Our Mission this morning in Highgate was a reminder that the 'high’ there can denote both high elevation and high society... ladies with fascinators and men in safari suits passed by private security guards (and eager GoodGymmers!) as they ambled along in the morning sunshine.

It was here that three of us met to help in the front garden for a sweet lady, helped out by her sister who'd brought along her dear little dog. Upon our arrival our host’s sister and I sorted out a quick round of coffees which we enjoyed with biscuits as we marvelled how the little dog had sustained so many broken joints, he was now able to twist and turn in every direction. He was extremely spirited nonetheless and apparently is lined-up for an appointment with a TV supervet.

The coffee drunk we set to work to give the garden a spruce. This included some pretty genteel tasks like trimming the Virginia creeper encroaching on the windows, tying up a peony that had succumbed to gravity in the hopes it might incline a bit more skywards, cleaning the spider’s webs off of the railings (sorry spiders!) and sweeping the nearby pavement. The majority of the time however was spent collecting up the dry fallen leaves from amongst the shrubs. A whole binfulls-worth in fact!

As we drew to a close, it transpired that today the GoodGym touch was apparently too delicate. We'd been instructed to trim a lilac bush, but in this instance ‘trim’ actually meant devastate with extreme prejudice. With the garden tidy and the lilac now looking like it had sustained life-threatening injuries, we bade farewell to our hosts and one another until another day.