Today at Preston Parks

A good day one and all and welcome to the first of two blogs to be posted this week chronicling the busy life of Alex Ashworth as he continues in his quest for gardening experience.

Today was Monday morning which meant the weekly visit to see Senior Park Ranger Steve Smith at The Ashton Park Pavilion base HQ. After an initial coffee kick start we were both more than ready to face the weekly onslaught of litter scattered across Ashton Park. Fortunately we had our litter pickers and at least three refuse bags to collect the debris all done in a cool, calm and diligent manner.

The first port of call was to clean up the car park. Steve worked one side then I made my way to the teen shelter and tennis courts to see what the kind folk of Preston had left for us.

As the morning progressed so did the events. I tidied an area where above me a tree branch could, at any minute have collapsed on top of me, as one dog walker observed. This came to Steve's attention later on and he tried to contact me via phone to help him remove it but my phone was off. Despite this Steve dealt with it and took it out of dangerous view.

I'd got to a stage as I was litter picking and I had no idea where Steve was. I just kept walking and picking up the debris then, as I was near the swings and roundabouts there was Steve. Things got back on track then. I apologised for not answering my phone, we concluded our litter picking and made our way back to the Pavilion base HQ.

It was here where a much needed brew and biscuit was the order of the day. We had quarter of an hour or so break during which time we had a look back at some of the photo's from The Armed Forces day at the weekend held in Preston's Harris Museum. Some of the pictures were quite comical and they captured the poignancy of what the day symbolized.

After the brew break it was time for 20 minutes or so removing weeds from the community fruit garden. The plan was to utilize the bags from the litter work earlier to collect the weeds into. We both used forks to dig out the weeds and remove the excess soil then place them in the bin bags.

By 12.10pm it was time to conclude the mornings proceedings. Will no doubt see Steve at some point on Wednesday during the Let's Grow Preston session. For now though, this is Alex Ashworth signing off for a peaceful, productive morning with Preston Parks and senior Park Ranger Steve Smith.