This afternoon's mission in Hackney reunited me with fellow Camdenite, Abi, and Islington-er, Patrick (do you guys have a real denizen name?!).

Our task today was to help the lovely Mr R cut back his garden as he's recently found himself getting out of breath doing some of the heavier garden work.

On arrival, we introduced ourselves to Mr R, who showed us to the back garden while also introducing us to one of his cats. This was an excellent start to the mission.

After seeing the area to cut back, we were happy to see that it mostly comprised some hawthorn and ivy (and minimal brambles) (although hawthorn is spiky, it's not as vindictive as a bramble, even when it falls on your head. Which it did. A lot 🙄). We were even happier to see that Mr R had an amazing arrary of tools, including an earth stamper that we used to squish green waste in the garden bin 😃💪 You can see from the photos exactly how much fun we had with this! 😄

We naturally split up into our preferred roles, with Abi and Patrick tackling the ivy while I started on the hawthorn (side note - it was awesome: Mr R's long handled anvil-nosed secatuers cut like a hot knife through butter 😍😍). Working like this, and helped along by both Patrick's music and Mr R making us some tea part way through, the time went by super-fast (it may also have helped that I stopped mid-mission to play with another of Mr R's cats for an unknowable amount of time. It was worth it 😍)

Finishing up, Abi and Patrick moved a lot of the leftover green waste to a corner of the garden for Mr R to cut up and dispose of after we'd left (we'd already filled his garden waste bin, and several bags). In contrast, I stopped to do some very literal sole searching after a thorn from the Hawthorn tree pushed itself all the way through the sole of my shoe! Mr R took on the role of Androcles in this situation and removed the thorn piercing my sole with some pliars, an act of heroism for which I am very grateful!

Job done (and thorn removed), we made our goodbyes to Mr R and his cats before going to eat cake (thanks Abi!) on a bench in a nearby park like all the other cool kids do. Hopefully what we've started today will help Mr R get on top of the rest of his garden a bit sooner 😄