The air was crisper than a burnt lasagne on this beautifully sunny, clear Sunday. An afternoon mission slot meant that by the time Kait, Mel and Fi arrived at their destination, the sun had hidden behind some grey clouds. BRR! After 2-and-a-bit miles of warming our cockles, we cooled down quicker than you can say ‘windchill factor’ so made a beeline to our host’s front door to introduce ourselves.

We were greeted by the lovely Ms A who, due to some medical conditions, had been unable to clear the more fiddly weeds that had crept up between gravel and concrete over the summer.

Ms A showed us the areas of the spacious garden that were needin'-a-weedin’, as well as identifying certain plants that would benefit from a dead-heading (or dead-leafing?) session to clear the way for new growth in the spring.

To our delight, and in what can only be described as some of the most pragmatic pre-visit organising undertaken by a GoodGym mission owner, Ms A had prepared three buckets of tools and gardening gloves, as well as a handy checklist pinned to the shed door.

Galvanised by the sheer convenience of this, we set to work in all corners of the front garden before turning our attention to the path along the side of the house, and then the patio at the back. Lots of unwelcome specimens were removed from the gravel beds (shout out to weed membrane fabric, without whom our task would have been far greater) and, thanks once again to Mel’s legendary botanical knowledge, we avoided uprooting any actual plants or flowers.

Over an hour spent in the open air had taken it’s toll on our hands (and feet!), curtailing our mission slightly. Whilst there is still some weeding to be done, Ms A was happy with the progress, saying how nice it was to now see the edges of the gravel beds when she looked out the window.

After a chat with Ms A we set off home, ready for some central heating and dinner eating.