick because places are limited please email info@letsgrowpreston

Some of you may remember Lets Grow Preston (Preston Environmental Forum) distributing some seed potatoes, onion sets and vegetable seeds last year. These were kindly donated to Let’s Grow Preston by Brighter Blooms, a nursery down London Road. Brighter Blooms are holding a Potato Day next mon th and would like to invite you to go along.

Progess is going well at the Let's Grow Preston Community Garden. This new community garden is part of the Let's Grow Preston Community Hub in Ashton Walled Garden on Ashton Park

This is the new Lets Grow Preston Website, we hope you find it very useful and would welcome any feed back you may have about how it looks and works. Email info@letsgrowpreston