Christmas was over, and the three kings had been and went. 2022 was officially in full swing, and apart from the few shops that appeared to enjoy living dangerously, most of Hammersmith had taken down their Christmas trees.

Although there were collections going on, these were in line with the bin days, and there were piles of pines and lonely old trees abandoned on the roadside for safe disposal. Our mission fir the evening was to find some of these trees and clear them from the pavements, by taking them to the designated tree-dumping zone at Loris Gardens.

The rain that had been tree-ming down all day had stopped, and five of us met at Brook Green to get the task started. Cookie didn’t get the memo to dress like a highlighter, but we let him join in anyway, and paced our way along the Shepherds Bush Road.

A few of the Christmas tree congregations on my recce the day before had been cleared. A few false starts also followed - one fake tree and one tree that was actually a bush. Jonathan had spotted some on his way up, so we made our way to them to guaran-tree us something, and he led us to a great big mound of firs, with a bonus wreath included. We loaded up - Bethan, Arba and Biscuits made a treen (that’s a tree-train to those not in the know), whereas Cookie and Lucy went for the solo power efforts - him carrying an enormous pine and her with the two handed drag.

All techniques equally impressive, and the first cohort of trees made it to Loris Gardens. We carried on for a few more trips around the local streets, running loops across Shepherds Bush Road, and by the time the task time was up, we had managed over 40 trees, plus two wreaths and some rather saucy looking off cuts, which Jonathan took delight in giving us his best burlesque with.

With our pile high in Loris Gardens, we had a quick group snap and made peace out - some of us off home, some of us off to Tescos, and some of us to pine for more good deeds.