Six of us met at Mud Dock this morning to run to Eastwood Farm to help Derek and Ralph from Friends of Eastwood Farm to pull their balsam out. The invasive weed bursts into flower in a few weeks and we needed to remove it before the seeds spread further.

Once we had tackled a hot 5km of hills, dodging Spring Festival traffic and with a couple of detours for good luck (Shona Sat Nav in rusty working order this morning), we met Fi, Darren, Richard and Ellie who were already getting to work.

We spent a lovely hour doing the therapeutic balsam clearing (with some intertwined less-therapeutic bramble and nettle removing) and discussing whether this was in fact the Kleenex balsam (it's not). In this time we managed to get rid of several metres squared of the balsam and our slave-owners kindly (but unwillingly) let us away to go to our next task.

I for one have found my new favourite hobby (and Fi took her new found skills out on the road on the start of our run back) so we are looking forward to more balsam next year!