On a grey but dry Monday evening, three Islington GoodGymmers crossed the border and provided Mr and Mrs L with much safer access to their front door and back garden by clearing three HUGE bags of vines, weeds, tufts and bush

Mr and Mrs L are in their 80s and have been married for most of their lives. Mrs L used to proudly look after the back garden but is no longer able to maintain it at her age and state of health. She also has to help look after Mr L who can barely leave the house.

I'd had the pleasure of meeting them before and they fondly recalled my previous visits and the intervening ones with other GG names. They were delighted to meet two new ladies: Bianca and Danica/Angelica(!)

The problem

They've got a beautiful tree in the front garden but it'd so grown so much it'd covered the handrail making it unsafe to enter and leave the house.

The weeds and vines were also a trip hazard and Mrs L said she had almost slipped the previous week when hanging up the washing.

GoodGym to the rescue

That's no way to lead daily life!

We resolved to make access safer. Bianca went solo and hacked at the tree in the front garden so that there was clear access to the handrail.

Danica and I caught up about the GG shindig and Bristol shenanigans and tackled the weeds and vines which were dominating the garden.

Curtain call

Bianca finished the tree, briefly joined us, then was summoned to help Mrs L change some curtains which hadn't been changed for two years.

Winter is coming

We did think it was premature to change to winter curtains in mid July but maybe they were Game of Thrones fans. To be fair it was rather nippy with the breeze!

Telling tales

While Bianca was away we had heard stories about New York, Mr L's encounters with the Beatles and time spent skipping school and skipping army duty in Australia. What rich lives they've had!

With the three of us reunited we didn't take much longer to then bag up the weeds, trim back any trip hazards and give a quick sweep for good measure.

GoodGym say good night

It was time for us to take out the green waste then leave Mr and Mrs L to get to sleep. They said this was a late night for them at their age!

They were super grateful for our help and gave us bananas and satsumas as thanks. Danica loves any plans with bananas!