On a chilly but sunny evening 27 runners met for a run to Windmill Hill City Farm for some litter picking, bramble cutting, bindweed ripping deeds.

Spirits were high and the run was short, less than a mile in fact. After a warm up and introduction we ran to the farm and were met by the ever smiling Lizzie who told us all about the farm and what she had in store for us. She explained how the farm has been going for 40 years and offers opportunities for people of all ages from babies to a group in their 90's to get involved in pitching in and learning alongside the animals and gardens. They do loads more but I'd be here all night to explain it all! Check out their website.

So young McLizzie on her farm,
told us where to go,
with a chop chop here,
and a litter pick there,
we were soon in flow.

On that farm we picked some weeds,
and pushed some wheelbarrows.
Finding bottles of beer, and a crisp packet there. Here a weed, there a weed Everywhere a good deed.

The three teams consisting of the external litter pickers, internal litter pickers and the hedge choppers did a sterling job, with some of the litter pickers even moving onto clearing bind weed after they completed their clean sweep. The external team were like a swarm of litter munching locusts who had just come off a tough shift at the locust trouser factory where they had missed lunch due to working flat out on an important order that needed to by completed by the end of the day, leaving nothing but clear paths and hedges in their wake.

A day at the farm would not be complete without visiting the animals and everyone popped in to see the ducklings at the start and at the end those working outside did a tour to see the kid goats and obviously notorious PIG, the largest big in the west.

After we had tidied everything and Young McLizzie had thanked us for all our efforts we ran back to Queen Square, but the story does not end there, oh hail no! When we got back the heavens opened and hail came down on us like a shower of refrozen and overcooked bleached peas. There was only one thing to do, RUN!!! The gallant runners performed sprint after sprint to keep their body temperatures up and to show the weather that it was not the boss of us. Saying that we did retreat into Vivo to stretch out in the bar afterwards, but that's just common sense right!?

Tonight was farm more eventful than eggspected. You'd think I was kidding with all the binds we goat into. Some areas were a real pigsty but we could bramble it and we can all feel pretty duckling happy with ourselves now.

Thanks for a great night guys, see you all again soon!